What Has Been Your Biggest Mistake w/ Minis?

[Jill]

And, the tough thing too with dosing is most of us (and our vets) are unsure how much the mini in question actually weighs. That makes it so easy to overdose

On the "Best Of" board, there is now an article by Kentucky Equine Research that tells how to calculate the weight of minis (click here to see). The formulas they provide are different than the formula to calculate the weight of full size horses.

 

[GMAMINIS]

I WOULD HAVE TO SAY ONE MISTAKE I REMEBER WAS USING THE ROD STYLE FENCE POSTS. I HAD USED THEM LATE FALL TO PASTURE OFF A SMALL AREA FOR OUR FIRST MINI WHOM WE DIDNT PLAN ON PURCHASING BUT WAS IN A BAD PLACE SO WE MADE A QUICK PASTURE AND BROUGHT HER HOME. WELL WE NEEDED TO MAKE THE AREA BIGGER SO WE PURCHASED ROUNDPEN PANELS AND BECAUSE WE HAD BAUGHT ANOTHER MINI FOR COMPANY. WELL THE RODS WERE FROZEN IN THE GROUND

: SO WE BENT THEM OVER SO THAT NO ONE WOULD GET HURT ON THE POINTED END AND USED A FABRIC TAPE AND WRAPED THE BOTTOM TIGHT SO THAT IT COULD NOT BE FLIPED BACK UP. WELL IT WORKED, THE MINIS NEVER GO HURT ON THE RODS END BUT WE HAD NOT TAKEN THE RESIPRICATOR OFF ONE OF THE RODS AND MY MARE STARTED TO USE IT AS A SCRATCHING POST WITOUT MY KNOWLEDGE, THAT WAS UNTIL I CAME HOME ONE DAY AND SAW BLOOD ON HER BACK LEG. I LIFTED HER TAIL TO FIND THAT THE RESIPRICATOR HAD RIPED IN BETWEEN HER LEGS AND A FEW SPOTS RATE AROUND HER CR*TCH. OOUCH DID IT LOOK PAINFULL. EMMA HEALED FINE BUT ONE OF MY QH MARES HURT HER CHEST ON ONE BEFORE THE GROUND SOFTENED ENOUGH TO GET THEM OUT! NEVER AGAIN WILL I USE THOSE STYLE POSTS, I AM AFRAID OF SOMEONE GETTING HER ON ONE. A FEW WEEKS LATER I HEARD OF A QH WHO HAD IMPALED THEMSELVES WITH ONE AND WAS FOUND DEAD ON TOP OF IT. THEY SAID HE MUST HAVE BEEN USING IT SO SCRATCH ALSO BUT IT ENDED UP TO BE FATAL. I JUST WANT TO ADD THIS THREAD HAS BEEN VERY INTERESTING TO READ AND VERY INFORMATIONAL. THANK YOU!!

 

[Hosscrazy]

Jill -

My experience is similar to yours. I got into minis 10 years ago, and had a loquat trees in the horses' turnout area. I had 2 minis at the time, Misty and Krystle - Misty was pregnant at the time. I went through so many episodes of colic - I honestly lost count - I was a new horse owner and although my vet kept treating the colic, there were never discussions about the trees and their fruit. :no:

After Misty had her baby (my Cody), Cody started colicking, too. At 4 months old he had such a horrible colic episode and was on IV for 2 days - it was just horrible.

I ended up picking the leaves of every single plant that was anywhere near my horses and took it into my local nursery, who helped me identify what each plant was. Then I called poison control and asked them if any of these plants were poisonous. The biggest problem, of course, was the loquat tree - the fruit, like your plums, Jill, have pits and the pits contain cyanide. The second problem was a rubber tree - the sap of the rubber tree has euphorbia in it, which is a stomach irritant.

I immediately had the trees removed and to say I am strict about what my horses eat is an understatement!

Liz R.

 

[chandab]

My biggest mistake is selling all of my minis to get a full size riding horse who did not work out for me. I am NOW on the LOOK to start having minis again. So if anybody is selling AMHA mares/fillies please email me, Im looking for $1000 and under.

Check out the sale board and the Last Chance auction, both have nice mares and some are under $1000.

Here's a link to the auction page:

http://www.lblastchanceauction.com/cgi-bin/Auction

[i bought my sorrel filly on the auction, and she has been a wonderful addition to my herd.]

