A Pony's Tale: A Year in the Life of a Foal

by Michael Allaby, Kim Taylor

Extracts from the diary of a natural history photographer chronicle the successful birth and early days of a foal and discuss pony intellect and behavior

128 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1990

About the author

John Michael Allaby was a British author and actor. He was the Aventis Junior prize-winner.

Reviews

[Dark-Draco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has always been a favourite book of mine, bought for me when I was quite young. It tells the story of Dresden, from when he is first born to Porcelain, through his early days at the Pitchwood Stud, to his first show as a yearling. There are loads of colour photos, showing all aspects of his life as he learns about the world around him. This is a great book for people who want to learn a bit more about foals, or for those of us who just like looking at cute baby photos! Well worth reading.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute little book that will make you fall in love with the British countryside and the British Riding Pony. However, the pictures are better than the text. Although the book claims to follow a foal from before birth to one year of age, the bulk of the book is before Dresden (our hero) is weaned. Then he's just in the background as other ponies are featured. The book's ending seems quite rushed. Although the main pony protagonist was Dresden, I wound up being more interested by Percy.

Sadly, the stud here featured has gone bye-byes (it's now a regular horse and pony broker business.) With a little help from Google, I found one photo of an older Dresden and discovered that he was used as a breeding stallion. Prince wound up being gelded. Other than that, the ponies just faded into history. Here's that photo of Dresden (I think):