# POA's,tell me about'em



## taterwayne (May 19, 2011)

Hiya,newbie to the boards.Okay heres the story.
My wife is being offered a FREE 4 year old POA grey mare with papers,she is broke and has been riden a FEW times in the past.
What I'd like to know is about the breed in general.I've never fooled with one,matter of fact this mare is the only one I've ever layed eyeballs on before.I guess the biggest question I have is their temperment in general.


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

Temperament varies hugely. You'll have to spend some time with the horse and see.

My opinion: horses bred for color can be lovely, but they have a higher incidence of crazy. That's because amateur breeders won't cull for temperament if the color is good.

Temperament in a POA, bred to the standard by a careful breeder, should be similar to a Foundation Quarter Horse: calm, hard-working, easy to train, people-oriented.

I would expect to have to start from the ground up to train her, based upon the description of her "training". I seriously doubt that she's had any training at all.


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## taterwayne (May 19, 2011)

Okay Quaters I know about,from what my wife has told me,she's pretty laid back and calm.I won't get to put hands on her till Monday.
Yup,figured I'd have to start from scratch with her, at 4 yr.,I figure she's on the steady look out for boogers and monsters for a little while

ps,I ain't into grays/white myself,but I figure by the time I get her debugged,she'll make a decent mount for my little boy


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## beccachow (Nov 8, 2008)

taterwayne said:


> ps,I ain't into grays/white myself,but I figure by the time I get her debugged,she'll make a decent mount for my little boy


This just made me smile . I never liked light colored horses either...and currently have a flea bitten arab, a huge white appaloosa, and a palomino. :happy0035: And I STILL don't like light colored horses, lol.


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## malinda (May 12, 2002)

POAs are quite popular around here for kids. Most of them have decent temperaments - they were originally bred from an Appaloosa/Arabian/Shetland pony mixed horse. They now have quite a mix of welsh/quarter horse/other thrown in, as the registry used to (not sure if they still do) have a "hardship" clause for registering any pony who met the height requirements and also had appaloosa characteristics.

Although, one of the worst behaved foals I've ever trimmed was a POA weanling who one of my clients bought from a large and well-known POA breeder in another state. Granted, the filly had been range bred and not handled at all until my client bought her. With proper training she grew up to be a nice, well mannered mare, but she was horrible as a youngster.


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

My daughter has had her 13H POA gelding for 7 years, though he's sadly outgrown. He's been a very special pony..a mixture of short-man syndrome and sweetness. He has such a look-at-me attitude...everyone smiles when he struts his little big-man self into the show ring or cross-country course. And he adores my daughter...especially when she sings to him.
We were told he could NOT be clipped, but he actually can, if Caroline sings lullabies to him as she's doing it. He's such a feisty little fellow.


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## taterwayne (May 19, 2011)

okay okay,I am a heel I can't do the white hoss thingy


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## bluebird2o2 (Feb 14, 2007)

We had one,very sensible any kid could ride.ours was shetland, apppalooosa.most apppaloosas around here have a lot of quarter horse blood.although they can have Arab.thoroughbred.some are part Welsh.they are very popular here and expensive.


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