Where do we start?!

[NewMiniFamily]

My best tip is don't let the buyer make excuses for the horse. If the horse is limping, skinny, coughing, rearing, won't let you pick up it's feet, whatever, the buyer will usually say oh my, he's never done that before. And sometimes it's true. But not usually. You want to make sure that the horse will do everything you need it to do. Can your daughter pick up his feet? Brush his face? Walk him away from his friends? Will he stand tied alone quietly? Can you catch him if he's out? Some things won't matter to you. I don't need a horse to cross tie because I don't have cross ties. I also don't care if they are hard to catch because it doesn't matter with my set up.
Ask how the horse is for the vet and farrier. Any health issues? Has he been out on pasture, can he handle grass? How does he get along with other horses or alone? Does he respect fence? Any vices? How is he with kids? What scares him? has he been ridden or driven? If it's a mare has she been bred before and has she been near a stallion? And if you are buying him you should ask what they are feeding him so you can get the same thing.
A red flag for me is a horse that looks like he's just been worked hard, looks sick, bad feet, or if they bring out another horse with him.
When you call the vet, definitely let him know what you plan to do with the horse. A pre-purchase exam can go all the way from the very basics to doing x-rays. If you just want a quiet companion, the vet will probably only focus on the basics and maybe give you some advice on personality.

Wow! Thank you for this.

I have some video of him being brushed out and ground driven can you tell anything from a video?

We will ask all this and more so again thank you so much for the reply!!

 

[Abby P]

You can tell some things from a video - I personally find it easier to see lameness in a video than in person. But videos can be edited too so you're probably only seeing the best moments.

 

[MaryFlora]

Enjoy the visit tomorrow, you have some great advice and tips to go with!

If in doubt leave without!

All the best!

 

[NewMiniFamily]

More questions

When we bring our minis or mini/donkey home we want to have the perfect setup for them. For the time being our neighbors have agreed to house them as they have the setup from their previous horses.

Being they are minis would we need a dry lot and pasture area? Or does it mostly depend on what they are use to in their current homes?
I have been doing some reading and seems people are quite passionate about dry lot vs grass pasture.

Right now we just have grass so we are starting from scratch. A blank canvas to do as we wish.

One of the owner we talked to said no minis need grass and this mini is in a pasture with little to no grass. However when out of this pasture eating grass is all he wants to do lol.

So any tips on a perfect setup for any mini/mini or mini/donkey we bring home?

 

[LostandFound]

No mini or horse for that matter needs grass. It depends on the horse and what they are used to. Some can handle pasture, some can't. Mine were on pasture with no problems when I bought them, but I have dry lots. Trying to eat grass when you are trying to get them to do something is a bad habit, and an irritating one to fix.
I like a small turnout area connected to the barn. They quickly eat all the grass and turn it into a dry lot. Then I put down crushed stone to prevent mud. Then I like a larger area to use as a ring, and that usually has grass so I can turn them out there if I want.

 

[NewMiniFamily]

So if we have an area for them it’s best to divide it into dry and grass? Right now it’s all grass and the one mini we are looking at now is in a pen with a mix of dry ground with some grass/vegetation more around the outsides.

In feet was is an appropriate size of fenced area for them?

 

[LostandFound]

It's good to have it divided for a couple reasons. If they aren't used to grass now or in the spring when it comes in fresh you will want to limit their time out on it. If it rains heavy they can stay in the smaller area and not destroy the bigger one. If you ever need to have them off the grass for a while you already have a space. And if you turn your new horse out on an acre of pasture first thing you may never see them again. Lol. I think mine is about 20x40.

 

[Abby P]

My guy has a 50' x 200' paddock, I am in New England (i.e. not an arid place but not PNW wet either). In order to get any semblance of a dry lot, with one 300lb pony in there, I had to fence the middle off, leaving a track that is about 6' wide along both long sides, with slightly larger lounging areas at either end (at one end, there is a lot of stone dust on the ground so not too much grass grows anyway). There is still enough grass that he's at it, nibbling the short stuff, all summer long unless we have a drought. I think if I had another pony in there with him it would kill the grass but with just him he can't keep ahead of it completely. So I would say, 50 x 200 is definitely way too big. Or maybe I just need another pony. 20 x 40 would probably be perfect!

If I owned the place I would put stone dust or crushed rock in the entire track. IMO it's a pretty rare mini that is truly fine with full pasture. The seller might have them out on pasture and say they're "fine", but "fine" might mean actually fine, or it might mean "laminitic half the time but he's just a pet so we didn't notice". Things to look out for would be a cresty neck ("he was gelded late" does not cause a cresty neck), being obese, odd-looking patches of fat over the rump and ribcage, rings in the feet or dished hoof walls/very long toes. It is something I would ask specifically about in the vet check, if the vet sees any signs of metabolic issues.

 

[1roadtoad]

Here's another prospective just to make it a bit confusing. I have had mini donkeys and horses for about 20+ years (regular horses before that) and also live in New England (Connecticut). I currently have 2 horses and 2 donkeys. They are all on regular pasture, no dry lots here. The 4 of them probably have 2 full acres, divided into 3 different fenced in areas. At the beginning of spring there is lots of grass which I keep mowed very short so that they don't have too much to eat. By the end of summer (like now) THEY have it all mowed very short. I occasionally toy with putting muzzles on all 4 when they start putting on a little weight, but I find I can get them back to a decent weight by exercise and reducing snacks. One of the donkeys does have a cresty neck which happened more than 10 years ago. Once a donkey has a fallen crest, it won't stand up again even with weight loss. Anyway, I just feel like it's more natural for an equine to be on grass. Like others have said, see how the horse is currently kept and then replicate that situation as close to it as you can. Later, if need be, you can make minor adjustments to suit the needs of the horse, more or less pasture, etc. Good luck.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Horses are browsers by their very nature. Ideal would probably be that they had to roam over 100 acres to find nibbles. But our pastures are much smaller so we have to improvise. I find that if I let mine out to graze half the day, then dry lot him the other half, with a hay bag, that he does pretty well. Helps out with the bored bad habits having grazing time and change-up.
I am looking into getting him a shatterproof mirror, as he likes to come up on the porch to admire himself in the windows. Lonesome? A little, maybe, but he gets a lot of attention from us.
You may be overthinking the whole thing. Start off with a healthy horse, and just be prepared for the learning journey.

