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Mom used to look at Miniature horses
and call them "useless creatures"....that was before we owned them! Now, she
says that even when she is old and grey that she will always have a mini for
herself. They are such neat horses. To read some mini facts,
click here.
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It all began one
November day when a very generous family offered us their
miniature horses. They had previously bought
Sundance's Showtime Turbolina and
Chance of Golds Don Juan from the big state of
Texas. Mom LOVES animals and she loves us. Thus, saying yes to
the offer was easy, for a miniature horse was my youngest
sister's biggest wish (along with a Friesian). |
| It was love at first kiss. We quickly
found Miniatures to be such good family pets. Most of them are
very mild- mannered and loving with children. I finally have a
horse where there is no FEAR involved.
This was a
contagious love that hit all in the family. Turbolina, our beloved
mare, has excellent bloodlines and arrived at our home pregnantl!!! To view
Turbolina's
pedigree, click here.
She is a Silver Bay Pinto with one white spot on her neck.
She had never driven
a cart, so that was Jessie's first goal with her.
Click here to read an article
that Jess wrote on teaching her to drive. She learned to drive
easily and the thrill of driving made us more enamored with
these miniature horses. |
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She also is very
sweet! To see her drive, click on that gorgeous mane of hers in the picture
to the left! The files take a while to download, but you can start them and
then go play elsewhere on your computer while you are waiting.
These longer uploads give you a MUCH clearer picture.
Click here |
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| The stallion that started all
of this is Chance of Golds Don Juan, aka Donny, whose
temperament was so sweet, we hardly knew he was a stallion. |
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This is how Donny
looked when we first cleaned him up. |
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Donny stands at 32.5"
with bloodlines that are irreplaceable. In the book,
Miniature Horse Stallions, it mentions the incredible
blend that arose from breeding the Buckeroo bloodlines to the
Komokos bloodlines. That is our Donny. His Grandpa is
Boones Little Buckeroo
with his father being
Little
Kings Buckwheat,
Helmlock Brooks,
Komokos Little Husseler,
Komokos Teenie Jeanie
and
Gold Melody Boy
are all on his
papers. He is a 3/4 brother to Little Kings Debonaire who is the
only horse to every achieve both the Hall of Fame title as
National Grand Champion Senior Stallion & National Grand
Champion Open Pleasure Driving. That is remarkable because
rarely does a halter horse show as equally competive as a
performance horse.
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Donny has a beautiful stride and
is trained to drive. He even trotted through the streets of
downtown Phoenix with my 92 year old Grandmother in his cart.
To see the baby that he and Turbalina had last year, please
click here.
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Here is Donny
in February 08. As you can tell, his coat greatly varies
from one season to the next. He is carrying the Buckeroo
creme gene! |
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Why, then, did we start breeding?
After we trained Don Juan to drive, we
all wanted to go out in the carts together, but there were 4 of our
horse crazed girls in the family and only 2 cart horses. So, we
started looking for one to two more Miniature horses. We didn't find
two, but we found 6 more! We have trained most of them to drive and
6 of the mares are pregnant for 2008 babies. So WHY do we breed and
HOW do we know the quality of our horses??
We don't show minis, but we breed them. This
is not to say that we will never be in the Miniature horse show
ring in the future. We do show big horses and can't do both,
mostly due to dates always overlapping. My daughters are at the
Maricopa 4H Finals Horse Show with their big horses and dad
today, while I am at home "mare staring!" And here, this very
show that they are attending conflicts with the big Miniature
show in Phoenix, called the Touch of Class.
Despite the fact that we don't show
our Miniatures (yet), I know I am breeding quality animals. The
goal should always be to better the breed. The show ring is one
place to test your stock but not the only place. A good working
horse is a good horse. The
show ring for any animal is so political and thus, the quality
animal does not always win. In some ways, I am only breeding for
the pet home, but I loved when our stallion, Don
Juan, was bred to a mare in a show home this
season, because I know they will be very pleased and that his
progeny will see the ring.
