mrichmond
Well-Known Member
My name is Maria. Long, long story...my partner and I are new retirees (59 and 60) who’ve responded to social distancing by surrounding ourselves with animals. It all started with standard poodle puppies, 2 sets of 2. We fenced in our entire acre and a half into separate sections to make sure they’d be safe and contained. Our neighbor started egging us on, saying we needed something grazing in our paddocks, which were clearly going to waste, only being used by dogs and chickens. He suggested emus, alpacas and donkeys, which I nixed.
A friend posted a photo of her goats on Facebook. They were incredibly cute. Oh, no! I started looking at Craigslist. I found two little Nigerian dwarf weanlings not far from us. While looking, I saw a beautiful pinto Shetland broodmare and, on a whim, texted the seller. She was only an hour away, so we went to see her. As it turned out, the seller breeds minis and Shetlands and had an entire herd. I was completely enthralled. I had horses and ponies as a kid and again as a young mom, but it has been 25 years since I’ve been around horses in this quantity. There were pintos and Appaloosas, chestnuts and bays.
We talked about a horse’s need for equine company, which I remember now, but had forgotten. We spent a long time looking and though the mare was lovely and might have done ok by herself, we wound up putting a deposit on 2 colts, still by their mamas’ sides. One is a liver chestnut with a star, the other is sort of pinto-ish with blue eyes. He could be pintaloosa. It was hard to tell if it’s a pinto pattern or blanket pattern as he’s red roan in the front with a bald face, but mostly white. They’re the two left-most colts in the attached photo. They’re both by the same leopard stallion. Crazy colors!
I’m over the moon at having babies to train. I’ve trained full-size horses and even a Death Valley burro for riding, but don’t know the first thing about minis. I imagine that much remains the same, just groundwork. I want to make sure these boys have good manners and sound foundations, so that if anything happens to us, they won’t be a nightmare to rehome. Our animals always stay with us for life, but with minis’ longevity, it’s possible that they’ll outlive our ability to care for them.
We have a new, 2 stall mini-sized prefab barn coming in 6-8 weeks, just before the boys get here. It will go in the far right corner of field in the attached pic.its about 1/2 an acre. We have 2 other areas fenced on the other side of the house, one a little larger and one a little smaller, so we can rotate areas. Our neighbor mows everything weekly. We might need to fence off a small paddock close to the barn to control grazing in the early spring. In the meantime, I have to find hay, a farrier, a vet, all the tack and barn gear...I’m sure I’ll have a million questions. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this!
A friend posted a photo of her goats on Facebook. They were incredibly cute. Oh, no! I started looking at Craigslist. I found two little Nigerian dwarf weanlings not far from us. While looking, I saw a beautiful pinto Shetland broodmare and, on a whim, texted the seller. She was only an hour away, so we went to see her. As it turned out, the seller breeds minis and Shetlands and had an entire herd. I was completely enthralled. I had horses and ponies as a kid and again as a young mom, but it has been 25 years since I’ve been around horses in this quantity. There were pintos and Appaloosas, chestnuts and bays.
We talked about a horse’s need for equine company, which I remember now, but had forgotten. We spent a long time looking and though the mare was lovely and might have done ok by herself, we wound up putting a deposit on 2 colts, still by their mamas’ sides. One is a liver chestnut with a star, the other is sort of pinto-ish with blue eyes. He could be pintaloosa. It was hard to tell if it’s a pinto pattern or blanket pattern as he’s red roan in the front with a bald face, but mostly white. They’re the two left-most colts in the attached photo. They’re both by the same leopard stallion. Crazy colors!
I’m over the moon at having babies to train. I’ve trained full-size horses and even a Death Valley burro for riding, but don’t know the first thing about minis. I imagine that much remains the same, just groundwork. I want to make sure these boys have good manners and sound foundations, so that if anything happens to us, they won’t be a nightmare to rehome. Our animals always stay with us for life, but with minis’ longevity, it’s possible that they’ll outlive our ability to care for them.
We have a new, 2 stall mini-sized prefab barn coming in 6-8 weeks, just before the boys get here. It will go in the far right corner of field in the attached pic.its about 1/2 an acre. We have 2 other areas fenced on the other side of the house, one a little larger and one a little smaller, so we can rotate areas. Our neighbor mows everything weekly. We might need to fence off a small paddock close to the barn to control grazing in the early spring. In the meantime, I have to find hay, a farrier, a vet, all the tack and barn gear...I’m sure I’ll have a million questions. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this!
You are in the same boat as I am, waiting on one mare to foal then wean before we can bring her home (it'll probably be Christmas at this rate), and in the process of finding mini #2. Barn is done, fencing purchased, now waiting for dirt in the barn before we can build the stalls and tack room.
I can imagine waiting until Christmas is really hard! 
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