I’m not a pony breeder per se but our Spanish Mustangs are usually pony size. To answer your question, no, I’m not breeding this year. I am focusing my resources and time to getting youngsters trained and sold as I have quite a few standing around that did not sell as babies. The market is still pretty tough.
I am really interested to see where the pony market will go, especially in the sport pony area for adults. I know what made me switch my search from horses to ponies last year was seeing an amazing pony at a dressage show, and now that I am riding my pony I get a lot of comments from people who are on the fence about switching.
I think the more ponies are marketed by adults for adults, and more people see them out there competing, the better the market will get. It’s just getting them out there.
And you are right, with the exception of buying saddles, they are really economically friendly and EASY. I have spent double my pony’s price on her saddles getting something that fits both of us.
I’m a small adult, so I don’t feel comfortable riding anything over 15 hands haha. We’ve always had ponies, but the 12.1 to 13.1 range, so I upgraded to a half welsh cross so I could do eventing. He has decided he is not going to be a pony (his butt is 15 hands …) but that’s fine with me.
We have a 4 year old we bought as a stallion prospect so we’ll be breeding three mares to him this year now that he’s grown out of his gawky stage and is looking really nice. Originally we were going to just breed two, but we have someone interested in leasing one of our mares if she is bred to our stallion. We have really downsized - we used to breed 3 to 4 every year, but the past couple years we have only been breeding two. Last year we didn’t have any at all.
I find that the market really depends on what you’re selling and to where. Youngstock generally are bought by other welsh breeders, but the hunter people we have sold to want something that is started or finished. I am sure there are people here who have sold youngstock to hunter people though.
[QUOTE=Joltess;5639824]
Youngstock generally are bought by other welsh breeders, but the hunter people we have sold to want something that is started or finished. I am sure there are people here who have sold youngstock to hunter people though.[/QUOTE]
I agree with this
I always sell young stock to Hunter Folks. 
Me too randee…that’s my market
So what are you breeding this year Randee?
We tend to breed no more than four every year.
I should have mentioned that I’m in Ontario (same as Crownridge) and our youngstock generally stay home until they’re under saddle for the most part. Like I said, I am sure there are some in the province that sell’em young to hunter people.
I think the overall pony market is bigger in the USA compared to over here though, so that could be another reason. We have a lot of people getting interested in sport ponies, so crosses tend to sell better than pure, especially if the crosses are 13.2 to 14.2. A lot of welsh breeders are looking for bigger ponies, so the 12.0 to 12.3 are not as sought out as much. We hardly have any Section A breeders any more…
