We’ve never fed the ones at the barn anything special hay-wise nor soaked their hay. We do keep them dry lotted but they get 24/7 access to grass hay. Learn to do their farrier care yourself is often the easiest thing to do
I love my minis.
The biggest challenges in keeping them is 1) the farrier has to work close to the ground, and they do cost the same as big horses for trims, 2) fencing, mine are kept in a no climb fenced paddock, and 3) vet work can be challenging - I had one have a slight colic a few years ago, but due to his size, no rectal palpation was possible so we didn’t have great diagnostics. Just something to be aware of when you’re used to the big guys.
Otherwise, I strongly encourage a couple.
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we have a pad for our farrier to set upon when he is trimming the miniatures, our shortest is 6.1h (25 inches) the tallest 8.3h (36 inches)
The only uses we have found for them is one is a photography model for high school photo classes and dresses up as a unicorn for birthday parties (paid event)
They are used in different educational introduction to animal classes at the local grade schools.
The larger one is broke to harness
As for goats, my grand daughters have eight here, two are trained to do tricks those two and two babies went to Hollywood for TV show about four years ago. That was an interesting event as the grand daughters got to see just how a TV show was produced.
These two are also used in some corporate meetings to get the employees talking to one another. Lockheed Martin has used them when they have engineering meetings of engineers from around the world to provide some entertainment to get them talking with one another. We got a call a few weeks ago from the head of that department saying he was questioned repeatedly by attendees at the last meeting “where are the goats” He had to explain this last meeting was in a secured area with restricted clearances which the goats did not have.
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Shoer turned down my offer of the stand 9yrs ago.
Mini gets trimmed every 5wks after he tried to founder 6yrs ago.
Now he’s muzzled Spring to Fall, from 6A to 9P & stays sound.
I got him to drive & he excels at that 
I know I’ve posted this pic before, but…
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This looks like tons of fun! 
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Both at the same time? 
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My problem is that they are too short. I didn’t think that all the way through when I bought my first one 
so I bought a second one 
. I wanted something small and compact because of my arthritis. Well I got that but I also got bellies that are hard to brush. I did find a bent vacuum wand reaches the nether regions pretty well and de-cruds them in the winter.
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All, thank you so much for your encouragement and caution. (Closer to ground, closer to the devil is my new motto for them 
)
I took the plunge and did it! They arrive next week. The acre I have fenced right now is getting divided (the pasture rotation idea is a good one) but I will be expanding it. (Have 10 acres in total, but only one right now is fenced— since it’s a rectangle I’m
Hoping it’s not too hard to stretch out.) Grazing muzzles on order too but frankly our grass is pretty meager; having the hay I am going to be buying tested to confirm the nsc levels.
Thanks again!
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I admit, I was tempted to say Yes, think: Bulldogging
@Smallquestions12345 Don’t let grass appearance fool you.
“Lush” is the last word that describes my pastures & mini went 3yrs without a muzzle.
Then he came limping in one morning, with a digital pulse in both fronts 
Caught in time, no worse than a couple days ouchy, but from that day on MUZZLED!
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I adored my mini. He had the best personality in the world, was the best companion to my thoroughbreds, was actual a decent weight (we had to put weight on him at times), everyone loved him (vet, farrier, dentist). Everything was great until it wasn’t and his issues compounded. He actually foundered in the winter multiple times despite a low sugar/starch diet, had Cushing’s, IR, and heaves, and we never managed to get his issues under control. Sort of for a while, but never completely. Once he hit 12 (?), he just fell apart. Again, despite all of this, his weight was perfect and he lived the drylot life — my vet always said I had the best setup for a mini.
I loved him to death, but I don’t think I can do it again. So many minis are susceptible to so many issues (my vet has personally dealt with similar as has my farrier though my farrier has and will do it again) that I can’t put myself through the emotional or financial devastation again. You can do everything right and stand no chance. Their bodies are working against them.
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He was very cute pompeiii.
That’s been my experience with a few of my minis. You can manage them very well and everything works and then it doesn’t. I know how you feel about not wanting to go through the agony of health issues and loss again.
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Sorry to hear your VSE couldn’t get past his issues.
My vet has a collection of minis she’s inherited from clients who couldn’t live with their various impairments. Anything from dwarfism to dental issues.
{KnockWood} My guy turned 11 in May & his only physical quirk is not having chestnuts/ergots.
He has patches of white hair where they would be.
