New to mini's and this forum, have many questions! 8)

[Supercilious]

Hello everyone! My name is Jean and I have recently been acquiring a few miniature horses to fulfill a lifelong dream of raising them. I have two 2 yr old Stallions, one 8 month old Stud Colt, 4 mares & two miniature Donkey Jennets. Some registered, some not. I intend to train the largest mare (36") to drive and one of the mares is due to foal in March or April. I have a few questions concerning registration.I am going to do this one question at a time so my posts wont be huge lol. I received temporary AMHA papers on one of the Stallions, he is very nice & correct & want to test breed him to my mares starting in April. What do I need to do to get him ready paperwork wise for breeding besides the obvious transfer to my name? I know at 3 he will get his permanent papers but can he be bred at 2 with temporary papers and the foals be eligible for registration etc... I just want to make sure I know what to have done so that I have no trouble registering his foals especially since I have a lady wanting to breed her mares to him. I do at some point, want to get involved with showing as well. I used to have a team of Shetland ponies that I trained to drive about 22 years ago and am really excited to get back into that. I have really missed it. I am knowledgeable about breeding as I used to raise AQHA & APHA horses, again, back in the day 8P. I am posting a picture of the stallion in question, AMHA Honey Creek Silver Bullet http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/honey+creek+silver+bullet He is registered as Silver Dapple but I believe he is Silver Smoky Black & will be having him tested to see for sure. I have never seen a horse his color in person, he looks chocolate, even his skin and has a lot of silver in his tail. I does not come through in pictures & is hard to describe exactly. He is 30" tall.

 

[Hosscrazy]

Well, you've definitely come to the right place!!! Welcome from sunny Southern California!!!

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I haven't been breeding for 5 or 6 years now so the only answer I can give you is that all the information you need is easily available in the AMHA rule book and that is yours for the asking from AMHA if you are a member which you will need to be to transfer/register etc. Call AMHA and you will find the staff there friendly and very knowledgeable and helpful.

Welcome to the wonderful world of minis

 

[targetsmom]

Welcome! You can breed him at 2 and register his foals, but he will need to be DNA tested at some point for AMHA. It is $41 and I highly recommend that you do it before you breed, just in case something happens to him. You can also get him Parentage Qualified for AMHA ( if there are DNA results on both parents), that will assure his parents are who the papers say they are. Or you might find out they are NOT who they say they are, which is more common than you might think. if you save the information, then when you get him permanently registered at 3, you send that back in and you can get a BLUE registration certificate, showing he is Parentage Qualified. Not necessary, but no extra charge (after the $41) and nice to have.

You will also need to send in a breeding report for the mares you breed (with dates) and give a breeding certificate to the owners of outside mares. That will be due in (I think) December 2013 or maybe January 2014, depending on registry. Good idea to have the mares DNAd too.

 

[Supercilious]

Thank you everyone! I pretty much knew the answers due to having bred big horses way back when but all the DNA testing & Parent Quailfication etc is all new of course and it's much more fun to ask and meet knowledgable people here than to go read it lol. I am excited as all get out and really looking forward to the world of minis. I had a couple minis way back but was into the big riding horses at the time and never did anything with them except pet them & lead kids around on them. I am going to be starting the ground driving on my 36" filly this week while the weather is nice here in Texas. I have a little home made cart to train with and I am hoping to get a nice easy entry cart later this summer after I have her going good. I just got everyone de-wormed yesterday and am anxiously awaiting on my mare to give me my first foal! She is a 30" Cremello mare, and she was bred to a 28" smokey black & white Tobiano Stallion. I bought her and her year younger cremello full sister last year, both bred to that stallion, however her sister aborted her foal this past October. They are both maidens. I also have a 30" Grey mare with blaze face & 2 blue eyes. Looks more silver dapple than grey to me. She is AMHA and has permanent papers. My 8 month old colt is 26" and AMHR Classic Cream Champagne. http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/index.php?query_type=horse&horse=DOUBLE+TS+TEXAS+BUBBLY&g=5&cellpadding=0&small_font=1&l=

 

[Lil Eowyn]

Welcome from Minnesota! Beautiful minis =)

 

[REO]

Welcome!!!

