The Welsh Mountain Ponies at Blue Mesa are a relatively new program.  I feel that Australia and the United Kingdom are well ahead of the States in producing fancy riding ponies for our children.  Australia and the U.K. have been breeding this type of pony for decades and have developed a particular look that is very pleasing to the eye.  These ponies are a combination of Arabian, Welsh, Thoroughbred and show positive characteristics of all three of the breeds.

Blue Mesa is striving to produce a pony with an outstanding disposition.  It needs to be tractable and easily handled by children.  The mature size needs to be around 13:1 so that adults can train and school the ponies.  I want a pony that has a fancy head with a wide forehead and big black eyes.  The neck is most important because I don’t think most children have the wherewithal to “bridle” a pony with a bad neck, whereas almost anyone can bridle a properly trained pony with a good neck.

Length and angle of shoulder and hip are equally as important.  I prefer a shorter backed pony with a long sloping shoulder and a long deep hip.  Both of those two characteristics are vital in weight carrying ability and in movement.  Besides their eye-catching quality, one of the first things I want to be noticed about a Blue Mesa pony is their ability to move.  They should have a long, ground covering stride, plenty of knee with no “hanging up” in their movement, and tremendous drive off their hocks.  Those are characteristics that are going to be important with competing in the breed arena against Half-Arabs produced out of some of the larger breeds.
 

The first homebred Welsh Arab is Blue Mesa Chico.  Chico is the result of the Arabian mare Limosa (*Al Nahr HCF x *Merbat) being bred to the imported Welsh stallion *Ceulan Lwcus.  We are more than pleased with this cross and hope to be using Lwcus again in the future.  Chico is now a two year old and has been started under saddle, showing tremendous

 potential as a Hunter Pleasure pony as well as a Sport Horse In-Hand.  He will take the winter off and then enter the showring in 2004.
 

During a recent trip to Europe I was able to visit a Welsh pony breeding farm near Malvern.  While I have been studying the Welsh stock in the States for a few years now, I was most excited to see

I was captivated by a grey stud colt who had the unfortunate name of Thuglet.  After being in his presence for a period of time I came to realize that he was aptly named and I probably did not want to infuse a personality that strong into my breeding program.

However, I came away knowing that I will return in the future to see about the possibility of bringing a filly or two from the U.K. as I was most impressed with the bone, balance and the depth of quality.

In the meantime, Tri Ef Feather, the foundation Welsh Mountain Pony mare, was bred to multi-National Champion Arabian stallion CA Hermoso, and produced a very stylish colt in March, 2004.

He is a dark chestnut with a blaze and four whites with a long, upright neck, long, laid back shoulder and a deep hip.  We look forward to showing him in the very near future. The next Welsh Mountain Pony to be used in the Blue Mesa Horse program will be the U.K. import, *Trefaes Taran. During his show career in the UK, Taran garnered numerous honors.  He was a 4-time Male Champion and, in 1997, Supreme Champion at the Royal Ag. show, as well as Reserve Supreme Champion at the 1997 Horse Of the Year Show (HOYS) out of 38,000 entries!

Stay tuned for new foals and additions to this program.