How did you get involved with minis??

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MyLilShowGirl

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[SIZE=14pt]I was just curious how everyone got started with miniatures? I have heard some pretty neat stories...so whats yours?![/SIZE]

Here's my story:

It all began when I came across a couple minis when I went to a tack store with my sister (she was big into show jumping..and was great at it). I was never big into horses...just showing at a couple "bubblegum" shows around our area and taking riding lessons. I wasnt too keen(sp?) on the idea of the BIG horses...and felt alot more comfortable when I met the minis. While my sister was shopping, I went in the paddock and one just walked right up and "cuddled" right up to me! ...I loved these lil guys ever since! And I wanted one ever since! LOL. I then joined the 4-h club there...from that, I moved barns and now am big into showing minis and I am comfortable with knowing how to care for a mini (Including the big horses...
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)and also am learning to tell good conformation from the bad.


I finally lived the dream I have had for years..which was to own my own mini, and love him like crazy
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Here's a pic
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...

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-Kris
 
Oh my - your mini is a pretty one - is he a blue roan? What ever color - very nice!
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My intro to minis is no where as glamouras. I enquired on an add on the net for an African Grey ( parrot ) and the rest is hystory! Since then ( last year ) - I have brought home Echo ( the parrot ), two mini mares, one mini stallion and one mini donkey - lord help me - keep me away from my friend Corinne! ( Just kidding lord - love my mini bud!! )
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I got into minis after one really bad riding spell, that cured me of ever wanting to ride again and then after a few REALLY bad accidents on the ground for our family, well then that cured me of ever wanting anything that weighed more than both my husband and I combined.
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Besides what could be cuter than a mini??
 
Well, I started the hard way!! There were no minis, so I bred them. I had five of the most exquisite, Arabian headed tiny Shetland mares you have ever seen- bought them from a friends mother whop was giving up- all the rest of her stock was the plug ugly slab headed nasty tempered little so-and so's I had expected (remember these are Native Shetlands- proper ones, not your airy fairy beautiful little horses
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) I came home with the small herd, went back a week later and bought two more who were vaguely related and still quite pretty, bought a beautiful fairy tale stallion from someone else, and way I went. 28 years later I have the great great great grandchildren and one direct son still running around my meadows. I'm not sure their ancestors would recognise their shape, but their temperaments and their souls are the same.
 
I saw my first mini in 1968 and although a novelty it was incredibly expensive and ugly to boot.

I didn't think about the little ones for many years until my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. While I cared for her in her last days, the idea of someday having a mini became the dream that kept my sanity. I began looking at them in earnest at that time but frankly the breed was still in relatively poor shape so I continued to wait it out hoping the breeders would finally start making progress.

Three years ago I started checking into them again and was delighted that some nice little horses were finally being produced and made the decision to get one. However, my hubby being the practical one in the family said we couldn't just have one because he was worried about it being lonely. I was opting for a pygmy goat as a companion but I'm glad he insisted we should get a pair. We have been fondly known by our friends and neighbors as the Ark for many years so a pair kept us in that theme with the minis too.

Two tiny weanlings, Triggy and Blue, arrived via cross country transport at 11:30 p.m. December 29th 2001 and things have not been the same since! They are loved and enjoyed by all who meet them and have a forever home with us like all of our animal family.

eta: corrected date
 
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I hauled "1 or 2" bales of hay in high school and college. Got to know my way around the poorly behaved barnyard animals that farmers and ranchers would let annoy us while we were trying to work.

When I finally got out of school, I bought the dog that I had dreamed of owning and showing since I was a little kid . A couple of unfortunate injuries kept him out of the showring, so I concentrated on his behavioral training instead.

A few years later, I got a new boss at work. She was a nerdy, pretty, yet demanding engineer who happened to be obsessed with miniature horses. Got to be good friends with her over the 3 years I worked for her before I finally confessed my crush on her. She took me to my first horse show a few months later and I remembered why I had wanted to show my dog so badly. The atmosphere is addictive.

