Lots of wonderful pictures. Take a look.

See more pictures here on the Optical Women’s Association website.

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Montserrat and Yaya, I LOVED your video! It made us so happy to see you so happy and the colts in such wonderful hands!!! Sorry Texas hadn’t shed his baby teeth when the others came in, but your vet took great care of it. We loved your showing our foals playing when you were here to choose your babies! Wonderful video!

Next is another video of the beautiful barn they’ve built for their new horses. As you can see, a LOT of hard work went into it!

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ARDMORE, Okla. — Tiny horses took Ardmore by storm over the weekend.

The American Miniature Horse Association held its Central Regional Championship show at the Hardy Murphy Coliseum.

There were several entry categories, including obstacle driving and country pleasure driving.

“You can drive them, so they can pull carts,” said exhibitor Lauren Greaves. “That’s actually my favorite thing to do. I’ll be doing it with one of my horses later today. You can also take them over jumps, we just do it in hand instead of actually riding.”

Miniature horses are smaller and less expensive to maintain than their full-size cousins. 

“You want to enjoy your equines, but you want something that is safer, or maybe more docile, or just less expensive to own, because horses are a very expensive hobby and miniatures are much more affordable-sized horse,” explained AMHA regional show manager Laura Mullen.

When it comes to these horses, anyone of any age can enjoy them.

“You’ll see here at this horse show that some of our exhibitors are as young as five years old,” Mullen said.

“It’s just fun to come see the different ages of people that are here showing,” Greaves said. “We have everything from probably four-year-old children up to 70. My dad is 73, and he’ll be showing this weekend as well.”

The three-day championship event continued through Sunday. The AMHA World Championship show will take place August 23-31 just down Interstate 35 at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth.

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This is no tall tale.

The Stock Show has had miniature horse shows for more than 30 years, and Tony Greaves and his small equine have competed in every one of them.

The 72-year-old Buda resident and his tiny horses, which cannot be taller than 34 inches, were there Thursday for another round of competition.

An estimated 60 of the cute animals are in the competition, which continues Friday.

“I’ve brought 13 horses this time,” Greaves said Thursday as he took a short break from preparations. “It looks like we’re going to be entered in 90 classes.”

His love for the tiny horses is legendary. And why not? One look at them and your heart melts.

Greaves’s family didn’t start out raising miniature horses.

“My parents had Shetland ponies and quarter horses, but I wanted a horse even smaller than the ponies,” he said.

As a senior at Lamesa High School in the South Plains of Texas, Greaves started with one miniature. He now has 170 at his Little America Miniature Horse ranch just south of Austin.

“They are addictive,” Greaves said. “No one can have just one.”

For the last 50 years, Greaves and his small horses have gone coast to coast in competitions; this year he plans on entering at least 14 to 15 events.

And he’s been a winner. Greaves has had seven world champions at the American Miniature Horse Association World Championships. In recent years, that event has been held in Fort Worth.

This passion for the tiny horses has been a family affair. His two daughters have shown miniature horses, and his 29-year-old daughter, Lauren Greaves, will be on hand Friday.

The Greaves even had a baby shower at a miniature horse show event in Fort Worth when Carol Greaves was pregnant with Lauren.

“I have never known my life without them,” Greaves said Thursday in a telephone interview. She noted she had a pony and an Arabian horse growing up. “It was so funny. They were so much bigger.”

Like her father, Lauren Greaves said her loyalty remains with the very small horses.

“I just love them,” she said.

Not only has the Greaves’ family become fans of the miniature horses, but they’ve spread it to others. One way has been through Greaves’ Thursday Kids, a program in the Buda area that introduces kids to the animals.

That program is what got Shelley Baker of Austin and her daughters, Emily, 16, and Kayla, 13, involved.

“I grew up around a horse ranch, but nothing like this,” Shelley Baker said Thursday. “We’ve been showing with Tony for five years, and it’s been great.”

Greaves has even spread his love for miniature horses around the world.

In recent years, Greaves has sold his small horses to owners in Russia, Australia and Costa Rica.

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Lucky Four Skippa Gold Sensation, playing the role of Trigger, with Tony and Carol as Roy and Dale, in Route 66, at First Baptist Church, in Austin, TX.

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“Lifetime Achievement

The Lifetime Achievement Award is given to a nominee who has been an AMHA member in good standing for a minimum of five years. This individual is to have demonstrated an exceptional and specific contribution toward the perpetuation, use and/or breeding of the American Miniature Horse. They have earned documented recognition and respect as a positive, active and inspirational representative of the American Miniature Horse Breed and of the Association, having clearly served to strengthen the foundation and to direct the vision of the breed and/or the association.

Shared from Pete and Jennifer Welma’s nomination letter: Many of you know Mr. Tony Greaves, either through his constant smile and friendly demeanor or for the fact that he has been involved in the miniature horse industry for over fifty years. Tony has served the American Miniature Horse as a showman, educator, breeder and most of all an advocate for the breed himself.

Tony Greaves came from a long line of horsemen. He grew up on his family’s Quarter horse ranch but was inspired to own a Miniature horse by a Bozo the Clown comic book he read as a child. Fifty years ago, in the spring of 1963, Tony’s first miniature-sized horse, “Big Un,” was born. And in 1978 when the AMHA was founded, Big Un was Tony’s first AMHA registered horse, measuring at 31 inches tall. From there Tony began breeding Miniature horses in earnest, naming his farm Little America Miniature Horses. Today that farm in Buda, Texas is home to approximately 200 Miniatures. Tony is an international breeder, selling horses in Scotland, Thailand, Mexico, Russia and France. Each horse sold proudly carries the Little America name prefix. And they number almost 900 now.

