Pound for pound, a pony can pull and carry more than a horse
Ponies are small horses, but not weak ones. Bred in harsh, cold places where people needed sturdy workers, draft-type ponies can haul far more than their own weight, and even tiny ones have pulled around 450 percent of their body weight. The Connemara pony can carry a full-grown adult rider.
The line between pony and horse is mostly a matter of rules. For many competitions a pony stands no more than 14.2 hands, about 147 centimetres, at the withers; the international equestrian federation sets the cutoff at 148 centimetres unshod. Some breeds keep calling short individuals horses, and in Australia animals from 14 to 15 hands form a separate category, the galloway. Show classes further divide ponies into small, medium and large. The tiniest equines, rarely over 97 centimetres, are usually marketed as miniature horses rather than ponies.
Ponies also have a distinctive build: stocky bodies, dense bone, well-sprung ribs, short heads with large eyes and small ears, proportionally short legs, tough hooves, and thick manes, tails and winter coats. The word comes from old French poulenet, a little foal.
Their thriftiness is a double-edged trait. Most breeds are easy keepers that manage on about half the hay a horse needs for its weight and often no grain. The same efficient metabolism leaves them more prone to laminitis, Cushing's syndrome and high blood fats. Temperament depends heavily on training: well schooled ponies make good mounts for children learning to ride, while those handled only by beginners can become spoiled, which may explain their reputation for stubbornness.
Genetics hints at a curious origin story for all domestic horses. Mitochondrial DNA, inherited from mothers, shows that many wild mares contributed to today's breeds, while Y-chromosome DNA suggests there may have been just one founding stallion. Domestication probably began on the Eurasian steppes with animals of roughly 13 to 14 hands, and as it spread, descendants of that original male were bred with local wild mares.
Source: Pony