Here's a link to the sale board:

http://www.lilbeginnings.com/saleboard/ads.php

 

[Lauralee]

My biggest mistake was failing to install the equipage and camera systems for the first couple of years that we were foaling mares. I lost two beautiful buckskin pintos and finally figured out what I needed to do!

 

[eagles ring farm]

my biggest mistake when our 05' colt was born he was the second foal born on our farm

in trying to remember all i had read about foaling

i tied the placenta to the mares tail so it wouldn't drag on the ground instead of to itsself

and she ended up with a retained placenta which i believe i caused

(my vet's words) didn't you want this to come out?

Luckily the mare is fine now and in foal again (i'll not make that mistake again)

Well it was a costly mistake with the vet coming back a couple times then and having to culture her the following spring to breed her again

Lori

 

[Devon]

MY Mistakes a Few years ago were. I Tied my Gelding to a lawn chair just for a second and next thing he spooked and was dragging the chair around which was scaring him as it was dragging behind him loudly and hitting his butt he was so scared he just ran right into the wire fence and tried jumping through the electric fence landing on his neck ; He just doesnt see anything when he is scared and will do anything to get away ;ended with a gash but he also spooked the horse in the other field driving which wasnt good. :no:

Now I am super paranoid haha. I wont try anything I think will spook him which some people get mad at me for. ex ; Driving I cant just relax while driving him now I just dont want him taking off like that and getting loose again :no: Im fine with others horses though weird

:

 

[Michelle@wescofarms]

Biggest mistake - hmmm . . . there are probably a few that could via for that title!

In the feeding department way back when it was the typical 'I'm starving' pregnant mare that I overfed for herself and baby - she ended up 50lbs overweight while nursing a foal! All our horses stay plump to chubby though anyway - just not Orca fat!

Another was way back in my fairly new to minis days - one mare had a case of pigeon fever. I had never heard of that until months after she'd recovered. We found the mare with her chest swollen hard, we assumed she either had an infection from a splinter or a tumor. It was late Sunday night, she didn't act in pain, so I gave her a tetanus shot (in case it was a splinter, temp, respiration, etc. all normal) and figured we'll go to the vet in the a.m. as if it's cancer we can deal with it then!

I put her in the backyard so she could eat grass, well she rubbed her chest on our deck, popped open the infection overnight and we found her in the a.m. with a few quarter size holes and a bit of bloody pus. We cleaned her out and let her go in the yard again. She was fine, never acted off even a bit. I found out later when I mentioned it to another breeder what it was as Pigeon Fever doesn't have a vaccine so it's treated afterwards only. I asked our vet about it and she told me more about and kidded me that wasn't I glad I didn't know at the time - I do overreact to sick animals! We've never had another case in 5+ years - yeah!

 

[targetsmom]

Biggest mistake here was underestimating a weanling's ability to get into trouble in a stall. Our second mini (after I had big horses for about 40 years) was a weanling that we were housing in a temporary stall until our barn was finished. We thought the stall was safe, nicely matted, with a wood/wire mesh door that little hooves couldn't get stuck in. But there was a cement ridge from the foundation about a foot off the floor and maybe 2 inches wide, and the door didn't quite go to the floor, and the latch system left a small gap near the top of the door (about 30 inches off the floor). Well, somehow the filly must have tried to stand on the little ridge and slipped - getting her hind legs caught under the door and hanging herself on the latch in the gap. Luckily I found her soon after it happened and was able to get her unstuck (it wasn't easy). There seemed to be blood everywhere from her legs, but that turned out to be very superficial. The problem was that in hanging herself she had damaged the nerves on the left side of her face. Her left eye wouldn't close, she couldn't move her ear, she had trouble eating, as food got stuck in that side of her mouth, and her nose was lopsided. So about 2 days after her arrival, we wondered if we would ever get to show this wonderful filly. But the vet was optimistic because she was so young, and he had seen miracles before. Sure enough, after a month, we finally saw some movement in the ear - just a fraction of an inch - but we were so excited. In the meantime I was cleaning out her mouth and her eye several times a day, and treating her like a "Princess" which is how she got her barn name. Recovery was slow but steady and by the next spring her face seemed completely normal. She is the filly in my avatar that just completed her Pinto Championship.

 

[lilhorseladie]

Mine was when I purchased a wild, never been touched grade yearling mini for my sis in law fpr $40. Because she was so wild I left the halter on. On the third day of having her on our farm, I was on foal watch with my other mare and found her caught on the hay feeder with her halter. She was still warm from fighting, but definately dead. That made me sick! My sister in law still calls me the horse killer. I never leave a halter on now!

