Does My Mini Look Like She Could Be Show Quality?

[kay56649]

I will never do mini horse shows except for in 4h. I will just do open regular horse shows with our local saddle clubs. I will never be super competitive and if I do get competitive it will be in the future sometime

I will never do mini horse shows except for in 4h. I will just do open regular horse shows with our local saddle clubs. I will never be super competitive and if I do get competitive it will be in the future sometime

 

[kay56649]

Hi, were she my baby, I would hold off on the lunging. You don't want to get her stifles messed up going in circles while she is a baby. I would work on manners, leading, standing and spook training and take her for nice walks. As far as driving depends on what you want to do. My one boy has done CDE with his previous owner and I do trail driving. For me he will be my little trail buddy, I will probably never compete with him, he simply doesn't have the conformation for it but for me, I don't care, I love him just the way he is..

Enjoy your baby, let her grow, but my advice is to really insist on the manners and there will be so much you can do with her. I did what I called "baby lunging" with a mini for training, but it never lasted more than a few minutes. When your baby gets some maturity if you have the training foundation built, then you will be able to choose what she will be best at. By the way...they can look rather awkward as yearlings and change so much by 2 or 3 years old, a horse you thought wouldn't do for driving, may instead be just right. I had a boy that didn't get much of a butt until he was 3 and he went from a weak rear to more of a quarter horse type gorgeous bubble butt. I would have never thought he would have matured so nicely. You never know. Your baby is adorable by the way...

Oh yes we do lots of spook training and ground manners. Our lunging sessions only last 5 minutes at the absolute most. I just do a round or two each way to get the idea. Yes her body is changing alot and idk if the pic shows but she has a bubble but too. Lol. I though it looked funny at first. Lol

 

[Jean_B]

Lunging a baby - no matter what breed it is - is NOT a good idea. (I used to raise Quarter Horses and was also a barrel racer and the last 20+ years have had minis) Lunging forces them to put an extreme amount of strain on those soft baby bones and can cause all kinds of permanent problems because those bones are still maleable. I don't know who thought up the idea of a weanling lunging class for those open shows, but they certainly are not what I would call a "horseman". I would never lunge a horse before it was 2 years old. To work a younger horse I put them in a VERY large round pen and free-worked them but most of their working was free play time together.

 

[kay56649]

Yeah, the thing is we only have 2 minis, her mom and her. So they don't do much for exercising. They mostly just eat, so I was trying to get some exercise in there somewhere

 

[charlottein]

If you are concerned about excercise, just turn her out to play! All that baby playing is plenty of excercise.

 

[kay56649]

She is turned out 24/7 but just grazes. She will get silly sometimes, but not very often!

That's why I am trying to exercise her, plus she is getting a bit of a belly. She has been wormed, so I think its just eating and not exercising!

 

[Lizzie]

Almost any horse 'can' be shown, Kay. Some ribbons won in small local shows or shows when there is maybe only one in the class, really don't mean much. However, it's all good experience, for the horse and handler. In larger, more important registry type shows, a win or being in the ribbons, usually means more.

The one thing I learned over almost 60 years of showing dogs and horses, is to have one's animal extremely well trained and groomed properly. Training to stack and stand still, to walk or trot obediently, allows the judge to actually see the animal. No judge can judge properly, an animal who quite well might be better than others in the ring, but who is flying around at the end of a lead.

Everything, begins at home.

Remember also, that every judge interprets the standard of a given breed, differently. One might hate your horse, while another thinks it's ribbon-worthy.

The best thing to do, is to work with your baby now, as others have said. Run her on for a while. You have plenty of time to show later. Years in fact. Think of the '3' rule. Take pics of your baby at 3 weeks, 3 months and 3 years. She most likely will look very much the same in quality, even though larger and more mature. She will likely keep the same good points and conformation flaws, at each of those ages. At 3 years, you will have an almost mature mare and be able to judge well, whether or not showing her is worth your while and of course, whether or not she is possible breeding quality.

Lizzie

 

[REO]

She's only 4 months old. She doesn't have to look like a show horse

Her cartilage and bones are soft. Too much excercise (especially circles) will harm her in the long run. Like when they race big horses too young and they "break down". A baby needs time to grow up. Knee joints etc need time.

Why not let her be the baby she is until she's a yearling next year?

I, like others here just want to help and make sure your baby doesn't grow up hurt and lame.

 

[Jill]

I think a lot of people here may be speaking from a registry show perspective. In my experience, 4H and Open shows are much different. She may do well at halter at those shows, as well as performance when she is old enough. Enjoy her -- she's very pretty!!!