 

[Standards Equine]

I'm a big advocate of dry lotting the littles. My mini donkey would EXPLODE if he was left on pasture. He's such an easy keeper. It's almost challenging to keep the mini horses up enough but keep him thin. We will put the mini horses out periodically to graze in a green space outside of their paddock for an hour, or after a good workout. In the winter, I buy oat straw bales and feed them in a bale net so they have access to something all the time. Western Canada gets COLD in the winter so I like them to be able to run their little furnaces up warmer. But in the summer, it's careful feedings of grass hay and a bit or grazing.

 

[NewMiniFamily]

Back again!!

Looking at another mini and when asked we were told there were no health issues. However in researching more I see this horse did have colic and surgery for it.

Should that be concerning? I would assume this is something the owner should have disclosed but don’t see why they’d hide it. They own and show many, many horses.

 

[LostandFound]

That would be an absolute no go for me. Horses that have had colic surgery are more likely to colic again. And I wouldn't buy anything from that person because they deliberately hid a major health issue.

 

[NewMiniFamily]

That would be an absolute no go for me. Horses that have had colic surgery are more likely to colic again. And I wouldn't buy anything from that person because they deliberately hid a major health issue.

Thank you!
It all seemed good but thanks to some horse forums we were able to see the the horse was sold to a new owner last year and there was some fundraising done to get the vet bill taken care of.
We just asked the owner again if there were any health issues to which we got another NO.
We asked about colic and her response was "She was cleared from the vet, this happens when feed gets changed and she was on grains and the new owner took her off and this is why she coliced. This is not a problem with her health going forward."

So RUN?? I am not sure how to respond to that.

 

[Abby P]

Yeah, I would certainly be a lot more skeptical of the seller now - I don't think there is anyone in the world that would not consider a past colic surgery a "health issue", regardless of whether the horse has recovered or not. As Lostandfound points out, the risk of another colic is higher after surgery, and furthermore, horses don't colic from being taken OFF grain (maybe if they are SUPER colic-prone...). So the chance the seller may lie about other things or be generally misleading about stuff, is high. I would run for this reason more than anything to do with the horse's actual health.

 

[LostandFound]

I'm not sure I understand. The current owner sold the horse, it needed colic surgery with the new owner, then they got it back again? That sounds strange in itself. Someone who cared enough to pay for surgery doesn't usually just send the horse away a year later. But yes, that is absolutely something that should be disclosed. People underestimate the power of the internet. I was looking for a mare earlier this year and twice found nice broodmares that were "open by choice" One still had the facebook post online with the ultrasound confirming she had been bred and was in foal but must have lost it. And the other had plenty of facebook pictures of the mare out with the stallion to be bred. Maybe both those mares were broodmare sound and could have had a foal. But if the owner is going to lie about it then I'm not going to take a chance.

 

[NewMiniFamily]

I'm not sure I understand. The current owner sold the horse, it needed colic surgery with the new owner, then they got it back again? That sounds strange in itself. Someone who cared enough to pay for surgery doesn't usually just send the horse away a year later. But yes, that is absolutely something that should be disclosed. People underestimate the power of the internet. I was looking for a mare earlier this year and twice found nice broodmares that were "open by choice" One still had the facebook post online with the ultrasound confirming she had been bred and was in foal but must have lost it. And the other had plenty of facebook pictures of the mare out with the stallion to be bred. Maybe both those mares were broodmare sound and could have had a foal. But if the owner is going to lie about it then I'm not going to take a chance.

I am trying my best to piece it together myself...lol
I don't want to use names so let's say it this way A is selling the horse and it was apparently her daughters B (she was the one showing and had her since birth) I found a post from last year where B was congratulating C her new owner. B and C were pictured and sounds like they could possibly be cousins (?)
THEN there was a whole page dedicated to saving this horse, fundraising the whole bit - vet updates and all.
NOW A is selling the horse and saying her daughter just doesn't have time to show her anymore.
I mean the whole thing just seems sketchy so we just said no thank you.

It was just very misleading when you go back in her history she has been showing, raising and selling horses for 10+ years - seemed trustworthy.

Thank you again to you all -- The right one is out there for us.. I know it

 

[Cayuse]

Back again!!

Looking at another mini and when asked we were told there were no health issues. However in researching more I see this horse did have colic and surgery for it.

Should that be concerning? I would assume this is something the owner should have disclosed but don’t see why they’d hide it. They own and show many, many horses.

I'd definitely pass on this one. This should've been disclosed.

About the dry lot, I'm pro dry lot. My set up has a a paddock just big enough to keep a small amount of grass coming in so they do have enough to nibble on and keep the browsing around but it's pretty darn sparse.

 

[Kelly]

Colic surgery?…. Pass. I had a horse who would colic with the slightest feed change.… Slightest. It was a very difficult situation and a constant worry. Difficult situation…. constant worry… constant… worry. I feel like I’m repeating myself

I too have a dry lot for my boys. Love the dry lot! So easy peasy for weight management.