Wrigley (a.k.a. Wrigley's Parade) is our Haflinger pony. He was donated by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Foundation.

He is a "pony" only in size, and his strength competes with the largest members of the horse world (his ancestors carried adults up the European Alps for centuries). This breed can be traced back to medieval times when ancient writings told of a unique breed of horse found in the Southern Tyrolean Mountains, or what are now Austria and northern Italy. Many of the villages and farms in this region were only accessible by steep and narrow mountain paths that required agile and surefooted creatures to pack supplies in and out of the people living there. This breed originated by crossing a half-Arabian stallion with a Tyrolean mountain horse mare, thus combining the strength of a draft horse with the size of a pony.

This compact body builder knows it all. He was trained by Jim Frazier in natural horsemanship methods for our program and is an extremely reliable teacher and therapist. Besides being gorgeous (his silky mane does not know about "bad hair days"!), he knows how to lie down on command, bow, pull a cart, and perform many other circus tricks

Heidi

Heidi is our wonderfully dependable therapist herd member who takes all our beginners. She is the oldest of the group and a Norwegian Fjord by origin. Like the Haflinger, Fjords are also of the pony draft type; however, it should be noted that the Norwegian Fjord horse is one of the world's oldest and purest breeds. Their appearance and body structure is similar to that of the original horse, with perhaps some of the more unique coat colors and markings found on horses today. Heidi is a brown dun color with the trademark upright mane complimenting the black mid-section down her forelock, mane, dorsal stripe, and tail.

Heidi spent several years as a brood mare, having four beautiful foals of her own. She can also pull a cart. She was donated by the Pasadena Community Foundation.

Dr. Dotz

Dr. Dotz (if you've seen his black head, black rump and white body, you'll know how he got the Dotz part of his name. The doctor part came from Los Angeles Pierce College where he received his Phd. and taught beginners how to ride) He also looks like a police squad car and sometimes carries a banner that duplicates the logo on the Pasadena police cars. He is the newest member of the herd. His breeding is that of a Spotted American Draft horse. While larger than the other two ponies, Dotz has the heavy bone structure for strength combined with the size of a small horse, which makes his movement and gaits ideal for some of our older students in the program who may have been too tall for Wrigley or Heidi.

Dr. Dotz came to MACH 1 when Joy met him while attending Pierce College where she fell in love and acquired him through a donation from the Pasadena CommunityFoundation. It was then that he left his previous life of lessons at the college with Prof. Ron Wechsler long pack trips in the high Sierra Mountains in the summer.

Updated October 8, 2008