The basic rule of thumb for both miniature and big horses is eleven months and five days as an average length of pregnancy. This is figured from the last date of breeding. Of course, there are always exceptions to that rule. We have had mares foal full-term, foal at ten months and have had them carry as long as a full year.

How will I know when my mare is ready to foal?

When foaling season is approaching we bring all the mares that are pregnant into a pasture next to the foaling barn. At night we put them in a lot, referred to as the maternity ward, which is observable from our house and by cameras and is lighted during the night so we can look at them to check what is going on at any time.

We check the bag (mammary gland) of each mare when we feed morning and night. When it starts filling we make note of it. Any big change from one observation to the next is the best sign that she is going to foal very quickly. They will surprise sometimes, but it is the best guide. Usually, when there is a big change, the mare goes into the foaling barn where we can observe even closer. Sometimes there will be tiny balls of wax on the tips of the teats. This waxing usually is within 24 hours of foaling.

What equipment should I use to watch for foals?

Once we see a mare’s bag fill up, we bring her into the foaling barn at night and let her graze in the lot outside the barn during the day.

We have used Breeder Alert for many years through a number of upgrades. There are others that are available, and we have tried several but have stuck with them because of excellent customer service. The current system has capability to use a beeper and also a dialing system that will call a list of numbers. It will call according to an assigned sequence. If the first does not answer, it goes on to the next.

When a mare is restless or just acting differently than usual, we will put the beeper on to make sure that we are alerted when she lies down flat. If we are asleep, the beeper will wake us. We will look at the monitor and if she is just laying down, we will go back to sleep. If she is up and down, pawing at the ground or walking in circles, we know that the time is near so we pay close attention.

Currently, we have a camera system by Arlo Security Systems. We have ten cameras and have them distributed throughout the barn and maternity ward. We can see it on TV, Amazon Echo Show and on our phones, even when we are out of town. Some of our friends and family have access to it and have been known to alert us if a mare is in labor. The cameras are rechargeable and portable so sometimes during the day, we will move them outside the barn to cover the yard where the mares are.

What do I do after a foal is born?

After a foal is born, we immediately worm the mare. We generally use paste Ivermectin set for an average-sized AMHA-sized mare, about 200 pounds. We never use Quest because it requires very exact weight dosage. We usually worm before she even stands up if possible. When the foal stands and the umbilical cord breaks, we treat with 2-10% iodine by dipping the foal’s navel in a small dish of the iodine.

When the mare passes the placenta, we put it in two shopping bags to prevent leaks and put it in the freezer to dispose of it on the next trash pickup day. It is suggested that the placenta be inspected to make sure it has all been expelled. We then leave the mare and foal alone and make notations in the office of the time of birth and start the foal’s webpage.

Then we go back to check on the mare and foal and usually by this time the foal is nursing. We make sure foal passes meconium (first poop) and is actually nursing. The meconium is almost black, very thick, and sticky. Sometimes it comes out fairly long. If all this happens as normal, we leave them alone to bond and if it’s night, go back to bed. If we see after several tries that the foal is having trouble, we may give an enema of warm water with a dash of dishwashing soap, or you can use a regular Fleet enema.

Another thing we keep an eye out for the first few days is the eyelashes of the foal. They can frequently turn in and if left untreated, can cause eye infections or even blindness. A vet can put a stitch in the eyelid to keep the eyelashes out, but we usually just brush them up with our fingers. If that doesn’t work, we will carefully cut them off entirely. They generally will be okay as they grow, but check from time to time.

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Over the years we’ve had many customers who were either new to the horse world or purchasing their first miniature horse. This guide will walk new owners through caring for their miniature horse(s). As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to us!

Watering Miniature Horses

All livestock should access to clean water all the time. Be sure to have a bucket in their stall or trough in their lot or pasture with water. An animal can live for days without feed but will die quickly without water.

Feeding Grain to Mini Horses

Feed according to the instructions on the feed bag that you choose. It varies across manufacturers, but we feed about 1-2 pounds of whole oats per 100 pounds of the horse’s weight. We split this amount into two feedings:  morning and evening. A full-grown miniature mare around 30″ tall will weigh around 200-250 pounds, so we would feed about three to four pounds of grain per day.

If they have good grass, you can cut back on the grain. If they are losing weight, increase feed gradually. We feed whole oats to our broodmares and if they don’t gain enough weight we supplement with alfalfa cubes. When we feed alfalfa cubes, we soak them in water for about an hour before feeding. Then we’ll usually feed about a hand full of the alfalfa. If a horse develops a pot belly it is usually from lack of nutrition, or too little feed, NOT overfeeding.

For young horses, weanlings and yearlings, there are many excellent feeds for growing animals. I highly recommend Purina Equine Junior.

Letting your Miniature Horses Graze

I suggest free access to coastal Bermuda grass hay when the grass is lacking. That said, they probably will not even eat it when the grass is available because they prefer fresh growing grass.  Because of the drought we are going through, I would introduce them to the grass gradually.  Perhaps letting them graze an hour or two a day for the first few days and gradually increasing the time. 