I tranferred jobs so I wouldn't have to work for that tyrant anymore (or maybe it was so I could marry her). Now, my wife bosses me around the ranch and there ain't a day goes by that we don't talk about the "critters", the ranch we dream of developing and the plan to get there.
 
A friend of my Father-in-law had a couple of miniature horses and he liked them. Then in 1995 he bought a mare with a stud colt at her side. In april of 1996 he bought a yearling mare and his friend showed her most of that summer. In July of 1996 my husband and I took him to an auction where he bought 4 or 5 mares and a stallion and met a man selling his herd. Later that month we went 10 hours from home to look at the herd. On the way home, we discussed the possibility of buying this herd and trying to show a couple of them the next year (now Dave and I were involved) Dave and I had just spent the last 10 years getting a successful craft business off the ground, but told "Pop" that we would try to show a couple and would help him take care of them. On Aug 6, 1996, the man delivered 41 horses--28 brood mares, a stallion, a yearling mare, and 11 weanlings. Within 2 hours, another foal was born to one of the mares. We now had 50 miniature horses for the first winter.

We started showing the next year and were hooked and by 1998 we were doing very little crafting as the horses were taking most of our time.

In 2003, we bought another "herd". We bought 16 Shetland foundation ponies that were mostly registered in the AMHR as well. Now we show both miniatures and ponies and are in the process of selling all of our crafting supplies.
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We currently have just over 60 minis and ponies as well as 7 llamas, a pygmy goat, a potbelly pig, a miniature donkey, and a half dozen chickens and ducks.

Oh, and sad to say, my father-in-law passed away in jan of 2001 and now we have these things without him--and we wouldn't have had a one of them if not for him.

sorry this is so long, but it is hard to make it short.

Angie
 
my strory is not as romantic......

My big horse kicked the bucket and then I went on internet looking for a quarter horse to buy in the US and then I accidentally fell on a miniature horse site and got that instead, and now 5 years later I have over 30 of the little pests....
 
Back in the 1980's I had a couple of Arabian mares that I bred as well as rode. Time was limited to spend with them since my daughter was young. The market was also soft and the foals weren't selling for much.

I had friends who were well known in the miniature industry and I was curious about the miniatures but skeptical. After all, you couldn't ride them! In 1989, the AMHA National Show was held in Oklahoma City and I decided to go. Going out to the fairgrounds and seeing barn after barn of these wonderful little horses completely sold me!

I came home and sold my last two remaining Arabian mares and had a miniature horse within a week! The rest is history.
 
Back in 1985 we visited the Kentucky Horse Park while living in Ohio. They happened to be having one of the biggest miniature horse shows in the country. Went back home & bought one
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for me for a pet. We started showing him & accumulating more & Lee soon sold his hunter jumpers...... We showed with our two children until they left home for college. Now the grandchildren enjoy them with us............ We went from big horses to mini's & now back to medium size. Lee is now up to three shetlands, (easier on his bad back) but I will keep a mini or two for myself (and the grandchildren).
 
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My story is similar to Kris'. I have loved horses my entire life and had taken riding lessons for some 6 or 7 years. Last year however, riding wasn't fun anymore. I took a break from it but missed horses ssoo much! I was searching the internet despretly for my own horse and a non competitive stable to ride at and was having no luck. So one day on the drive down to my aunts house we passed a miniature horse farm and my mom said, "Hey, miniature horses would be perfect for you." and it hit me, they would be! So i researched everything I could about them and the miniature horse farms around me. And a few months later, I am now the proud owner of Six Gems Spotted Fever
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[SIZE=14pt]I bought my first one in 1982 to use in a pet therapy program I was doing and you know the rest ....potato chips![/SIZE]

Lyn
 
[SIZE=14pt]well...my cousin (mylilshowgirl) got me into them,And I got one like a month after!!He is in my advater!!My lil royscle!!Red roan 35 inch gelding.[/SIZE]
 
Well, I guess we have to Thank (or blame) Dan & Donna King. They sold us our first Mini Filipowicz Peanut. We bought him as a weanling. He got his Hall of Fame last year. My wife Fran (Dan & Donna live next door to us) saw him and fell in love with him. We also bought his Mother Ripl-K-Golden Babe (Glory) ASPC/AMHR Glory is a Foundation Classic Shetland. (Nobody knew it at the time.) It just grew from there. Peanut is now living in AZ. Glory is still with us producing some Great Babies.

