[Farael]

I was just reading a book I bought recently about the battle of Agincourt, and I found it rather remarkable that even the lesser nobility were "allowed" (read: paid for by the King) to take six horses each for the invasion, and often they took more on their own expense. Greater nobles took horses in their hundreds just for their own use. The members of their household took their allotted number of horses on top of that!

So, if both Merry and Pippin are sons of very influential nobility figures, it would only make sense that the Brandybucks and Tooks owned thousands of ponies among the head of the family and his principal relatives. All of a sudden, six ponies doesn't seem like that much, does it?

That is, assuming that medieval Europe (or at least England) was influential on how Tolkien imagined The Shire, which I believe is a safe bet.