Shadel Miniature Horse Stud

At Shadel we believe that minis can prove their worth, not only in the show ring, but also by doing a job of work. Our senior stallion, El Pampero, is broken to drive, and there are plans in the pipeline to drive more.

This is the reason why we encourage driven ponies at our shows...to prove that the little ones are not just 'toys'. We have lots of information on this page, including contributions from some of our friends who so love driving .... so please scroll down and enjoy.

One of our closest friends, and a regular supporter of our shows, Malcolm Hitchings, (pictured above and to the right) not only drives all of his miniature stallions, singly and in a pair, but also builds miniature vehicles for them. Using original plans he scales the vehicles down to suit the size of the pony. He is willing to provide this service for other miniature owners, and can be contacted through us. Take a look at his fantastic work below ......

Driving is not just an older person's pastime. More and more children
are finding out about the possibilities, and continuing to have fun with
ponies now outgrown for riding

Elizabeth Brown from Salisbury is 13yrs old and has only been driving her
pony Super Sooty since April 2006. She recently attended the Summer
Driving Camp held at Swingletree,Norfolk, run by John Parker, where she

gained lots more experience and confidence. Sooty who is a mini shetland
standing at 9hh was a rescue pony very kindly given to us. We believe him
to be of about 14years old. He has a great character and can be a little bit
cheeky on times, but always gives 100% fun.

There are now some lovely turnouts appearing for the
miniature horse. To the right is 7S Nashvilles Tsunami,
BMHS Supreme Miniature Driving Horse 2006. This
This pair have won Open Pleasure driving as well as
against other minis.

Rumour has it that a certain stallion and his owner
are planning to take up the reins for next season.

When confronted the owner had nothing to say,
but our photographer managed to get this pic !!'

My pony is Princess's Goodgollymissmolly, she is registered with
S.P.S.B.S and I.M.H.P.S. she stands 37 inches high. Sire: Tyros
Nelson. Dam: Clapham Princess. John and I bred her, she was born
15/5/1999. Molly had great success shown in-hand, she has won
championships at county level, her biggest success was winning at
Royal Windsor in the Queen's Jubilee year.

At seven years old, we felt it was time to retire her from in-hand
showing and chose driving as her new discipline, neither of us
had any experience of driving so it is testament to the Shetland
temperament that she took to it like a duck to water!

Moby is a 6 years old gelding. I have had him since he was four.
As you know I do lots of showing (he is regularly in the rosettes in all his classes and does really
well in condition classes as he is one big chunk of muscle) and lots of driving with him showing and
pleasure drives (normally he is well behaved!) He also is a brilliant lead rein pony.

No famous parents a leopard spotted stallion called harvey and a skewbald mum called bubbles (he
was apparently accidental as the stallion climbed fences to get to the mare!)

His favourite tipple is diet coke which he will try to take off you if you are drinking it although his last
owner used to give him a hot chocolate and brandy on cold winter nights not a habit that I have kept up.
I want all the brandy for me!

We are now trained by the current National Indoor Driving Champion, and have lessons every few weeks. Molly loves driving cones and obstacles (and manages to get through the dressage bit too!) We went to our first driving show in July, Molly was 4th in the show class and won the cones class. Molly has had placings in driven open mountain and moorland classes and won the open driven Shetland class at the Oaks Driving Show in August.

We both love driving and have much to look forward to.