Hello, I have a Welsh Pony named Holly. We have had her now for 2 weeks. She will be 8 years old on December 25th. I am interested in any information about the care and upkeep of my new Pony.

I am also interested in finding out about what happens when a girl pony goes into season. Like is there any signs I should look for? Will she get uppity or spook easier? Will she try to take off on me?

In other words what should I expect! I have no plans of breeding her, heck I am still learning how to care for her. I am not saying I wouldn't look into Breeding her in about 5 years or so, and only with the help of an experienced horse person by my side. I believe it will take me at least two years just to learn all there is to know about caring for her in general.

So any help or advice will be greatly appreciated and excepted.

Congrats on the pony. As far as care and feeding goes - ponies are generally easy to founder because they're easy to overfeed so go light on the grain and keep the protein kinda low, but check with a large animal vet or someone in your specific area for amounts and types of feed.

As for problems/signs of heat no 2 seem to be the same. I've had mares where you couldn't tell unless there was a stud around and I had one who went totally nuts when she came in. Most of my mares didn't act any different unless they were around other horses/ponies.

I know that wasn't any help. Ponies are just like any other animal - people included - you can make generalities but each one is slightly different. Good luck with her.

Thank You that was helpful. We just found out that Holly goes mental when sneaking off into the back pasture and finding stud on the other side of the fence. LOL It was a short lived romance and we know will be sure that No one leaves the pasture gates open again.

We had the vet out for her shots last month. He said the diet I have her on and the way I got her on it was perfect. I am to keep her on the same amount of sweet feed until she gains another 40 lbs and then bring it down to half a scoop a day. He also said that as soon as the grass starts to show signs of growing again I can back her off the 1 leaf of hay a day.

He told me signs to watch for with colic, that helped alot. My landlord gave me a horsemens bible and that has some great information in it. So far so good!

She is such a joy to have and very amusing to watch.

I just bought a large POA gelding that I'm going to make into a kids pony - he's about 13 hands and very refined - except he's a rat-tailed App - will make a nice pony hunter and maybe some light dressage. Should take about a year. Good luck w/ yours.

quote:

Originally posted by AmPugs:
I just bought a large POA gelding that I'm going to make into a kids pony - he's about 13 hands and very refined - except he's a rat-tailed App - will make a nice pony hunter and maybe some light dressage. Should take about a year. Good luck w/ yours.

I thought you asked to be removed!