Celebrities buying ponies.....

BBP said:
This is true, but when I lived in the states I had to learn to ride on some lovely big horses BEFORE I graduated on to the ponies! This probably isn’t the case everywhere but in this case the horses they used were kind and gentle and forgiving and gave me a nice experience, I never fell off any of them, even the 17.2 off the track TB now hunter/jumper. The ponies knew every trick in the book, ditched me on a frequent basis and were utterly devious. Of course long term I learned the most from one of the ponies who became my hunter jumper ride once I was good enough. He is still the horse of a lifetime for all I leaned from him.
As for the general cost, there is definitely an elite set in the H/J world who think nothing of spending that kind of money. Generally for the kind of horse or pony that can jump a 3ft-4ft course completely on their own, with no change of pace or stride, meeting every jump on the perfect spot, whilst making an average amateur look utterly amazing. My old boss had a stable of 10-12, all imported warmbloods, cheapest was a weak little thing at about 70k, top horse was around £250k. Lovely lovely horses, and a real pleasure to ride each and every one of them, but the prices were just bonkers.
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A friend of mine sold a pony h/j a few years ago and built an indoor school with the money! She went to an ‘ordinary’ family but obviously very wealthy! Arab crosses with warmbloods are very very popular and fetch serious money. The best are pony sized!
 
ycbm said:
Also Germany, France, Holland until relatively recently. No ponies in the riding schools I went to in Switzerland in the 80's, all the kids learned on horses 16 hands or over.
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At the sales where I bought Pebbles I was sat near a German gentleman who was buying connemaras (it was a connemara sale). After he bought a particularly lovely 3yo gelding I complemented his purchase and we got talking about why he was in england buying connemaras. He explained that because in Germany they don't have the heritage of ponies in the same way as the UK, there isn't a huge variety of different types around for producers to try at different disciplines. He said that the German ponies, while great for dressage, weren't the best for eventing, so he was buying ponies to produce for junior eventing, because they are still athletic but a little bit sturdier and can be comfortably schooled over xc by an adult. It was very interesting.
(He then egged me on to buy Pebbles when she came in the ring, so I'm very thankful to him for that too :p)
 
The German lady I worked for had 2 daughter's they were 9 and 10 both rode her dressage horses even the stallions, the thought if buying them ponies I don't think ever crossed her mind, bloody good little riders they were as well.
 
I was in Canada when I was 13, on Vancouver Island. I rode at a "barn" and was given lovely big horses to ride, I didn't see a pony on site at all. I have photos of myself at a younger age in the UK riding polo ponies with my feet barely below the saddle flaps and also PC camps on fat roly ponies so a good mixture seemed to be on offer.
 
Growing up in the US and Belgium, there were no ponies. This was 70's and 80's. I rode a few ponies when visiting the UK and staying in the Cotswolds with my grandparents where I had a holiday share, but my first real experience of ponies was my daughter's first one - a 13.1 with a huge sense of humour!

What a pity that an owner of 14 beautiful Friesians doesn't even know how to spell the breed of her own horses. :rolleyes:
 
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