How many years have you had minis?

[Reble]

I was surprised to look and noticed we got our first mini in 2001 &

started showing in 2003

9 years already with minis, &

7 years this coming summer, we have been showing....

Share how many years you have been into minis & if you have,

how many years you have shown?

 

[Tony]

I bred my first miniature that we registered when the AMHA started in 1963 - 47 years ago. I started showing about the same time.

 

[HGFarm]

Certainly dont compare to Tony's time frame but 95 and 95.....

 

[twister]

I bought my first mini in 2002 and started showing in 2003. The first one was my gelding Munchie that I drive, but I didn't show him in driving classes, I showed him in halter and obstacle.

Yvonne

 

[JWC sr.]

We have had mini's for over 25 years now and have been showing for 11 years now. It has been a fun ride to say the least.

Big Horses (pleasure) since I was 14, rode rodeo (calf roping) and cutting horses since I was 19. Mainly quarters & paints.

 

[wrs]

We got our first registered mini in 2001. Competed in our first AMHA show last Saturday.

 

[LindaL]

Got my 1st Mini in 1993 and showed at my 1st Mini show in '94. Had a herd of 14 and dispersed in 2005 (sold last horse then), bought 1 horse in 2007, sold him in 2008 and bought the horses we have now in 2009...I do NOT plan to disperse anytime soon! Oh and I jumped right back into showing at the 2009 Nationals!

Edited to add: I have owned ponies/horses since 1971.

 

[targetsmom]

Wish I had known about minis when I got my first biggie in 1960 (yes, 50 years ago).

Got our first mini, SRF Masters Touch, in 2004 and started showing at Pinto shows the same year. Still showing him.

Started breeding in 2006 and got our first live foal in 2009 (I know, not the question!)

 

[Sandee]

Got my first horse over 50 years ago because I was showing and having to share my sisters horse. Ahh, but minis; we got the first one in 2003. Started showing in 2004. It's been great and hope to continue for at least a few more years.

 

[Jill]

I've had minis since 1999 (biggies since 1995) and my first show mini, Triple H Derby Day Miracle, a/k/a "Derby", went to his first show in March 2002

Here's a picture of him at that show (I was sooooooooooooooooooooooo excited). We got "better and better" horses over time and they went to bigger and bigger shows. Our "bragging rights" went from local first place to National champions... still, Derby did very well regionally and did earn a National Top 5 title in 2004.

PS people who were here back then will remember Derby well... I have posted just as much about him back in the day as I have about our resident star, Ericas Echos of My Destiny, a/k/a "Destiny"! We still have Derby, as a gelding, and he's a happy much loved guy! He's a do it all -- halter, in hand performance, jumping and driving -- gelding.

 

[Reble]

I bred my first miniature that we registered when the AMHA started in 1963 - 47 years ago. I started showing about the same time.

That is wonderful Tony, can anyone beat 47 years?

Who just got into minis?

Find this interesting and yes, I think alot of us started with big horses...

We got our first horse in 1986 so that would be 24 years ago....

 

[cretahillsgal]

I bought my first minis on April 12, 2008. 2 bred mares. Quickly accumulated to over 20 by last summer(1 year). I now have 19. At least till my new foals are born.

My first show was April 2009.

I certainly haven't had the minis as long as most of you have. But they are my life now and I can't imagine not having them.

 

[Tiny Hooves]

Bought my first mini in 2006. Now I have 12.

Have had horse's since 1964. Started out with a shetland, then up to the Quarter Horse's.

Plan to start showing my mini's this year.

 

[Tami]

First mini in 1982 and first show in 1984.

 

[AshleyNicole]

We got our first mini five years or so ago, he was a sweet unregistered gelding, we had him and a filly for a while until last year we got several to show and/or produce our own show horses. This year we are going to start showing with our new stallion Bare who has already done really well in the show ring and a few others.

Great Topic!!!

 

[Margo_C-T]

Got my first minis in 1984, so 26 years ago. Got our State Fair to allow a show for miniatures for the first time in '86; it became an official AMHA show in '90 or '91(would have to get up and go search through records to be exact!), and it is still in existence. Was heavily involved in starting a club-sponsored AMHA show(Spring Fiesta)back in the mid-90s; the first year, I pretty much single-handedly developed the premium, coordinated the printing and mailing, found the personnel to work(many still do)the show, etc.,etc.(there was at that time really no one else in the local club who knew anything about show organization or management, while I'd been involved w/ local shows for a number of years in various capacities).

Showed(miniatures, that is; I was showing PtHA, APHA, a little QH, and Open, years before that)at AMHA Nationals(now World)starting in '90 or 91, and showed every year or two from then until 2002,achieving several Top Tens and making the Honor Roll in '96.(I was never 'into' heavy showing; did it because then, I enjoyed the challenge, not to chase ribbons--and was never free to travel or be away from home much.) Don't show breed shows anymore, for several reasons.

