Cover photo of Tarabrae Lechenaultia and Senlac Sky Walker at the 2018 Yarram Ag Show
It is that time of year again and I have just finished tallying our second pony count on the Highland Pony breed with in Australia, I performed the first ever count pony last year around May.
The pony count involves listing all the Purebred Highland Ponies and Australian Highland Ponies, a task made some what easier when one takes into account that at the time of the first pony count I was working on the index book and already had access to a list containing of a large number of the ponies in Australia.
Last year the list involved a number of individual categories, which included putting purebreds mares, stallions, colts and geldings into their individual columns. The Australia Highland Ponies where also separated thusly but with the additional break down between those who where now classified as purebreds and those still in the Australian Highland breed up program, not to mention the different categories within the program itself. I also had to separating the Ballinton Islay Mist bloodline out from the others, as Ballinton Islay Mist was a part of the Scottish appendix section which was started and run differently to the Australian breed up program.
Once the lists had all ponies in their appropriate places, I then needed to separate the deceased ponies from the living and make note of the mares and stallion of a retirement age, in regards to the proposed breeding ages I had opted for.
As one could imagine this did take me some time to finish but to finally have a accurate count of all Highland Ponies with in Australia was definitely worth it!
This year I have updated the lists, adding all the new foals and separating any deceased ponies or ponies that have now reached the retirement ages. I have also decided to work on a new category to add to the pony count, the location of each pony, but this will not be included until the 2020 pony count.
These pony counts are only as accurate as the information supplied to me and with our the ongoing help of the Highland Pony community of Australia, I would not be able to keep accurate records for all.
Please find the results of the 2019 count below, you can also find the 2018 count at the bottom to compare.
2019 HIGHLAND PONY COUNT
Purebred Highland Ponies
104 mares alive with 84 of breeding age
24 stallions alive with 2 of those retired.
83 geldings alive
2 colts that are being grown out as possible stallions
Ballinton Islay Mist bloodline; Scottish appendix
5 purebred mares
2 purebred gelding
3 mares at FS2
9 geldings as AHL
AHL breed up program.
18 mares at purebred (+ 2 unregistered)
1 stallion at purebred (+ 1 unregistered)
1 colt at purebred
4 geldings at purebred (+ 4 unregistered)
3 mares at FS2 (one retired)
5 mares at FS1
2 mares at FS (one retired)
5 mares at appendix (one retired)
19 geldings as AHL
2018 HIGHLAND PONY COUNT
Purebred Highland Ponies
98 purebreds alive 85 of breeding age with 2 unregistered
25 purebreds stallions alive 2 retired 1 unregistered.
74 purebreds geldings alive
2 purebred colts that are being grown out as possible stallions
Ballinton Islay Mist Bloodline; Scottish appendix
5 purebred mares
2 purebred gelding
3 mares at FS2
8 geldings as AHL
AHL purebreds
16 mares at purebred (+ 2 unregistered)
1 stallion at purebred (+ 1 unregistered)
1 colt at purebred
5 geldings at purebred (+ 4 unregistered)
AHL program
mares 22 geldings 16
breeding aged 18 mares
Please note that the extra unregistered ponies included in each Highland Pony Count, in the brackets, are ponies by a one of the two stallions that have been unable to be registered due to their sire passing away prior to being DNA tested.
These ponies are usually registered as part breds and as such are included as extras for reference and not in the actually total.