I looked into many pure breed/registered pony breeds and none were gaited breeds. Also, many of the purebred "pony" breeds were already taller than the 14 hand limit set by the MFTPR.  That just didn't seem to make any sense so I looked into the smaller breeds.  I have always been in love with the Welsh Ponies.  They come in small sizes and are particularly nice for crossbreeding.  I passed on them only due to the limit of good Welsh ponies in my area to personally go see as well as the expense. 

 

The next smaller breed was the Shetlands.  I really liked them and added them to my list for possible stallions.  Some of the other MFT pony breeders are using them with great success.   The miniatures were so cute, but hardly the conformation I wanted until I looked into the breed a bit closer.  Many were adorable, tiny, short legged and wooly but there were also some that were more leggy and proportional like I wanted, but there were limitations for breeding a 32 inch stallion to a 14 to 15 hand mare .   I began to think that any grade pony stallion that met my criteria would be fine but knowing how genetics work, I knew there would be surprises that I didn't want and poor quality was too high a risk.

 

I waited patiently, watching local papers, talking to local auctioneers and fate finally stepped in.   I came across an internet ad for a grade pony stallion a bit over an hour from me.  I could hardly wait to see him, the pony stallion was in my area, my price range and met my own criteria.  He had a pedigree even though he was a grade.  He had overgrown the height limit for the AMHR but he was perfect for what I had in mind.  I already had the "Perfect" mare (as in Perfection's Black Gold)  to try so  2007 held a lot of promise.  You can read more about "Studley" on his own page and see our results.