Horse-Bred, Native or Sport Pony? Breed Composition Analysis at the European Pony Championships

 As part of my Master of Research in Equine Science thesis, A Retrospective Analysis of Pony Pedigrees at the FEI European Pony Championships, 2015-2025, a total of 914 FEI ponies had their pedigrees and breed compositions analysed.

Although breeding classifications are rarely entirely clear-cut, and some overlap can occur between categories, ponies were divided into the following groups for the purposes of this study:

Horse-Bred included ponies recorded as sport horse breeds such as Warmbloods, Thoroughbreds, Irish Sport Horses, PREs, Lusitanos and Anglo-Arabs.

Sport Pony included recognised riding pony and sport pony populations, such as German, Dutch, French and British Riding Ponies, British Sport Ponies and Dutch Welsh ponies, excluding F1 crosses. For example, the stallion Viktoria's Chirac is registered as a German Riding Pony with Pferdestammbuch Weser-Ems but was classified here as an F1 horse x pony because he is a first-generation Welsh x Warmblood cross.

F1 Horse x Pony included first-generation crosses between a horse breed and a pony breed. These were classified separately to evaluate the influence of sport horse bloodlines within FEI competition ponies.

Native Pony included purebred native breeds such as Connemaras, New Forests and Welsh ponies. The defining characteristic was registration within a closed studbook, meaning no new bloodlines have been introduced for a substantial period.

Records that could not be assigned to the above categories were classified as Other. This included non-traditional sport breeds (e.g. Morgans and Appaloosas) and crossbreds with partially unverified pedigrees that could not be reliably categorised.

A pedigree was considered fully unverified where the sire, sire's sire, dam and dam's sire could not be verified, and these ponies were excluded from the pedigree and breed composition analysis. 

• Light purple = Sport ponies

• Yellow = Native Ponies

• Turquoise = Horse-bred

• Hot Pink = F1 Horse x Pony

• Lime Green = Other

(Click to enlarge the pie charts, which will display them in better quality)

 

Although the New Forest, Connemara and Welsh Pony breeds originated from the British Isles, many of the ponies identified were bred within established continental European populations. This distinction was particularly apparent with New Forests. Almost all New Forest ponies represented in the dataset were registered with, or largely descended from, Dutch New Forest bloodlines. Through sustained selection for sport performance, the Dutch population has diverged from the traditional British type in both phenotype and genotype. Consequently, the prominence of New Forest bloodlines within elite pony sport is likely to reflect the success of a distinct European population rather than that of the traditional British New Forest population.

Most F1 crosses could be considered sport ponies and registered with sport pony or riding pony studbooks; however, they were classified separately here to quantify direct horse-bred influence. They accounted for 7.8% of dressage, 9.9% of eventing and 18.0% of showjumping ponies.

Across all disciplines, Welsh x Warmblood was the most prevalent F1 cross (47.2%), followed by Connemara x Warmblood (15.7%), Connemara x Thoroughbred (4.5%) and Welsh x Thoroughbred (2.2%).

This demonstrates the value of recording breed composition alongside sire rankings, as rankings alone only provide a partial picture of breeding patterns. For example, though two Welsh Section B stallions appeared within the top 20 dressage sires, most of their offspring were out of horse-bred dams, meaning sire rankings alone could overstate the prevalence of purebred Welsh Section Bs in elite dressage.

Showjumping demonstrated the greatest influence of horse bloodlines, and participant views on this trend were varied. One British showjumping breeder and rider attributed demand partly to an aesthetic and “copy-cat effect”, whereby “someone, somewhere had a fantastic horse-bred pony, and that idea has snowballed”, while suggesting that “‘famous’ names in the horse world” may also increase perceived value. The same participant proposed that, as riders leaving pony competition “HAVE to move onto a bigger, more blood horse”, a “‘horse-pony’” may be perceived as better preparation for this transition”. Concerns were also raised regarding temperament, with a British parent of a junior rider observing that “a lot of top [horse] showjumping lines are so hot they cannot even be ridden by senior amateur riders, let alone children”.

Some concerns were raised regarding the longer-term implications of increasing horse influence, with one British showjumping breeder and rider warning that “it is possible that if too much horse blood is introduced into ponies, in the coming years we will not have enough ponies that remain within the height limits.”

In contrast, dressage demonstrated the most concentrated breed composition of the three disciplines. Sport ponies accounted for 84.7% of the analysed population, of which German Riding Ponies (GRPs) were the most prevalent breed (65.3%), followed by Dutch Riding Ponies (22.8%) and Danish Riding Ponies (4.6%). In other words, more than one in every two dressage ponies were a German Riding Pony. This figure did not include ponies categorised as F1 horse x pony crosses, some of which would typically also be recognised as German Riding Ponies. 

Germany’s breeding and marketing infrastructure emerged as a recurring reason among participants. One British breeder described the industry as “established and professional”, providing international buyers with “confidence to invest”. Another attributed its success to “very clever/targeted breeding & marketing”, which has “created a brand that people have confidence in”, while a third suggested that “German marketing has successfully convinced the rest of the World that GRPs are the best ponies to buy”. These perspectives highlight sport-pony marketing as an area warranting further research, particularly how breeders in other countries might improve the international visibility and marketability of their breeding programmes.

Considerable overlap exists between European sport pony populations, and studbook classifications should therefore be interpreted with caution. Dutch, German and other sport pony populations frequently share bloodlines, meaning studbook registration does not necessarily represent a genetically distinct breeding population.

Across all three disciplines, there appeared to be just one pony born outside of Europe (although there were many ponies whose origin could not be verified with confidence). This pony is 'Royal Gold Apollo', a purebred Morgan, born in the United States of America. This was cross referenced and verified on three independent databases. Royal Gold Apollo competed at Euros in 2018 in Eventing, ridden by the Swedish rider Elvira Gustafsson.  

Disclaimer: These breed classifications were recorded manually and, as such, 100% accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Errors, inconsistencies and conflicting pedigree information were identified across multiple databases, and some degree of human error is unavoidable. The figures should therefore be considered indicative rather than definitive and interpreted as a guide to overall trends rather than exact values.

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Thesis submitted by Georgia Johnson