 

[Devon]

Mine was when I purchased a wild, never been touched grade yearling mini for my sis in law fpr $40. Because she was so wild I left the halter on. On the third day of having her on our farm, I was on foal watch with my other mare and found her caught on the hay feeder with her halter. She was still warm from fighting, but definately dead. That made me sick! My sister in law still calls me the horse killer. I never leave a halter on now!

Aww. I leave my guys halters on so I can ctach them and such. Mabe I'll take them off?

:

 

[FoRebel]

I guess our biggest mistake with the minis was when we brought our stud Picazzo home. He hadn't been in a stall for a very long time, if ever, and completely freaked out about being confined.

: All of our stalls only had half walls and were built by my uncle, who was fortunately there when we brought Picazzo home and he did some quick fixes with boards and mesh garden fencing. Picazzo didn't like being confined to the stall what-so-ever and tried to come over the stall door and walls many times. He had scrapes on the back of his front legs that were superficial but in trying to come over the door and walls he left a softball sized bruise on my mom's forearm too (all unintentionally). After he got my mom's arm we put up a plastic stall guard over the top of his door so he couldn't get hung up on any of it. Needless to say,now, anytime we bring a horse in that hasn't been stalled, we always add a few boards until we know that the horse is OK with being in the stall.

:

 

[dangerranger]

Sometime between buying and bringing home our first horse she got a huge gash in her lower leg. our vet said treat it with a beatadine solution and rebandage it every other day.[ it was to late to stich it]. when he came back to recheck it the next week all the hair was falling out from under the bandages. I didnt know that I should have washed off the beatadine.I now ask all the questions, untill Im shure of what Im doing! The same horse but a couple of years latter we were having a fly problem and tryed Spot On fly repellent. we put it on several horses but this mare got an eye infection, we called the vet and he checked her eye, flushed it out, and gave us some salve. a week later it was worse, called the vet out again. he couldnt find a cause, told us to keep her eyes clean [ the drainage was causing her to loose hair ], keep a fly mask on her, and keep the flys off as best we could. I retreated with Spot On and the next day both eyes were infected. I got out the package and found in the small print that "some animals experiance a moderate eye irritation". The vet told us what to wash her with and it cleared up in another week. $800 latter we dont use Spot On on that mare.[ or any others for that matter.] DR.

 

[Doobie]

Before I got into the minis I purchased a wild filly off a woman who only wanted the mare.

I did not think anything of it and put her out with our band of horses and after watching them for a

few min felt happy that all would be well.

We had some days of freezing rain and things became very slick .... needless to say there was a

broken t-bar in the ground next to the barn (I did not know it was there and my Dad said it had been

there for years!)

Something must of spooked her but Lilly inpailed herself on the broken t-bar. It went behind her left

front knee and came out the middle of her chest. The vet figures she must of fought hard to get up

because the flesh and skin were torn in half. I thought she would have to be put down but the vet

thought we might beable to save her because with luck the t-bar had scraped along the bone and not

punctured through.

It looked awful and I was totally discusted with myself for not seeing it. With in a month Lilly was total

healed over, a new girl (no longer wild!) and became one our best trail horses. She was completly sound with just a slight scare that you had to look for to see.

As for the t-bars .... any that Dad could not pull out were pounded in the ground to China within the week!

 

[~Karen~]

My 1st horse... "greenbroke" (I thought at that time only meant not trained for "tricks" lol, I was a very novice rider, so any and all advice was taken completely to heart. I was riding my Arab with a friend riding hers to the river, there was a really nice trail across the water and the water was only chest deep in the deepest and the water was still. But Dezzy didn't want to go in. My friend told me that if I didn't make her go in that she would always spook at water. So, I made her go in, and I didn't lead her, I stayed on her back. She heard the splashing from her own movement which spooked her. She reared up and spun around to take a flying leap and slpiiped on the rocks causing her to fall over backwards on top of me. I was pinned under the water as she was frantically striving to regain her footing, rolling and stepping all over my lower body. She finally got out and ran home, my friend got me out of the water which I very nearly drowned in and could only barely move afterwards. I sent her after my horse and she went for help for me. I wound up in the hospital with no major damage but a perfect hoof print on my inner thigh, a saddle horn bruise print in my abdomen, and other various bruises.

