Hi! I'm Kat, I'm 25 and from the Canadian prairies. In the past 5 years my mom has achieved her dream of having horses (they can technically be referred to as ponies) and it's caused me to be a bit of a born-again horse girl in a really heartwarming way.
I technically have been collecting ponies since a year ago when I found a G1 newborn twin (Tangles!) at a Value Village. I was so stoked that I successfully identified a pony after watching the Toys That Made Us episode on MLP, and I bought her because she was very cute. I've been hesitant until recently to collect more as friends I had previously had been very judgemental, but the retro/classic G1 reproductions got me interested and I connected with my love for ponies! I have 12 of the MLP retro/classic reproductions, and have now instead started focusing on collecting original G1, G2, G3 and the odd G4 if it has brushable hair and is cute and inexpensive. So far of those, I found Rarity, Heartstrings and Lily Blossom (I have the vintage Blossom so I couldn't resist a $2.50 little comparison)! The only ones I'm not as into are the G3.5... they just aren't quite for me! I find a lot of my ponies via local classifieds (kijiji) and thrift stores! I find the process of cleaning and restoring them deeply rewarding, fun and relaxing. They're cute and fun to find! I love all their beautiful colours and unique names, the cuteness makes my heart sing. My partner collects transformers, so we have a great little collection vibe going on in the house. Right now I have a bag of ponies waiting to be cleaned, and I'm hoping to post a bit of pictures online sometime as I finish them.
My current collection has 9 G1 ponies, and 12 g3 ponies. I have 3 g4's from dollarama and a Glamour Glow Rarity that was packaged with a G3 pony at a thrift store. Her mane was so tangled and frizzy that I took her on as a project, and now she's grown on me! She also lights up, which is pretty cool.
I haven't watched any of the shows or read any books or anything, but the toys alone are pretty fun enough for me so far!
Outside of collecting ponies, I work in an an academic library. I enjoy music, video games, drawing, and reading books. Nice to meet you all!