A so-so introduction to a relatively innocuous, perennially appealing subject. Apart from noting that ""ponies came about because small animals need less food than large animals do. . ,"" Patent provides only a descriptive catalogue of pony breeds: the Shetland Pony, the Welsh Pony, the Pony of the Americas (bred during the 1950s as riding ponies for children), and lesser-known others. A few late pages, which focus separately on ponies-at-work, introduce such rarities as the Norwegian fjord pony--while the last picture-sequence shows not-so-young Cary Spahr mounting her pony in a distinctly unorthodox way. There's so little about the book to remark on, indeed, that every wrinkle stands out. Not much for the money except 32 pp. of attractive pony pictures.