I have always been a horse lover. In my early 20's I did Hunter Jumping, and Hunter Pacing in New England. We had over 500miles of connected trailes right off the stable grounds. It was wonderful!! Then I moved to Minnesota. There, most of the trails we had to haul our horses to.
(more land here than back home).
I got involved with Morgans, as I had always loved the breed, and they are big around here. I bought several really nice mares and paid stud fees to top stallions and had some very nice babies. I hired one of the top trainers and my first foal that was shown won a World Reserve Championship. I just loved what I was doing and thought I would never give it up. I bred for the high stepping performance horse as well as halter.
I got a couple of Mini's "for the fun of it". One was a black filly (as I had always wanted a black horse). Each year I would send one or two Morgans out to a trainer. (very expensive!!) Then I started going to a couple of Mini shows, bought some better Mini's and started showing them. I used to tell my Morgan friends that it was fun, but I would never give up the Morgans.
Well, I no longer have any Morgans. I found that the Mini's were a lot less expensive and I could train them myself. I did not have to have a trainer to enjoy going to shows, breeding was easier and much less expensive. I no longer had to have semen shipped in,(very expensive to do with stud fees and vet bills. It was nothing to drop at least $5,000 to get one mare bred. I even had one mare that we did embryo transfer with. Each of her foals cost me a minimum of $10,000 to get on the ground).
I found I was more involved with the Mini's and-------- the worst that could happen is that I got some bruses. Not broken bones like I got when training Morgan foals and 3 year olds.
As I got older, I realized that I could still be in horses, but not fear that I would get really injured. I live here alone and take care of all of the horses alone. If I want to go out on a horse, I take a driving horse out. I also find that I do not have the time to ride and that I do not miss it at all..
I LOVE THE MINI'S!!