Tony’s commitment to his business of breeding and selling Miniatures is just a small part of his passion. His enthusiasm and knowledge propelled him toward a more active role in 1993 when he became AMHA’s Secretary. From there his involvement blossomed as he served as Vice President (twice) and President of AMHA (3 times). He continued to be very involved and served on the Board of Directors and in 2005 received a well deserved “A” Award for Volunteerism.

Also in 2005, Tony’s daughter Lauren started a program called Thursday Kids that allowed children of all ages to come to the ranch and learn about Miniature horses. Now, seven years later the program is still going strong thanks to Tony and Lauren’s tireless efforts to educate children about the amazing Miniature horse, all the while promoting AMHA by supporting its shows and involving families that would not have otherwise ever been introduced to a Miniature horse. Tony uses every opportunity to share the Miniature horse with his community. The list of ways he’s found to showcase them is staggering from festivals and parades to career days at schools, Pet Appreciation Days, local nursing homes and yearly barn tours in his community.

But the most personal way Tony has found to share his love of the Miniature horse is with the hands-on approach that he uses with the numerous children that visit the farm every week. Kameron Welma is one of those fortunate kids who won the friendship of this amazing man over the past four years. Kameron soon learned the rules of the barn, “brush, water, check and clean the stalls and no running in the barn area.” In appreciation of the responsibility, knowledge and skills Tony bestowed, Kameron is now more confident, has a better attitude and his self-esteem has grown leaps and bounds. During the four years, Kameron has been involved in the Thursday Kids, he has won countless ribbons, belt buckles and other outstanding rewards. But he counts Tony’s friendship as his biggest win so far.

It seems fitting to award Tony Greaves this lifetime achievement award for his continued drive and faithful service to promote the Miniature horse and the AMHA on this 50th anniverary of the registration of his first Miniature horse.

Congratulations Tony!”

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This year our first group, which we usually plan on approximately fifty to seventy, was huge.  The librarian told us that it was the biggest group that they had ever had for one of their programs.  She tried to count, but finally gave up and estimated that we had almost two hundred there.  Almost as many waiting outside as there were inside.  Inside we talk about miniatures:  their use, colors, size, “what do you do with them,”  “horse terminology” i.e. stallions, colts, etc., and general care.  The kids usually come up with interesting questions.  Lauren has been helping with the presentations since she was little and does a great job with the kids.

This year, as for the past three or four years, we had some of the Thursday Kids help with the sessions.  One of the three who helped this year was actually one in the audience two years ago.  The program so caught her interest that he mother brings her about thirty miles to our ranch every Thursday and she has bee showing with us the past year and a half.  I checked through some of our pictures and found her in a few of them from 2010.

After our session inside, we lined up and went outside where the kids sat on the sidewalk and we introduce the horses we brought.  The first, brought out by Anijah, who is helping for the third year with the program, was Little America’s Da Vinci Memory, a tiny appaloosa yearling filly.  She measures 24″.

Kameron, Casey, and Anijah talked to the kids about their favorite things about miniature horses and shows.  Here are Casey and Kameron waiting to bring out Bar B Destiny’s Over the Rainbow who demonstrated jumping, backing, side-passing and pivoting.  Casey is holding two year old Little America’s Fan Man, also 24″.  This is Fan Man’s third visit to the Buda Library, having come as a foal, then as a yearling, and now as a maturing two-year-old.

After all the horses had been introduced and questions answered we closed with the highlight, letting everyone have a chance to pet them and have their pictures with the horses.

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Lauren is the President of Jack C. Hays High School FFA and was Vice-President in 2004-2005.  She is also in her second term as National President of AMHyA (American Miniature Horse Youth Association).  After attending the FFA convention in Lubbock in 2005, she came home very excited about the experience and said that we needed to have a booth at the next convention, which was to be in Ft. Worth close to the AMHA National Headquarters.  Lauren and several friends have promoted using miniatures in the FFA program and show in the county youth show against the “big” horses, and hold their own very well.

We presented the idea to the Youth Committee at AMHA, but they felt that it would be “unfair” of them to sponsor a booth at one state convention and not all of them, which they couldn’t afford.  Because Lauren was so convinced that it was an excellent opportunity that could not be missed, we decided to go ahead and do it ourselves, utilizing the booth display that AMHA had offered.  It was a wonderful experience and we gave information to thousands of people who took thousands of pictures!  There will be a poster of miniature horses in many classrooms this year when they study equine science and hopefully many FFA Horse Judging teams will attend the free judging contest at our World Show in Ft. Worth, September 29, 2006.

I think that most of the people with cell phone cameras took pictures of our 25 1/2″ mare, Little America’s It’s Mardi Gras, and her two-month-old colt, Little America’s Sterling Fantastic II. When Sterling got too tired of the crowds and the tiny stall, I took him for a walk to work out some of his excess energy and drew a crowd every time.

All set up, waiting for doors to open.

A few minutes later the fun began!

The people involved with FFA are outstanding and the service that they do for our youth is second to none.  I encourage everyone to get involved in any way that you can to support your local FFA chapter.

Lauren attended the General Sessions and learned and was inspired by many excellent speakers, including Governor Rick Perry.  We both attended the evening sessions when the Exhibit Hall was closed.  Lauren was excited to find another friend who had shown miniatures with her was in the Talent Show on Thursday night.  Below are pictures of Jeff Jenkins performing his version of “Elvis”.  The theme of the Fun Night was Nerd Out 2006 and all had a great time.

For more information about the opportunities in FFA, go to Texas FFA Association.

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