Otherwise he’s healthy, good dentition (equine dentist was here in May) & with grazing intake restricted by the muzzle, staying sound.
I place blame on breeders.
The couple who bred my guy had mares that produced dwarves & they bred them back.
They also had a Ntl Champion stud, but I questioned continuing a line that had proven defective.
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I am currently caring for my neighbors 3 minis. I’ve had them for 2 months about. They are all around 15 years old, and have all foundered at least once in their lives in the past.
I have them in a drylot and feed them first cutting grass only hay in bags. They each came to me about 30lbs overweight, and just by feeding hay in bags, but allowing 24/7 access to hay, they’ve all slimmed up by about 20lbs.
After caring for them, I can tell you that I will never own a mini. They are adorable and sweet, and probably the cutest things in the world. But they are high maintenance. Too much dwarfism intentionally bred into them for appearance and not functionality.
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He was a beautiful fellow, and lucky to have you,
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We will need to see some pictures when they get settled. Please !
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I think this is a big part of the issue. There are a lot of very poorly bred minis (or oops minis) and many of these guys have issues. When many of us acquire minis, we’re looking for companions so we’re not seeking out the best bred or were getting rescues or those with unknown histories. Some may be perfect. But often they’re not or have compounding health issues and it’s awful.
I do encourage careful management to everyone looking at a mini or to the OP with their new addition. Test for IR early and Cushing’s. It doesn’t hurt to be proactive vs reactive even if your mini shows no signs. I wish we were proactive even when my guy had no symptoms as maybe we’d have saved him or saved him some pain. We muzzled year round even on dry lot and generally bagged all hay. It allowed him a little more free choice when turned out (muzzle plus hay net provided restriction so we could provide more access). Also try all the muzzles to see what your mini likes…or doesn’t escape from…or murder you for…or convince big horses to remove. They’re large personalities in tiny bodies that are working against them.
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I tried a muzzle on my dear Nozzy (now deceased) but he purposely went over to my little mule (then newly arrived) and requested that he remove the muzzle.
I watched for a time and realized this wasn’t going to be safe as Gunther the mule thought this was a great game and definitely tried to remove the muzzle for Nozz, but one of the straps got dangerously near an eye. Nozzy normally didn’t engage Gunther so it was definitely on purpose.
Off came the muzzle and back into the dry lot went Nozz.
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Do you have something for them to do? They need a job. If they have a job, you should be ok.
We’ve had minis & monster pulling competition bred draft horses. Simultaneously. Becauase I like to live dangerously. The minis: 1) kicked the big guys in the ankle on a regular basis, & 2) missed being crushed by mere inches by the size 8, Drill Tek reinforced, shod back foot of an 18.2hh beast master. Mini lay down to snooze directly behind the Shire. The latter (2000 lbs) started to step back in polite anticipation of being served his dinner – & fortunately being blessed with spidey-level spatial awareness – froze with his back foot in midair directly over the ribcage of the 250 lbs mini. 
They’re tons of fun if they have something to do. A friend who was training for a marathon took hers out as her running buddy . The vet said he needed the exercise & a mini is far better personal defense against creeps than a rotweiler. More & more people are doing free jumping with them. And, of course, they can drive. Someone local does combined-type driving competitions with hers. For the more practical, minis are the bomb for pulling cultivators between rows of crops & there are even mini gang-reel lawn mowers for them now!
Driving them scares the crap out of me – I’d rather deal with 5,000 lbs of thicc boi Belgians throwing their full weight forwars in anticipation of the pin dropping into the weight sled than 500 lbs of mini Nevertheless, they are determined little buggers & if you can win their respect, they will move mountains for you (sneakily). Our two thankfully looooved the landlord & always slipped the 4-board fence with hot wire at knee height to greet him when they saw his car pull up. The little mare came into season for the first time & decided that the goofy OTTB gelding was the man of her dreams. Cue one very confused OTTB & a really noisy mini mare screaming for him at the top of her lungs.
They’re a lot of fun!
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One of mine was used for pulling. He seems to be very familiar with the “pin drop” and it took me years to get to be able to hitch him without that, um, massive reaction . DH and I laugh over it, I can time his reaction perfectly now and know when he’s going to have a relapse. He is a strong little thing and he picked me up off my feet before I knew what hit me the first couple of times I worked with him. He’s puts his heart into it .
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I did this. I made a stand with one step, so the mini got up on the stand for me when I did her feet. I forgot about that.
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