 

[Gone_Riding]

I don't think he's a silver. The silver gene changes all the black hair, not just the tail. I bred my mare to a silver buckskin. I've done a lot of research on the silver gene, but I'm no scientist. When I zoom on the photo, it looks like his mane is black. Is it? I once had a colt who's dad was pure black with a white tail. He was GORGEOUS! It was the only place I had ever seen a horse like that. He did not have the silver gene, but the flaxen gene, which affects mane, tail, or mane and tail. My Arab mare has a flaxen mane but a chestnut tail, so it depends on the horse how it presents itself. Your little guy could very well be going gray. I would have him tested if I were you, especially since you want to breed him. Then, you can use a coat color calculator to play around with what he might throw!

 

[Lindi-loo]

Hi

Welcome form the UK..I think your boy is gorgeous..very exciting that your back breeding and driving again..looking forward to seeing pictures of your girls /jennys and the other boys...also following the progress of your mare waiting for her foal...good luck

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Welcome to the forum.

If he is Smoky Black then the Silver could well be suppressed by the Cream, hence the darker mane. Getting him tested as you are going to will tell for sure.

 

[Supercilious]

When I zoom on the photo, it looks like his mane is black. Is it? .....

No he is a dark chocolate like a Hershey's Chocolate Bar, body & mane, only the tail is silver. I have never seen it ever, and like I said his skin color around his eyes etc is chocolate too, Ive had many many horses and seen many and I have never seen this color ever. I wish I could get it to show in pics but it just doesnt.....It is very striking and catches your attention, when we went to look at them before purchasing any, he wasnt even for sale and my mother who isnt into animals of any kind even commented on him and his color how pretty he was. I offered to buy all 3 that were for sale if I could get him in the deal and thats how I ended up with him. I am going to get him color tested to see just what color he is, I am VERY curious! Like I said, he is registered as Silver Dapple....

 

[rabbitsfizz]

You need to test him, it is unlikely he is a Silver Black, not just a Silver Black, anyway!!

 

[paintponylvr]

Welcome to the mini forum, Gayla!

I love "chocolate" (silver dapples) ponies and minis - especially when combined with pinto patterns! Mostly, i have the black silver dapples (and some bays, chestnuts and one cremello - some also having tobiano spot patterns)- but it is so much fun to have them color tested to find out exactly what is in the mix of their color genes. I've been wrong on a couple of colors I thought I had and have a few more to have tested to see what I'll get... There are new colors being discovered genetically every year - with tests to prove them. Not all of the color testing facities do the same color tests - I only know of one that tests for brown. Some seem to have different costs, too. Right now, I utilize the Florida one for color testing our ponies/minis - http://www.horsetesting.com/. For more info on Silver genes - this site is under new ownership and is being "revamped" - but still has a lot of info - www.silverequine.com

There are many combinations of colors and SHADES of those colors. I have several silver dapple mares that also change colors with the seasons - some "fading" out so light in the summer as to look golden palomino - even though they don't have a cream gene (full sisters - one is tested heterozygous black, no agouti, homozygous silver) . Others - due to having some illness (a severe colic in one that went septic but then pulled thru and another with a severe reaction to a wasp sting) who changed mane/tail colors for quite some time... Their manes/tails literally changed to "red" - when they'd been flaxen or flaxen mixed... Based on the pics on this site - your guy could be a silver brown rather than a silver black - http://www.silverequine.com/brown-silver.html. Brown has only in the last few years found to be a "real" horse coat color... part of the Agouti gene family that works on a black base coat.

Minis also have the benefit of having the appaloosa pattern - which can wildly change base body colors in appearance. I know little to nothing about the appaloosa patterns these days. The champagne genes also do a lot of changing to what you think is the actual color of the "beastie", LOL.