Couple of ?'s about Shetlands

Miniature Horse Talk Forums

Help Support Miniature Horse Talk Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

RMH

Active Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2003
Messages
30
Reaction score
0
Location
NW Oregon
I have minis right now, but am interested in Shetlands also. And I have a couple of questions.

Is there a forum as active as the mini one here at Lil Beginnings for Shetlands?

In general, do Shetlands have less dystocia than minis?

Thank you for taking the time to answer. Also, if anyone has a Shetland farm and has a website, I would love to go look at it. Please post the website.

Thanks again.
 
4-26-05 Good Morning! Be prepared to be inundated with Shetland information from all of us! To answer your first question. Yes, there is an active chat list, probably a couple of them, but the one I am most familiar with is the ClassicList. [email protected]. Hope that's the right information. If it's not, someone else is bound to correct me, so don't worry.

I've never raised minis, so my information on birthing difficulties is based just on Shetlands, although I know of several mini breeders who have had problems, lost foals and, even more tragic to my mind, lost mares. Foaling is a dangerous task and while I would say, as a rule, that Shetland have fewer problems, you do hear the rare story of a lost mare and more frequently, but not often, of lost foals. This year on the ClassicList there are already a couple of breeders who have lost foals. The mares foaled, but the foal either did not get out of the sack or was found dead with no apparent reason for death. It happens. Breeding any equine is a risky business and though 90% of the time everything goes as planned...sometimes it doesn't. We had a lovely palomino pinto filly born last year that appeared, for the 1st 24 hours to be in perfect health; for reasons we could never discover, she died in our arms before she was even 48 hrs old.

Leaving that depressing subject behind, our website is www.stepnstone.com. Please visit -- and thank you for your interest in Shetlands -- my favortie topic of conversation :)! Ta, Shirlee
 
Kudo's to Shirlee's post...

We too raise the American Classic Shetland and not had any problems with birthing our mares. We don't stall our mares when they get close to time, but we do put them in a large dry lot where they can birth their babies with plenty of room. I have been fortunate to see most of our mares give birth, but we do at times have some that like to be very secretive.

We started out with Miniatures and sold most of those to help pay for our daughters college (she's in the pre-vet program at Tarleton State University, in Stephenville Texas) and changed our program over to the Shetlands. We have enjoyed them so much and haven't regretted changing our program over.

They are like the miniatures, you can't have just one!

You can visit our website:

http://www.fiddlestixponyfarm.com (Jim, Karen & Kelli Welcomes You)

Karen Shaw

Fiddlestix Miniatures & Shetlands

Burleson Texas
 
we love both our minis and our shetland patches. The biggest difference i see is that shetlands are much more big horse like in their personalities and in handling them. We just love Patches and her "im all that" attitude but on the flip side I know i have to stay a step ahead of her and she takes a firmer hand.

I would recommend going to doc taylors website and looking at all the information and pictures of his upcoming sale.
 
We have miniatures and Shetlands but have more double reg Shetlands. They are Classic but meet the height so they are reg aspc/amhr. Our web site is

filipowiczfarm.homestead.com

We love the height and there movement but enjoy all of our horses.
 
We have been showing & breeding mini's since 1986..... I'm guessing we have foaled out about 90 foals. Lost about 5 due to abortions in our earlier years. We lost 3 still in the sac (earlier years) & have lost two within 3 days of birth...Probably would have lost about 10 more if we had not been present ( I quit my part time job to watch the mares) even though we only have 2-4 foals a year. .... My opinion is that a lot more mini foals would survive if the births were attended.............. We will be selling our mini broodmares as Lee is more interested in the shetlands now. We currently have a 4 year old shetland mare & a yearling shetland filly & one yearling colt. We will eventually breed the shetlands but we are not in any hurry as we now have made this more of a hobby than a business............ I'm assuming & hoping the shetlands do not have as many foaling problems but again I also say it has a lot to do with the owner & the steps taken before the due date...... As with the mini's we will do everything we can to insure that our bred mares have the best possible chance to have a live healthy foal & stay safe & healthy themselves.

Cay-Lee Miniatures & Shetlands

http://home.earthlink.net/~caylee1
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Latest posts

Back
Top