"Tater Tot" is a miniature horse, and he belongs to one of the trainers at Rosebud River Ranch. He looks like a pony and the top of Tater's back comes to about my knee, but he's still considered a "real" horse. There's debate over whether miniature horses should have pony characteristics. There are dozens of different registers for miniature horses, all with different ideal standards for the breed, which shows the controversy about these little horses. Tater Tot has short, sturdy legs like a pony, but some standards say if you saw a picture of a miniature horse without any size reference, it should have the same conformation as a full size horse. Like these fancy show miniatures:
Fine-boned miniature horses like these were once bred in Europe as pets for nobility, but not all were so lucky. Some worked as pit ponies in English and Welsh mines.
One of the smallest minis in the world is a dwarf horse named "Thumbelina." She weighs 60 pounds and is 17 inches tall:
Dwarf horses set world records, but it's easy to see their conformation is pretty strange and they also tend to have health problems. Little Thumbelina is an oddity, and miniature horse associations avoid accepting horses with dwarfism traits for breeding stock.
So what do you "do" with a mini? They're friendly and like people (not to mention adorable) and often kept and spoiled as family pets. However, minis are real horses with natural horse behavior, so they need to live outdoors with room to run around. Along with some basic training, since they can learn the same bad habits as big horses. But believe it or not, they're sometimes used as service animals-- although this is controversial.
Miniature horses live much longer than guide dogs (25-35 years) but from a practical point of view it would be hard for them to curl up on the floor of a taxi, or stay in a hotel room for very long.
When all is said and done, they're here mostly for girls to love.
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