The German Classic Pony or german: Deutsches Classic-Pony, italic=no is a modern German

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

of riding pony. It derives from the traditional Shetland Pony of the Scottish

Shetland Isles Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

, but is principally influenced by the taller and more elegant American Shetland Pony.

History

From about 1965 breeders in Germany began to selectively breed the traditional Shetland Pony with the taller and more athletic American Shetland Pony, with the aim of creating a more elegant pony better suited to use for riding and

driving Driving is the controlled operation and movement of a vehicle, including cars, motorcycles, trucks, buses, and bicycles. Permission to drive on public highways is granted based on a set of conditions being met and drivers are required to fol ...

. The 1961 American champion

stallion A stallion is a male horse that has not been gelded (castrated). Stallions follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cresty" nec ...

Jiggs was imported, together with several

mares A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four y ...

. In the 1990s the Shetland Pony Stud-Book Society declined to register any pony with American bloodlines; the name "Deutsche Shetland Partbred" was proposed for these ponies, but some breeders did not accept it. They formed their own breed society, and the Deutsches Classic-Pony was officially recognised as a German breed in 2001. In 2007 the

conservation status The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation ...

of the breed was listed by the FAO as "endangered". In 2017 there were 58 stallions and 337 breeding mares; the conservation status was listed by the as "not endangered".

Characteristics

While all coat colours are acceptable, the traditional German colours ( flaxen

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrelat ...

) and (burnt chestnut with flaxen or silver mane) are among the most common.

References

{{Horse breeds of Germany