Many cheaply available horses and ponies aren't any one breed, are just cross bred or 'grade'.
This one looks to still be either still quite young or immature - both ponies and horses often stay looking leggy and babyish past the 'leggy, babyish' age, if they aren't fed well.
They usually catch up and fill out quickly and start to look more mature when they get into a better home and eat better and get wormed regularly.
The thing is though, that makes it a little tough to tell how they are going to turn out, or what exact breed (or breeds) they might be. They can look like this at one point, and then later look much stockier and shorter in the leg.
That said, there sure are a lot of people keeping minis in some areas of the US, and they aren't all getting bred to mini stallions, or staying below the desired height.
And to make it even worse, there are two pretty distinct kinds of Shetlands. One is very light and high on the leg, the other is the much better known type - quite stocky, easily becoming chubby, quite a thick and long coat and mane and tail, and usually quite short in the leg.
In some parts of the country the 'modern shetland' or 'American shetland' is quite common, in others, not only unknown, unseen as well.
And where there are lots of Welsh ponies, crosses and grades can easily be part Welsh pony as well.
This one looks to still be either still quite young or immature - both ponies and horses often stay looking leggy and babyish past the 'leggy, babyish' age, if they aren't fed well.
They usually catch up and fill out quickly and start to look more mature when they get into a better home and eat better and get wormed regularly.
The thing is though, that makes it a little tough to tell how they are going to turn out, or what exact breed (or breeds) they might be. They can look like this at one point, and then later look much stockier and shorter in the leg.
That said, there sure are a lot of people keeping minis in some areas of the US, and they aren't all getting bred to mini stallions, or staying below the desired height.
And to make it even worse, there are two pretty distinct kinds of Shetlands. One is very light and high on the leg, the other is the much better known type - quite stocky, easily becoming chubby, quite a thick and long coat and mane and tail, and usually quite short in the leg.
In some parts of the country the 'modern shetland' or 'American shetland' is quite common, in others, not only unknown, unseen as well.
And where there are lots of Welsh ponies, crosses and grades can easily be part Welsh pony as well.
