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Mornings with Mother and Father Nature: Miniature horses

After many hundreds of trips to the San Diego Zoo, a couple of months ago I discovered the Children's Zoo for the first time.

Even though many of my friends say that I'm just an overgrown child, I never thought that the Children's Zoo was for me. However....

Over in the Children's Zoo is a petting zoo, and one of the beautiful animals over there are three minature horses (Equus caballus): Sugarplum, a white horse; Elmo, a red and white horse; and Katie, a gray horse. Sugarplum and Elmo were nowhere to be seen while I was there, but Katie was being quite photogenic for me:

Miniature horse at the San Diego Zoo

Some interesting facts about miniature horses:

A miniature horse stands no more than 34-38 inches (depending on registry) at the last hair of the mane.
Often kept as family pets and are also used as service animals, particularly in cultures where dogs are considered unclean.
Miniature horses have been bred from many sources, including Shetland pony, Dartmoor pony, Hackney pony, Pony of the Americas, and Welsh pony.
Because of their bloodlines, they can have both pony and horse characteristics, leading to some controversy about whether the miniature horse is a horse or a pony.
In Europe in the 17th Century, miniature horses were bred as pets for royalty.
French King Louis XIV had several miniature horses in his Zoo.
Miniature horses were also used as pit ponies in coal mines throughout England and northern Europe.

Links to more posts are below

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Posted by Russel Ray, San Diego home inspector on 10/09/2009 06:09 AM

Comments (16)

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16 Comments on Mornings with Mother and Father Nature: Miniature horses

OCT

You have a wonderful gift for sharing and taking pictures! Thanks!

Minature ponies are so cute. One of my uncles had a minature horse who used to play with his dog as if he was another dog and not a horse.

Hey, Carol - Thanks for your kind words. I don't know that it's a gift as much as it is something that I just have always had an interest in and have developed over the years. Maybe my gift is a severe interest in all things life, but even that was developed in me by my wise old grandmother when she adopted me as a young snot of 11.

Hey, Cindy - I've been on the Internet reading about miniature horses. I found a video -- which, unfortunately, crashed my computer -- that showed an assistance miniature horse that got into taxi cabs and cars, onto public transportation, and even knew how to open the door on those taxi cabs and cars. I've been trying to find it again while I'm watching us bomb the moon -- just what we ned to be doing, bombing the moon because we've already bombed too many countries on Earth, but I digress into politics -- but I had gone through so many Google pages I may never find it again. Anyway, it was cute, and I can see a miniature horse playing with a dog, especially a large dog.

Russel, Katie is a cutie! What a beautiful color she is! Miniature horses are darling and if I had a zoo I would have to have a few!

What a sweet face! Also very interesting information. I seem to remember that some school was training miniature horses as guides for the blind (in South Carolina maybe, if my brain is pulling it in??)... good luck finding the video again now that the bombing is over (!)

Russel: When I hear of miniature horses, I think of post Hurricane Katrina media coverage. There was a miniature horse farm owner crying on air about how his horses had no food and he had no method of communicating that to the larger world. Evidently, myself and about 500 other animal lovers that saw the report called the American Miniature Horse Association to alert them of this guys plight. They rescued the horses and notified all 500 people that they had done it. They are just too cute to not tug at your heart strings.

I love the picture of course. Thanks and have a great weekend. Hey, maybe Zoey needs one of those?

Hi Russel, great pictures of the miniature horse. I knew a lady who raised them and sold them. They are so cute. Have a great day.

Liz Flint, Century 21 Hardee-Team Realty, Houston, TX sales_by_liz@hotmail.com

Hmm. Interesting mini-horsey facts. You did your homework. And they make the post interesting and fun =) I like the mini horses.

OCT

As usual a lovely post with great pictures and good information... thanks Russel

Cute little horseys! When I was little I was playing in the kiddie zoo and saw the cutest little monkey in a cage......stuck my finger in to say hi and that guy grabbed my finger and bit it! I had to get stitches and the zoo had to get that monkey display out of the kiddie zoo. I still vividly remember the whole episode.

OCT

I know they are cute, Russel, but for some crazy reason miniature horses creep me out. And I am an animal lover, except for alligators and crocodiles and monitor lizards, which creep me out even more.

Cheers,

Robin