Pienhevoset polveutuvat yleensä juoksijoista (Hannu Korkemäki at suomenpienhevonen.fi)

A.T. Unikki 2424-97P
Photo: Hippola/Eero Perttunen

Breeding of pony-sized finnhorses began already in 1971. At those times a finnhorse below 148cm at withers was a rare occasion. At the same time trotter breeding aimed for lighter and smaller horses than before. The average height has come lower since those days, but still only about 1% of all finnhorses stay pony-sized. Of all horses, the height goes by Gauss distribution, where there are about as many small offspring as there are horses that grow bigger than expected. Besides that pony-sized studs have about 20-30 offspring every year.

Mission of preservation
There are alltogether 81 P-studs inspected 1971-2004. Eleven of these are second generation P-horses and one has already three sires line of P-studs behind him. Pony-sized horses are a specialty of their own, since they can be used for any sport, though most of them are working as riding horses. Since the pedigrees are narrowing down, all the breeders are doing important work and they also have responsibilities of preserving the best stallions from gelding and offering them for studbook, so there would be enough gene base for future generations too.

Ancestors

Alikersantti 3948, 153 cm. His height comes from his dam Kiivaan-Esteri 1487-V, 149cm. Her ancestors were left out of the studbook already in three generations. Alikersantti’s impact is shown in older small-sized trotter stallions.
Aromus yh 586-Valio 157 cm. In some cases Aromus has had an impact when he has been doubled in one’s pedigree and also worked as a dam’s sire. It’s probable that this smaller size came through mare Patteri 1236-EK, 151cm.

Eri-Leimu 5931, 151cm. Again, behind you find mare Antu, 151-152cm. Eri-Leimu is found in some older pedigrees.

Ero-Lohko yh 1160-Valio, 153cm. His dam line had small-sized mares in it, and also Ero-Lohko’s daughters have continued passing on the small size. Ero-Lohko has had a great impact on producing pony-sized finnhorse lines that continues today.

Ihme-Toti yh 1138, 153cm. His “small-size genes” have passed on mostly through his daughters, too.

Luonnos Jo 99-V, 160cm. Though Luonnos himself was quite big, his second dam Suikka was only 150cm high, and third dam Kirma, 143cm. Luonnos’s progeny has stayed quite small if also dam’s side of the pedigree has had smaller horses in it. Nowadays this sire line is getting an increased impact on pony-sized finnhorse breeding.

Lähetti 4193-AA, 159 cm. Again, not so small of a stallion but from a small-producing pedigree. Lähetti and his offspring have had the biggest impact in creating pony-sized sire lines and pedigrees. Each and every one of the pony-sized horses below 142cm in the studbook have Lähetti in their pedigree, except for two. Every horse below 140cm has Lähetti at least two times in their pedigree. So the horses wouldn’t get too small, Lähetti shouldn’t be repeated too often.

Pikku-Muisto 15-73J, 158 cm, has got small-sized offspring, both stallions and mares. Pikku-Muisto has an increasing impact on pony-sized horse pedigrees today.

Purje yh 1132, 154cm, produced small size through Valotus and Jako. Today there are only a few horses left from this line.

Viri 522-72P, 145 cm, was the first P-stud with 1st prize inspection. He had only a small progeny of six horses in Finland, since he was sold to Norway in 1979 to improve the breeding of northern Norwegian horses.

Vorna 3098 AA, 154 cm, was a good trotter sire and has had a great impact to pony-sized horses as well.