Why bother with a pony miniature?
Ponies are one of those miniatures that you will use fairly regularly in Dungeons & Dragons, whether or not they are well represented in the published campaigns, because smaller races will be looking to ride a pony instead of a regular sized horse. Unless you want to disappoint your players, make sure that you grab a pony mini. The next few miniatures that I feature will also be creatures that your PC’s will use to ride from place to place, because those are great utility minis to have but they’re not always the easiest miniatures to find.
What about this mini?
This unpainted metal miniature is from Gripping Beasts‘ Saga line: Shaggy Pony (Barebacked) #SSC19. It’s a nice sculpt, and it makes me happy. It fits onto a medium sized base, which is the correct size for a pony, filling me with joy. I painted my miniature to look like a Przewalski’s horse, because this pony mini immediately reminded me of those delightful stocky little horses (apart from the mane, which is entirely wrong for Przewalski’s horses). And yes, that name is a tsunami of alphabetic madness, with letters thrown together apparently at random. Watch the video if you want to know how to pronounce it- it’s easier than it looks, I promise.
Przewalski’s horses are a really weird species, from a conservation standpoint. They have long been thought to be the last small population of the wild horses from which domesticated horses emerged. Part of that is because they look an awful lot like the prehistoric cave paintings of wild horses. It turns out that these horses are not, in fact, the same species as was seen on cave paintings in Europe; they took DNA samples from horse bones found in one of these caves, and it’s a different species. Apparently the colour theme was a popular one back in the day for horses. But I digress. It turns out now that we’re not even sure if Przewalski’s horses are a separate horse species from the species which led to domesticated horses, if they are a feral species of domesticated horse (but which went feral an absurdly long time ago), or really just what is going on with them taxonomically. But whatever their story ends up being, they are a small remnant of what once was there, and they are a strong conservation priority. As such, I worked with them briefly several decades ago. They are great animals; stocky and full of attitude and joy. They went extinct in the wild in the 1960’s, with a small captive population in captivity left as the only animals left in the world. Captive breeding has boosted their number to the point where they began releasing animals back into the wild in the 1990’s, leading to wild populations being introduced throughout Eurasia. It always makes me incredibly happy to see species go from being extinct in the wild to being returned successfully to the wild.
How useful is this mini, really?
Ponies are included in 4 published Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition books:
Four books is not a lot, but you wouldn’t expect these to be in a lot of the published materials, frankly. They’re not likely to be plot elements, nor are they dangerous foes to be slain for their treasure. They are ways to get back and forth for small-sized PC’s (or NPC’s). As medium Beasts, they are too small for medium-sized humanoids to ride, so ponies are only going to be an option for the small handful of little folk who can be PC’s. It’s a niche role, but an important one, as players often gravitate to one of the smaller races, and they need to get around as well. It’s a good mini to have, as you will likely end up needing one.
But why are you doing this?
As usual for these videos, my aim is to both provide good views of the featured miniatures from all angles, as well as giving you accurate sizing information about them. As I already pointed out, this pony miniature is on a medium sized base, which is the correct size. I would also like to thank wildlife artist Sherrie York, the expert reduction linocut artist, for kindly allowing me to use one of her reduction linocuts, Shivano Sunset, as the backdrop for my minis in the video.