Lesson learned: Don't always take advice, some of it isn't the wisest of decissions for your situation. Also, when comming upon something new, study out a plan before implementing the action.

~Karen

 

[luvmycritters]

this is a good thread..and i really hope people will share thier mistakes.......for one .. we are all human and all make mistakes.... and if one person can learn from it.. one horsey life may be saved..... but i fear people are too guarded to show that they made mistakes.......

I can admit when I am wrong. I have only had mini's for what - a year and a half maybe... They acquire such a major hair coat in the winter! Much more extreme then the biggies. Anyway my little stallion lost some weight his first winter here, I never even knew until we clipped him and even then I still was "in denial" - for lack of better words. I learned a good lesson that's for sure. Keep a close eye on your little ones, especially their first winter with you. I now give my little guy extra feed away from the others. I open up his paddock gate, clap my hands and he comes full gallop up to the house where I have his warm feed waiting.

Excellent thread Jill.

Lori

 

[Cathy_H]

Yep, one of my favorite sayings, "Learn from my mistakes, no need to make your own".....

: ........................ One of mine & Lee's - Do NOT let a horse in a pasture with a pond that is frozen over. Even if they have been around the frozen pond for years & have never walked on it, they will eventually............................................................................................... Now that we are into winter time please heed this warning, " Do NOT let your horses into pastures with frozen ponds!

 

[SWA]

From one of my biggest "mistakes" was that I learned this: KNOW WHAT IS GROWING IN YOUR PASTURES!

I found out at the expense of the life our last foal, just how lethal it is for a pg mare to graze where there is fescue grass. :no:

I will never forgive myself for letting that happen to our HB mare, Classy, when she lost her last baby. :no:

Now I know.

 

[PaintedPromiseRanch]

well i have TWO and i tell these stories as often as i can, even though i still can't do it without crying... but i figure, if someone else is saved from losing their animals because they heard our story, so much the better.

first is, one fence between boys and girls is NOT ENOUGH. our small standard jack got to our yearling jennet through the fence - obviously she had to be cooperating or it wouldn't have happened, but we never saw any indication and by the time we realized she was pregnant there was nothing we could do to stop it. well the baby was turned wrong, besides being too big, and long story short we lost both of them. needless to say our boys are now penned all the way across the property!!!

second is, having shade available is not always enough. our mini pens have lots and lots of shady areas... a few years ago we had a tiny filly, i was so amazed how small she was i wrote to everyone i knew and gave them her stats, sent pictures, and all i heard back was how cute etc... no one ever mentioned anything about keeping her out of the sun... at 10 days old she laid down next to mama to nap. mama was standing in the sun. by the time we found her she was in severe heat stroke and within the hour she was dead. ironically, the reason we didn't check on her for several hours was that we were putting up more shades on the other pens, around the other side of the barn out of sight. a month later a friend of ours had a very small mule foal and her vet told her not to let him in the sun UNSUPERVISED until he was SIX MONTHS OLD. we had 2 other mini foals and a big horse foal before this filly, the first one born the end of June when it's REALLY hot here, and never had an issue before. our foaling pen is now totally covered and i won't be letting any future babies out in the sun without being right there. :no: :no:

Dandelion (aka Dandie)

too bad i didn't know about this forum back then, i'd be willing to bet if i'd posted her info here when she was born, someone would have mentioned this and i'd still have my blue-eyed girl!!

and thank you so much for starting this thread, i am learning a LOT!!

 

[Shari]

Biggest mistake....

Not getting mini's sooner. :bgrin Have had Maggie,,,what....humm... 7 or 8 years now. Gees...is bad I can't remember.

:

Worse mistake over all. Buying a horse that a friend was good and safe for a gimp person. And finding out after said horse was bought, that this horse was anything but. I knew better too. Said horse was dangerous.

If I had not had so much training and horse working under my belt... I could of been hurt. Was not something a Gimp person needed.

3 years later she is a good horse but never again.

Now I only go by my own gut feeling and knowledge on buying horses.

I was spoiled for years being around a lot of good Vets. So I no longer questioned them.

Learned the hard way I can't trust the only Vet in this area.......Just glad I did not loose Theia from that Vet's so called help. What she did, she did on purpose and if I did not catch it...I could of lost Theia. Luckly I called Fort Dodge for help.

So unless you have known your Vet for years.. don't trust them, question everything.