As far back as I can remember, I wanted a horse. As a child I remember playing "house" but instead of being the "mom" I always wanted to be the horse!!!
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| This is Fancy, a purebred Arabian mare that has been with me since she was 9 months old, she's now 16. She was my first in a long line of equines I've been fortunate enough to have in my life. She's extremely smart, as Arabians are well known to be, and I've been able to teach her tricks including shaking hands. The only problem with her is that she is not very fond of women, including me! She much prefers a man's touch and attention, as I suppose most females would, (I've noticed that in my dogs too), so I've never ridden her much and she just became one of our "Pasture Pets", as my farrier calls the pampered horses who have no "real" jobs! Like all of mine! lol! |
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| Here are 3 of my miniature horses being loved up by my daughter-inlaw, who is having her pic taken by my son. :-) This actually gives you a better idea of how small they are, the tallest one is 36 inches tall at the withers. Miniature horses are measured in inches rather than "hands" as a pony or horse is, and the shorter the better in the "Mini" culture. |
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| My son petting Pancho, who was the last mini born here about 2 yrs ago. He's quite rare due to the fact that he has blue eyes and also is a black & white Pinto(sired by Cisco in the below pic). He's also the least trained mainly because shortly after his birth I had a fall, broke a couple of ribs and was unable to work with him. Horses are not like dogs, if they aren't handled daily from birth they stay fairly wild, and even though they are small they still are very strong willed and can easily knock me down!! |
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| Here is my only stallion, Cisco. Also rare because he carries a black gene that causes all his offspring to come out a true black regardless of what color the mare is. He has sired 2 since I've had him, but had to "cut him off" and now he has to spend his time watching the mares from a separate pasture(poor guy!). I got him from a rescue of a large herd of minis when he was less than a year old and unfortunately have no papers on him to know any of his background, but out of all my minis he looks the most like an Arabian, and is certainly proud of it! | |
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| Gypsy, the solid brown one under the tree, is a mare approximately 8 yrs old, and was also one of my original minis that I purchased from the rescue along with Cisco. We call her "Momma" because she was pregnant (from an unknown sire) when we got her , and gave me our first foal, and then had another one sired with Cisco a couple of yrs later, which produced the little "princess" Raven, standing under Momma's "wing". Obviously we had to name her Raven with that jet black coloring! On the far left is Tinker that I purchased as a filly, and is Pancho's mom, and to the far right is Groovy also purchased as a filly. |
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| And last but not least is Rocko! 7 yrs old now and gelded, my first born of Gypsy, of an unknown sire, but judging from Rocko's coloring, I have assumed his sire was a Buckskin. He's the largest/tallest of my minis standing at about 38 inches, and probably the most laid back and resilient out of all of them since he's the only one who can handle being in the pasture with Cisco, the crazed horny stallion! |
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| Here is my "princess" Raven now 5 yrs old, who was sired by Cisco. She is the smallest, as you can see from this shot, she's not that much bigger than the kitten! When she was born from my brown mare Gypsy, she was solid jet black as coal, but has since turned into a black dapple, or technically a "blue roan". Besides Fancy, Raven is probably the most spoiled of them all! |
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| These two regular sized horses sadly are no longer with me. :-( Star, on the right, got very sick about a yr ago, and I had to have her put down. She was very old when I got her about 7 yrs ago, and she was one of those "once in a lifetime" horses, very well mannered, easy going and a pleasure to ride in my woods & trails, she was around 30 when she passed on. Moon, on the left, was a rescued Thoroughbred that I got when he was already 18 yrs old. He was also a wonderful horse to handle and ride....IF you could catch the bugger! He was gentle and calm when he was in his stall, but when you opened the door he became a Racehorse again and would bolt like a streak of lightning (like a bat outta hell) and you better get outta his way! I probably shoulda had a clue when I saw his registered name was "Moon Charging Man"! lol! After about 7 yrs of chasing him around the whole neighborhood, I finally made the difficult decision to give him away to a "retirement home" where I'm sure he's happily racing circles around everyone! |