I've LOVED horses since 1943; continuously owned, cared for myself(no boarding), trained, done some breeding(mostly of miniatures), showed, used,since 1950... for only about 9 months, in 1958, was I 'separated' from my horse/horses-my freshman year of college, when I went to the Univ. of Hawaii.

Margo

 

[chandab]

Got my first horse in 1986, got my first mini is 2005; I no longer show, so haven't shown my minis.

 

[ShaunaL]

Fun thread - it's so interesting reading about everyone

I got my first minis in 1996, a weanling colt sired by 2x Res Natl Champion Little Kings Little Bucker and a senior mare sired by Bronco Billy. Lost my little guy to recurring colic a year later and bought a 2 year old filly. Between the 3 of them my mom and I showed locally for about 3 years, even attending the Touch of Class in AZ once

Sold them when I went to college in 2000, leased another one in 2003, returned her when lease was up in 2005.

THEN the real fun began, in 2006 I bought my beloved mares I have now, Tidbit and Whitney and never looked back

I am now up to 8 here and a yearling filly at a trainer's, and one of my mares is in foal for 2010. This is me showing serious restraint, buying only 9 in 4.5 years and only breeding one mare out of 3 for this year LOL As for showing, we hit a few snags when our show colt bought in 2007 arrived with serious injuries and was euthanized, then we ended up adding two daughters (2 leggers!) to our family the last two years but this year is our year to get back in the ring. We have Nationals plans - can't wait!

 

[vvf]

Got our first Mini in 1979, so 31 years ago.

Our first Mini show in our home town must have been around 1987 or 1988, and it was an AMHA show.

 

[vickie gee]

This is very interesting and too say the least "timely". I have been wondering of late if I am in the right place at the wrong time. I love my minis but really feel "consumed" right now. I bought my first one Christmas of 2007. I knew I loved them and they were my one and only reason for going to the Dallas Fair. I did not care if I bought filly, colt, mare, or stallion as long as I had one. As fate would have it I got a little 9 month old blue roan colt grandget colt of LOVE ME TENDER who became my soulmate. So true that "you can't have just one" I bought three girls through a divorce sale shortly afterwards. I really meant to only take two but there was this little precious 29" mare in foal for the first time that wanted to come on board. My first foaling was a nightmare c-section. Munchkin made it but her baby did not. I still relive it. I did not own a trailer and she made the emergency ride in the hatchback of a Ford Escort with me singing lullabies to her during the two hour ride in which she fell on me twice and numerous times I had to re-insert her rectum which was protruding from all the pushing. She survived and a week later I brought her home in a rented cargo van. She was split from sternum to southpole. I hobbled her and crawled under her to remove literally dozens of staples. Then I bought a cadillac of a horse trailer which was fancier than I needed and sold it for profit and found a very affordable and functional trailer. I bartered the profit for a bred mare who had an ez birthing to a filly with a birth defect in her front legs. I do love my babies so this little filly of champion bloodlines (FAF Scouts Warbucks and Stonehenge Painted Feather) became a little guinea pig for a surgery pioneered at Texas A & M. Her walk is not pretty, but she did not have to go through euthanization or living in a life of pain AND she is breeding sound and can buck, rear up, run allbeit clumsily, and steal your heart with her antics. I really think I got into this too early. I work a regular job with lots of overtime. I have never shown because I am either working overtime or trying to catch up on household and farm duties. My horses get their groomings, trimmings, feedings, and lots and lots of love. But they do not get shown. My stallion is a model of what a mini should be. Not a brag, just fact. I do not have the time to train or show. I do not have the finances to pay a trainer. I am so desperate I have even thought about offering to barter my husband's sculpting talents to a leading trainer but frankly I am embarrassed at my own shortcomings and he is obligated right now to producing a sculpting for a wildlife center. He is very gifted but due to finances we are limited to what he can actually have cast in metal if the money is not received upfront. Mainly his pieces are commissioned and therefore we do not have to pay the foundry upfront. I am not on Marestare and I have my first farmbred due any day now. I go out to the barn to check her every night around 2:30 and then I get up at 4:00 a.m. to be at work by 6:00 a.m. and then turn down overtime so I can rush home to check on her. My husband works a regular job in order not to fall into "starving artist" lifestyle. We normally keep a baby monitor viewing the stall... but still you have to sleep sometime. I just pray that I can be there for her. She is a proven broodmare but I want to be there on top of things in case something goes wrong. I have to ask myself "should I have waited until I was retired to get into this?" Obviously YES. Should I have bought a gelding instead? Again, obviously YES. Shoud I sell the girls and offer joint ownership of my stallion? Truly hindsight is 20/20. I just know it is going on three years since I started this venture and although I want to be in for the longhaul I am going to have to start being realistic and revamping it to fit to my 2015 retirement plans. The past two years surgeries have me strapped financially. Don't get me wrong. I have no regrets as far as the decisions I made with the surgeries, they were no brainers. I really, really need everyone's prayers for a healty 2010 foaling as well as guidance for where to go forward with a plan for where to go with my program. Sorry to have babbled. As far as the original thread: GOING ON THREE YEARS NOW.