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Well...I got involved with minis when I was searching for alpacas. (This was back oh about 4 years ago when I actually had time to be bored, haven't had a second since between high school,track, and horses) Anyways I did the research, found out they we're wayyyyy to expensive for me
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and brainstormed with my Mom. "A $5000/50000 animal can die just as easy as a $500-1000 animal" So, thankfully she thought of our family doctors father who owns (at that time 120 minis) horses. So I checked them out took grandma along to get her opinion and wisdom as well as my parents and picked out a colt and filly. Needless to say I've been to an alpaca farm since then and I'm glad I went with the $1000 critters. Not to mention I made great friends (the most precious thing of all) for life. Now I've got 13 minis, all originating from that farm. The minis have given me so much, friends, entertainment, and a sense of responsibility.
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Courtney
 
I was into the whole big horses and riding thing, did pony club for a few years until I got a new horse that was too young. We boarded him at a local barn and they had minis there. Two stallions, one they still have and another that was gelded and is now a very nice driving horse. I would work to bring down the boarding fee (feeding, bringing in, watering the horses) and my mom made me incharge of the minis. What little spitfires! They would rear and bite, I was in love.

So after a nasty spill with that big horse, I decided I didn't want to ride anymore. I then wanted a lamb to raise, but my mom suggested a mini. So we got Dusty, and five years later we purchased 3 more, sold one of them (and the other is for sale) and purchased another this year.
 
When I was a baby my parents got into Shetland ponies when my dad got out of the service and they gave me a filly. They called her "the dapple filly", but I could only squeeze out "Daffy", so that became her name.

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Tony & Daffy in 1948

As I grew older, and my parents Shetland increased to over one hundred, I fell in love with the tiniest of them. Our herd was 39" and under, even back in the 40's and 50's, and I traded a registered Shetland mare for a grade "midget pony" as they were called at that time. My dad said that I was crazy because she was too small to ever foal, but he was wrong and she had two colts, one of which, at 31" tall was the first miniature horse that I registered with AMHA about twenty-seven years ago, the year after the association started.

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Tony, Bitsy, & BigUn in 1963

The rest they say, after over forty years and now over 250 miniatures, is history!
 
Mine is pretty simple.. a family friend showed and trained mini's back home in Las Vegas, NV. I was showing Arabians at the time. After I graduated and moved out of the parents house I couldn't afford to board my big horses so I went to Bee and she let me make VERY small payments and let me board him at her house. Then I made the mistake of trading him for a big horse two years later. Miss him lots and decided I had to get back into it. So I am selling the same mare I traded to get back into the mini's. I still have another riding horse that I can "share" with my husband.
 
We got into miniature horses after reading about them in National Geographics magazine several years ago. That got us to thinking and looking and at one time we had a high of 32 horses and now have 12 as we are nearing retirement and are cutting back our numbers.

Joyce in CT
 
Tony, Thanks for sharing that. You've spoken of your start before, but not quite in that detail.

Our start came quite a bit later..... Prior to my mother's passing in 1984 she wanted a couple of miniature horses so she could enjoy them grazing under her apple trees in the acre below the house. (She was basically bedridden). We laughed. At the time my husband, Larry, and I didn't know anything about miniature horses.

In 1990 Larry and I had a new place with a little bit of acreage and went to the State Fair. We had seen our actual FIRST miniature horses the year before but weren't in a situation to buy at that time. THIS time we went searching for them. And this time, we gathered up as much information as we could. We also did some research.....

So, in October of 1990 we bought our first mini ( a filly) and bought her a companion a couple of months later (another filly).......and the rest is history. (We now own over 80).

Oh, and my mom got her wish. After getting our first two minis, Larry and I loaded them up in our Bronco several times and took them over to my father's home when we visited and let them go and graze happily on the lawn under those same apple trees.....

MA
 

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