How did this happen?

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Annagain

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We had a lovely visit at the weekend. Monty's (share horse) breeder tracked us down and came to visit on Saturday. She hadn't seen him for 16 years so was very pleased to see him. He was totally underwhelmed but liked the apples she brought. We found out a lot more about his breeding and it seems we've been mistaken for 14 years. His passport gives parents names but no breeding info and the person who sold him to my friend said dad was ID and mum was Welsh x TB but it turns out dad was a full TB and his mum was 1/2 Welsh, 1/4 TB and 1/4 shire. So there was us putting his laid backness down to his Irish breeding and he hasn't got any!

She brought us some photos - the quality isn't great as they're nearly 20 years old and these are photos of photos.
How did this little slip of a foal turn out to be the great big strapping chap we know today!? Despite the colour change, I can see so much of him in the baby photos, the way he's holding his head in the yearling shot in particular. It's so him!

1 hour old
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1st show
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Yearling
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All grown up
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Apparently, he was known as 'the little man' as he was so much smaller than his full sister - she was 3 years older than him - Mum was 15.2 and dad 16.1 so how they managed to end up 17hh and 17.1hh (at 5 when their breeder lost touch with her) we'll never know! He was only 16.2 1/2 when my friend bought him at 5 so if she carried on growing like he did, she'd have been nigh on 17.3 when she stopped! She had some photos of her too and they were pretty much identical at the age of 5.
 
Aw, that's lovely. I still have photos of foals I bred more than 20 years ago and often wonder how they turned out, it's difficult to keep track.
 
It was. It seems he is very like mum. Incredibly genuine, but a bit lazy. Never says no but only just gives it enough to get the job done - so very safe. His breeder hadn't ridden for 8 years since his mum retired, but she had a little sit on him as she could see he was just like his mum so would be kind to her! She's only 20 miles away, wants to stay in touch and is coming to our next competition which is quite close to her. The only thing we can't quite understand is what happened to him in between her selling him as a 3 year old and my friend buying him at 5. It seems he had 3 different homes in that time and he's such a genuine boy that we can't understand why any one would sell him on so quickly. His breeder sold him to someone who then split up with her husband and had to sell him after 6 months, apparently to a hunting family. R bought him from a girl who was very novicey and had realised she didn't know enough to bring him on after having him for 6 monts. This means he must have been with this family for a year (or with someone else as well) but what they did with him we don't know as he barely knew how to canter when R bought him, let alone jump! Still, it's nice that that's the only gap we have in his history. I think his breeder was really pleased to find he'd been in one home for so long and to know he's going nowhere for the rest of his days.
 
How fabulous. I tried to stay in contact with the ponies I've bred. I love hearing how they are doing.

Mine was almost "black roan" when he was born too. 22 years later he's like yours! :)
 
His passport has him as a bay roan. He's very fleabitten now, almost like the negative of a roan and the flea bite marks are bright ginger. He also has chestnut streaks through his mane and tail.
 
Asha said:
Lovely story, he has certainly turned into a cracker.
Click to expand...

Thank you He really has. He's 19 now but even at 5 he was the most laid back horse you would ever come across. He just has the most lovely temperament. Everything is easy with him. You ask and he does with no fuss at all. Even if he doesn't understand he tries to work it all out and never gets in a tizzy. I'm so lucky to share him.
 
That's such a nice story. I love the photos, really wasn't expecting to see a grey horse, that colour change is really something!
 
Isn't it just! When R bought him at 5 he was really dark grey and he stayed really quite dark for a long time. Even 5 years ago his legs were almost black and his quarters were a lovely dappled colour. He went grey virtually overnight with the shedding of one winter coat!
 
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