Lewella
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Very interesting thread.
Of course the word pony doesn't bother me a bit - that's what my herd has always been primarily made up of.
So, anyone know the politics that led to the formation of the AMHR in the early 70's? Anyone heard of the ASPC being "recertified" or "reverified"? Well, the ASPC was recertified in the last 60's/early 70's - all breeders had to send in their Shetland papers and have them recertified and pay a fee to have it done if they wanted their ponies to stay ASPC registered. There had been many non-Shetlands running around with Shetland papers on them when Shetland prices were through the roof (there were Shetlands selling in the 1950's for quadruple diget prices! C-Jo's Topper sold for $56,000!) - the recertification was sort of a regrouping and reassessment of the industry.
Not all breeders wanted to recertify - they didn't want to pay a fee to have their papers recertified when by 1970 Shetlands were going for sometimes less than the cost of registering them. Some of these people were the breeders of the "midget ponies" that had never commanded the prices that the 40 inch and over ponies had (midget pony classes has been offered as part of the Shetland Congress during the pony boom). Eventually, after the recertification was complete, some breeders of "midget ponies", many of which hadn't been recertified, approached the ASPC and the AMHR was formed. Some folks who had recertified still saw the value of marketing their ponies as "miniature horses" and cross registered ASPC Shetlands into the AMHR - but, they often did so with parentage listed as "unknown" because post boom Shetlands (or ponies being called Shetlands because the term had meant huge profits) were very hard to sell. (One breeder that several of my Foundation Shetlands actually bred pony mules using her Shetland mares for several years post bust until pony prices started coming back up again).
"Miniature Horse" was a great marketing ploy to add value back to ponies.
Of course the word pony doesn't bother me a bit - that's what my herd has always been primarily made up of.
So, anyone know the politics that led to the formation of the AMHR in the early 70's? Anyone heard of the ASPC being "recertified" or "reverified"? Well, the ASPC was recertified in the last 60's/early 70's - all breeders had to send in their Shetland papers and have them recertified and pay a fee to have it done if they wanted their ponies to stay ASPC registered. There had been many non-Shetlands running around with Shetland papers on them when Shetland prices were through the roof (there were Shetlands selling in the 1950's for quadruple diget prices! C-Jo's Topper sold for $56,000!) - the recertification was sort of a regrouping and reassessment of the industry.
Not all breeders wanted to recertify - they didn't want to pay a fee to have their papers recertified when by 1970 Shetlands were going for sometimes less than the cost of registering them. Some of these people were the breeders of the "midget ponies" that had never commanded the prices that the 40 inch and over ponies had (midget pony classes has been offered as part of the Shetland Congress during the pony boom). Eventually, after the recertification was complete, some breeders of "midget ponies", many of which hadn't been recertified, approached the ASPC and the AMHR was formed. Some folks who had recertified still saw the value of marketing their ponies as "miniature horses" and cross registered ASPC Shetlands into the AMHR - but, they often did so with parentage listed as "unknown" because post boom Shetlands (or ponies being called Shetlands because the term had meant huge profits) were very hard to sell. (One breeder that several of my Foundation Shetlands actually bred pony mules using her Shetland mares for several years post bust until pony prices started coming back up again).
"Miniature Horse" was a great marketing ploy to add value back to ponies.