There is still yet another area to
"prove" or "test" your animals. That being the trainability
of your horse and its ability to do what many minis were
originally bred to do.....DRIVE.
We have 6 pregnant mares, 2
stallions. All of them came to our home not knowing how to
drive. Our love and passion for these little horses grew from
their ability to learn so quickly and how they took to driving
as if it was their life purpose. When we acquired our
miniatures, they were not to breed, we were just enjoying them.
There are a ton of Videos on our website that show our enjoyment
of their gifts. Here is a link to our video index for anyone who
is interested.
http://www.paintedsunminiaturehorses.com/miniarticles.htm#videoindex
These mares and stallions opened up an entire new world for our
family.
When, this topic began, I hope all
of us who breed did some self introspection. I can
also rationalize that I knew we had quality animals by the
bloodlines of our horses. The bloodlines of our horses are
composed of some of the very best horses from the "show world"
and babies from our mares have been shown very successfully even
all the way to one being in the Hall of Fame.... But, that proof
was still not enough articulation of how I know that we are
breeding quality Miniature Horses. You called it "bragging about
the bloodlines" and I can see where that can be useless.
Breeders should somehow know if their babies are of sound mind,
frame, etc. Breeders should know that their stallions and mares
are quality and that they are going to possibly improve the
animal be breeding the two together. By 'possibly' I mean that
all breeding is a gamble to some extent. I have seen 2 champions
produce trash and I have seen very correct conformation produce
very incorrect.
Breeders who brag about bloodlines,
and then just breed without putting those bloodlines to the
test, could also be missing out on some real joy! It is so
fulfilling to train and make forward progress on a daily level.
Out of the 8 miniatures on our farm, 6 drive and 1 more has been
started. We know them all so well from working with them. We
know the minds of our mares and of our stallions. When you start
driving your stock, you gain an insight of each horse's gaits
and strides that I probably would not know so well if I had not
driven them. One mare that we thought was very short-strided was
actually just lazy. When I get in the cart and push her into the
bit while driving her with impulsion, she can extend and really
trot. I used to say I didn't like her trot, but her that
judgment was based on her just trotting around our pasture which
failed to show her abilities.
And, yes, we take the buyers of our
babies for a spin around the neighborhood. It was not
intentionally done to sell a baby, it was done because we get so
excited and want to share the thrill of driving a mini with
someone new. Five of our minis are pregnant by the same
stallion (named Ultra Mycall Jacksum.) I
am so thrilled about him because of his bloodlines, his
conformation, his color, but also because his son,
Ravenwood Blue Boy Dreamin, (Noah)
was so easy to cart train. He has a natural head set that is
beautiful, is light and not resistant on the bit, and is a
willing worker. I must take new video of this son in the cart,
but click here to see one of
him back when he had only been driven one time before. In this
video, he is still pulling some on my hands, but this is only
his second time driving. Noah is a
joy to drive at this point.
I can't wait to see his 5 half
siblings that are on the way. We will be selling the majority of
our babies and probably one of our mares. But, we are hoping
that one or two of the babies overwhelms us and we want to hold
him/her back. And no, we will not breed all the mares in
2009. We miss driving the mares so much as their big day
approaches. We drove them up till the time they were bagging up,
but they are at the point of being uncomfortable. Their bags are
looking cow-like! I hope I don't sound boastful, but I wanted to
support the idea that the show ring is not the end all for a
Miniature and that there are other ways we breeders know our
stock is of excellent quality.
Breeders need to study and learn
about the various genetic traits that miniature horses can
inherit, both good and bad. Inbreeding and Line breeding are not
necessarily bad, and can produce remarkable horses. Look at
Wittmaacks Mickey Mouse. He was produced by his sire breeding
his own daughter. A breeder should document what occurs and thus
will come to know the good genes and the bad genes present in
their breeding stock.
 
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