Difference between horse and pony personalities?

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vkb

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Do you think that there is a difference between a pony and a horse's 'typical' (if there is such a thing) personalities?

I find that being short (5ft2) I can comfortably ride both horses and ponies, but I find that the pony I regularly ride has a lot more personality than some of the bigger horses - just wondering if anyone else notices a difference and if there is such a thing?
 
Sometimes I think that this is because ponies are decribed as "cheeky" for behaving in ways that a larger animal would never have been allowed to get away with because it would be regarded as dangerous, whereas on a 12.2hh it is not as daunting.....
 
Suziq77 said:
Sometimes I think that this is because ponies are decribed as "cheeky" for behaving in ways that a larger animal would never have been allowed to get away with because it would be regarded as dangerous, whereas on a 12.2hh it is not as daunting.....
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Haven't thought of it that way but I would have to say that I agree with this. Also the way some ponies are a handful on the ground, leading etc. there small enough to 'man handle' them whereas if a larger horse did that you would have no chance.
 
I think it’s just down to the individual and at times the breeding be it a pony or a horse, I do think some of the smaller breeds which most of them will be ponies of course have certain character traits and therefore may appear to have more personality, perhaps due to their intelligence, but then you can have some horses and ponies that look at thick as two short planks but are actually very intelligent.

My horse has what some might call a pony character but maybe that’s down to his breed type or his own breeding or could it just be him...who knows!
 
That's a good point Suziq77 that I hadn't thought of, the pony's at the riding school I go to do tend to be a lot cheekier than the horses, who seem very calm and placid (but still all have their own personalities and 'moments'), but we may just tolerate it more because their smaller.

I fell at the weekend off one of the ponies and just thought of it as being a wee spook, but a wee spook on a 13.2 pony is a bit different to the horse i regularly ride at 16.2 !

In saying that, it may also just be that the bigger horses there have more laid back personalities in themselves rather than through their size.
 
tbh i think native ponies are very cheeky and very intelligent - much more so than horses.

I do have a couple of horses who are cheeky, but they are certainly not into everything like the ponies (behave like toddlers sometimes!)
 
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