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I shall add my voice to the "please stop lunging her" plea!

She is far, FAR too young to be doing any sort of enforced exercise. If you are worried about them getting fat (and I am at this very moment feeding my coming up to weaning colts everything they will eat so they go into the winter FAT) then restrict their grazing with a hot wire.

I would never round pen a foal, I don't round pen my two year old, not yet!

Just leave her be and let her grow up naturally, PLEASE.....

 

[kay56649]

She's been left for the past about 3 days, so will just keep perfecting her basics...tying, standing, trotting, stacking, trailering...stuff like that

 

[Genie]

With our little ones we get them familiar with a halter.

Going to the paddock and then removing the halter. When it's time to come in, we re -halter and lead to the barn.

I think you can "sour" a horse with too much training.

 

[mdegner]

Good advice here from many people about her age and doing age appropriate things. We let our babies be babies and the first year really focus on haltering, leading, etc. Glad to see you are getting involved in 4H. Minnesota just started a 4H miniature horse program a couple of years ago and I attended the regional show in Hutchinson yesterday. They had 20 kids/horse, up from 6 the year before so the program is growing. I don't know where in northern MN you are but the local clubs often have a fun show/clinic in the spring (MMHC, Northern LIghts, etc) so, maybe keep an eye out for those. Also, eastern north dakota has some mini events as well.......Good luck, she is a cutie!

 

[kay56649]

Ya 4h is so fun! I entered her mom last year but Josie (my baby) wasn't weaned yet and it would have been to hard to bring both of them down there because the stalls aren't very big. We just requested the mini program last year and they put it in for us to try and so hopefully I can show her mom in it next year. There are clinics that go on about an hour and a half away so it's not to bad. Maybei can make it to one next year!

 

[muffntuf]

Just because they have a weanling longe line class - doesn't mean a weanling should go in it! Please for the longevity of the horse, just show halter for now - in hand obstacle at the most. But leave her out of the classes for joint ill.

 

[RescueMini]

I am not sure where you are located in Northern MN, but if you messaged me your general location, I could get you in contact with someone from the MN 4-H Miniature Horse Project from that region as I am the Youth Co-Chair for the project. As mdegner stated, we did have our 2012 Regional Show yesterday with 21 kids participating. We also had a clinic in April with over 70 kids, so the program is definitely growing! This year was our third year of being an official 4-H Horse Project program, and next year we plan to get even bigger. If you'd like to get involved, you can go to the MN 4-H Horse Association website and scroll down to the Miniature Horse Project section. There you will find all of the information on it, as well as contact information for the co-chairs (leaders) of the project.

As a side note, I know it is hard to not want to do all this work with your baby, but PLEASE, do not lunge her or jump her! Even a lot of work on stuff like showmanship can make them resent work in the future, which can result in an unwilling horse. Just spend time with her doing simple things like grooming.

I hope to see you and your minis at future 4-H miniature horse shows!

 

[targetsmom]

I see a huge increase in the interest in minis for 4-H here in New England and I bet it will happen in other places too. We started a club just for minis (Little Hooves 4-H Club) earlier this year and have 8 very enthusiastic members leasing our minis (sharing) and a long wait list. Rules vary by state, but there is a lot of general information about minis aimed for 4-Hers on our website for anyone interested. See link below and the 4-H section. Information is added frequently. Our 4-Hers lead our weanlings around and over obstacles but we stress only very short sessions and it has to be fun.

 

[HGFarm]

I would never consider working a weanling or yearling on a longe line, and even hesitate on my aged horses. It's just so much stress on their legs and joints. It's better off to throw on a halter and go take a walk down the road or around the neighborhood for short walks. i would also never jump on. They have age limits on driving and jumping horses in shows for a reason- and I even think some of those limits are too young.

I also was into showing and speed events for many years with the big horses. My barrel horses were never even started until age 5. It's just too much strain on a young horse.

I agree with the rest, just let her be a baby. Not so much grass, and more alfalfa will help get rid of the belly. Keep in mind too, babies go through a variety of growth stages, but it sounds like she doesnt have enough protein, as someone else mentioned. Perhaps they need to be limited on the grass more? Only out during the day, stalled at night, with alfalfa for dinner. It doesnt take a lot of it, and I would introduce it slowly.

 

[kay56649]

They live in a about 60x70 pen but it has super lush grass in about half of it and they get alfalfa twice a day