What is a Classic American Shetland?
History of the Classic American Shetland Pony Development
In 1981 the only classes in Shetland shows were for Modern Shetlands. These classes weren't specifically called Modern classes. They were the same classes in which Shetlands had always shown. The animals competing in those classes, however,had changed drastically in the previous 15-20 years. Many were Shetland in name and registration papers only. Some were simply under 46" Hackneys registered as Shetlands. Some were Shetland/Hackney crosses.
Scott Uzzel of Dayton, Ohio wrote a guest editorial in the March/April 1981 Pony Journal, asking what happened to the original American Shetland. That article brought fans of original American Shetlands out of the woodwork. This type of pony wasn't dead after all, just dormant and desperately in need of representation within the American Shetland Pony Club.
At the 1981 Congress Scott met with ASPC President Bob Huston. Huston offered to let him write a regular column in the Pony Journal, devoted to the original American Shetland. By year's end, he was given the opportunity to form a national committee to promote this type of Shetland. The Committee for the Preservation and Promotion of the Original American Shetland evolved into the Classic Committee which is still active today.
The initial goals of the committee included expanding coverage of Original American Shetlands in the Journal and other equine publications,establishing a national show circuit with an All-Star point system, and promoting sales of national scope. All of these goals were rapidly accomplished.
The Original American Shetland now had an identity and a direction. That identity and direction really took shape at the 1982 ASPC annual meeting at Amana, Iowa. It was there that a large contingent of Original American Shetland fanciers from across the country hammered out the framework for the breed's future. (The name change to Classic American Shetland, coined by Scott Olander of Nebraska, would take place one year later at the 1983 ASPC annual meeting in Indianapolis.)
At that 1982 meeting the question, "What is a Classic (then called Original) American Shetland?" was answered quite clearly and officially. The term Classic American Shetland refers to the type of registered Shetland that was popular from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. That is the pony that the Committee for the Preservation and Promotion of the Original American Shetland set out to preserve and promote--not the pure Island type Shetland and certainly not the crossbred Modern Shetland that drove this type of pony from the show ring to begin with.
We have often referred to the Classic American Shetland as the purebred Shetland, "uncrossed with other breeds, though more refined than his ancestors in the Shetland Islands as a result of years of selective breeding." That statement is not completely accurate. The foundation stock of the American Shetland pony included not only ponies imported from the Shetland Islands, but infusions of Hackney and Welsh blood, as well.
The Modern Shetland then is the result of taking this American Shetland, whose type was set from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, and further crossbreeding; or simply avoiding the Shetland blood altogether and registering under 46" Hackneys as Shetlands. These were the practices that necessitated a separate division for the Classics, and why some Classic breeders honestly, albeit erroneously, refer to their ponies as "true Shetlands, uncrossed with other breeds." The Classic Shetland is the true American Shetland before it was lost to further crossbreeding.
The American Shetland had always been shown in the manner that Moderns are today--with built-up feet, weighted shoes, braided foretops, etc. High motion, or "action," had always been desirable in the American show ring.
Why did the founders of the Classic Division depart from this? First and foremost, Classic breeders knew that the desire for extreme action was the primary reason the Classic was lost to crossbreeding in the first place. It was thought that by de-emphasizing this point, the temptation to crossbreed would be lessened.
The committee also decided that promotion of the Classic should focus on the breed's gentle disposition and suitability for amateur exhibitors. In keeping with this theme the committee drafted a simple set of rules to make showing Classics an inexpensive and unintimidating proposition. These rules were designed to not only help the amateur exhibitor, but to accentuate the natural beauty of the breed as well.
The emphasis in judging the Classic Shetland was to be on breed character and correctness of conformation and way of going, rather than the extremes in type and motion sought after in the Modern Shetland. The committee was simply trying to carve out a different niche, rather than being an "us, too" division.
The problem here is that many people failed to see that these differences in show rules did not define the Classic Division. They were merely designed to accentuate and capitalize on the differences in type between Modern and Classic Shetlands. It was this fundamental difference in type and the desire to preserve it that defined the Classic American Shetland Division.
Classic judges did not always remember that the Classic Shetland is a completely separate and distinct entity from the Modern Shetland. Thus, a new type controversy within the Classic Division arose as many judges began picking a more refined type of Classic than had originally been envisioned by the founders of the division.
The ASPC addressed this controversy at its 1999 annual meeting in Maryland by starting a new division for the original type of Classic Shetland -- the Foundation Classic. The advent of this Foundation Classic Division has brought new hope to those breeders concerned with preserving and promoting original American Shetland type.
If this true Classic type is to be preserved in the new millenium, the judges must remain faithful to the original intent of those dedicated enthusiasts who poured their hearts and souls into the foundation of the Classic American Shetland.