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Minis coming what do I need?

We likely have a mini horse and two mini donkeys coming herein the next little bit.
Anything special you can think of that we need? Going to the tack store for magic cushion for one of our old guys so a good time to pick up any missing items.
All insights on life with minis appreciated too. Have been reading back but didn’t want to revive old posts from 2015 era :wink:

Thanks.

Local farm bred minis for decades, had some win world championships in halter, obstacles and driving, some were well trained and used in commercials and movies.

They always said, best advice to anyone getting minis is to treat them like a horse, train them to be good citizens just like you do a horse, not make annoying, obnoxious, barely trained pets out of them.
Minis may be tiny, but they have minds that are all horse.

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Bullet proof fences. Carb Conscious treats. Possibly Holy Water.

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Perfect. Thanks.
They are from a hoarding situation and the inspector is sure we’ll do a great job. But I like double checking with the real experts :wink:

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Low escape proof fwnces. Very SMALL amounts of food, skip treats to prevent pushiness. They need much less to eat than you would believe. Also VERY LIMITED grazing, often measured in minutes!! They will get lamanitic quite easily. No fat roll on donkey necks, first sign of obesity. Manes should be on crest upright, like a horse.

Use them, drive them for exercise, to keep them fit. Hard to resist giving treats, but better for their health! Do have a horse dentist check teeth regularly. They often have mouth issues with too many teeth for little mouths. Chew poorly, hard to fit bits in there.

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we bought and keep special sized farrier tools for our farrier to use on ours as ours are the only ones he trims

As noted above…fencing has to really reviewed, we added an aircraft cable to the no climb fencing at the minie’s butt height to re-enforce the fence

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"Holy Water :rofl:
As proud owner of a mini (who clearly thinks possession works the other way around), Ditto to all the advice above.

Nobody told minis 39" (top height to be considered a miniature) does not equal 16H :smirk:

Treat them the same as your other horses.
Watch carb intake & tolerance for grass.
I got by for 4yrs feeding oats (same as my horses get) & allowing 24/7 access to pasture (admittedly not lush) to my mini.
Then he considered laminitis.
We avoided a full-blown episode, but he’s now muzzled 15hrs a day & his only feed besides grass hay is 1 cup of Triple Crown Sr twice a day w/Thyro-L added.

What @goodhors said about teeth.
Minis can have horse-sized teeth trying to fit in ittybitty mouths.

Enjoy your teeny herd :grin:

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Dry lot, like the others have said, itty bitty halters, patience for working with naughty mini feet (unless their owners were attentive…doubting that), and a sense of humor. Also, preg checks and ball checks, since they’re coming from hoarders.

And pictures. Please? Everyone wants to see itty bitty rehabs. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours! :laughing:

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you can make them work for a living

party unicorns … $400 to $500 per appearance

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model for photography classes

and if all else fails I guess they could carry water to the other horses

Pony in bucket2

never ever figured out how she did that, had to cut the handle off the bucket to free her (she was uninjured)

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If you are to take a minie into a building that has tile flooring we found the Build a Bear Combat Boots are a very good fit and have rubber soles … cost per pair is about $9 rather than the made for minies boots at about $170 a pair

The Build A Bear boots fit very well, stay on providing slip free traction for little horsy

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Question for mini owners. My neighbor has raised and bred minis for years. I remember her telling me that bute has to be used with great caution in miniature horses. If I remember correctly it’s about toxicity and the ease to overdose perhaps related to the mini’s real weight vs what you think it weighs.

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we chart all of our horses weights having records back to when they came here in many cases

Surprisingly we have found the weight tapes are pretty close to actual weights…even for the Goats (we had four that went to California and back, we needed actual weights at first they proposed to fly them there and back. but after finding their weights (Chip came in at 220 pounds) we hauled them there/back… the weight tape we have for the horses actually was nearly correct for the goats also (less than a 2% variance for the goats, less than 1% for our horses)

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You read my mind! I was going to say SuperMax prison fencing, a cattle prod and an exorcist! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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Patience and as others have said, a sense of humor. Especially a sense of humor :grinning:.
Mini sized slow feed hay nets are handy. Makes it easy to weigh the hay so they don’t get fat. And they will get fat.

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And if you are feeling adventurous, a cart and harness. . . so they won’t get fat :slight_smile:

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got add flags for the parades

Picture208

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Your horses may be terrified of them if they haven’t encountered them before.

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This totally tempts me.

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Yes. “Luckily” we had a neighbours mini who preferred life here and was a pretty chronic guest. Including spending weekends here when owners weren’t home to take him back. I’m hoping they all recall Wally. My first TB truly thought a mini in for training was the devil and tried very hard to kill him. Multiple times. Great reminder.

Thank you all so much. I promise photos and info if/ when they arrive.

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You can buy all the super cute little mini sized things!

Make sure you have grazing muzzles and an extra for when they escape the torture device and you can’t find it in the field.

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