Falabella Horses

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Today or tomorrow could be you child’s red letter day. It would be great to surprise him or her. One way to do this is to buy a Falabella Horse and you place a ribbon around its neck. Surely, your child will be extremely happy on his/her special day. So, if your child is or will be celebrating his orher birthday, you better read on to have an idea of what a Falabella horse is.

In 1868, Patrick Newell started the breeding of the Falabella horses. After many years of experimentation and selective breeding, the Falabella family was able to produce excellent horses. When he died, he gave his herd and breeding to his son-in-law, Juan Falabella. Additional bloodlines such as the Welsh Pony, Shetland pony, and small Thoroughbreds were added by Juan Falabella. It was successful and it was able to maintain the uniform small size of the breed.

Juan’s son, Emilio Falabella, passed the herd once again to his son, Julio Cesar Falabella. In the 1940’s, he came up with a formal breed registry called Establecimientos Falabella, now the Asociación de Criadores de Caballos Falabella (Falabella Horse Breeders Association). He worked hard just to be able to standardize the breed as well as to establish a consistent height. At first, it was less than 40 inches. However, later breeders improved such standard, giving birth to breed that’s around 30 inches in height. The Falabella’s ranche became famous when he sold some midget ponies to President Kennedy’s family in 1962. When he died in 1980, the herd and the ranches were divided between his wife and daughter.

The Falabella has excellent, shiny hair and thin skin. They mostly come in black or brown, bay and chestnut colors. A fully grown Falabella horse usually stands between 28 and 34 inches high and has a smaller and solid body. Compared to a normal sized horse, the Falabella’s head is somewhat larger and the neck is stouter. They are thought off as intelligent and can be easily trained.

Because of its size, the Falabella horses are appropriate for very small children. It helps your child build confidence before he/she moves on to riding a larger horse. They are used for in-hand shows; and can be taught to drive, especially that of carts. They can also jump obstacles up to 3 feet in-hand.