Once they are used to it, you can leave them on the grass. That said, you may want to limit their time for the grass’s sake so you don’t create a dry lot from overgrazing. 

Protect any trees in their lot as they will sometimes eat the bark out of boredom which can kill the tree. In the past, we have wrapped chicken wire loosely around trees in the lot to protect them.

Salt for Your Mini Horse

Salt should also be available. Salt blocks, available at feed stores or Tractor Supply, come in three types:

• White which is plain salt
• Brown which is a trace mineral block
• Yellow which is sulfur

I recommend and use only the brown blocks which supply some of the minerals that the horses may need. They are available in 50-pound blocks and in smaller individual blocks of about four pounds.

Worming Miniature Horses

We worm our horses every two to three months with a paste wormer that can be purchased at your local feed store. The tube is marked to administer by weight and one tube usually worms a full-sized horse of 1,250 pounds. That same tube will take care of a miniature five times, so set the gauge to 250 pounds.

Ivermectin is the wormer we use most of the time. However, your veterinarian may suggest that you rotate wormers so that they don’t build up a resistance to one type or another. DO NOT use Quest wormer. It is very specific as to weight and has been fatal in some instances if overdosed.  Most other wormers have a wide tolerance and even accidental dosing of an entire tube would not be fatal.

Vaccinations and Hoof Trimming for Mini Horses

Every area has its own needs as far as vaccinations.  I only give an annual booster of FluvacEWT, but in your area, your vet might recommend additional vaccinations.

Hoof trimming should be done usually every two to three months as needed, depending on the individual horse.  Find a farrier in your area through references or feed store. 

Here is a good piece written by a friend of mine, Joanne Ross, which may be of interest too:

General Care and Health of Mini Horses

• Miniature horses consume the same feeds as full-sized horses. These are primarily pasture grass, hay, and grain.
• A single miniature horse can be reasonably maintained on as little as 1/4 acre of land provided that its feed is supplemented with hay on a daily basis and the horse is also provided with a structure for shade or to get in out of the rain or other inclement weather conditions
• Miniature horses, depending on their age, size, and whether they are also on pasture, will consume in the range of two to five pounds of good quality hay per day.
• Generally, hooves of miniatures are trimmed at two-month intervals. This may be necessary more often with younger horses (yearlings and younger) while they are growing to assure proper bone development, leg conformation, and gait.
• Horses are usually wormed on a two-month routine with one of the modern wormers or fed the daily supplement that has a wormer included.
• Veterinarians should be consulted for advice on annual vaccination programs for horses to prevent common diseases. Annual dental care is very important in miniatures.
• In the winter the miniature horse gets a very long coat and it can be very deceiving about how their weight is holding. It is important to actually check the horse’s condition by rubbing the fingers across the ribs of the horse just below the backbone. If a “washboard” feel is evident, the horse is probably underweight and the feed ration should be increased.

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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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Lisa Vanderpump’s Mini Horses

The latest addition to the Little America family is Lisa Vanderpump, one of the stars of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Vanderpump Rules, and a celebrity on the 2013 season of Dancing with the Stars.  She asked her friend, Tina to find the smallest, best conformation, light colored miniature horse that could be bought.  Tina, an experienced horsewoman who has trained Polo Ponies and has participated in Polo for years, was the perfect choice for the job.

A mutual friend emailed me about a month ago asking about the smallest and best that we had available and I made some suggestions, but didn’t hear back, so thought nothing of it.  Apparently Lisa, on her own had found a horse advertised as the smallest in the world, so they decided that was the one they wanted.  However, upon flying across the nation to purchase the horse they found that it was not what they were seeking.

Realizing that time was very short because the horse was to be a surprise for Lisa’s husband, Ken Todd, who was having his 70th birthday on July 20, 2015.  The horse had to be there if humanly possible.  It is ironic that that is my wife’s birthday too and the twentieth anniversary of buying our ranch in Buda.  We were at a horse show with three of the Thursday Kids, my daughter Lauren and her boyfriend, thirteen minis and myself.  Tina called but I was in the ring and didn’t check my phone until much later.  In desperation she visited a couple of other places, but everyone told her that if she wanted the smallest available, to go to Little America.  I finally checked my phone Saturday night and found a couple of messages plus texts from Tina.  I called her back that night and said that I would be happy to show her horses when I got back, but that wouldn’t be until Sunday night.

A Trip to Little America

The next morning she called back and asked if there was any way that someone could let her “preview” the horses before I got back.  I reluctantly told her that I would contact Armando, who is my right hand man at the ranch, and she could go over.  Later in the afternoon when I was watching the kids show, Armando called saying that they, Tina and her husband, Hank, liked two of the horses and really needed to get them the next morning.  After talking to Tina on the phone, I agreed and asked Armando to clean the pair, Little America’s Sensational Goldie and Little America’s Galaxy Boogie, up and halter break Galaxy who had just been weaned a few days before.

When I got home Sunday evening, I went to the barn and saw that he had clipped Galaxy and touched up Goldie who had been shown earlier in the year and had also made an appearance with me in February on KXAN’s Studio 512.

He told me that we had to have them at the San Marcos airport at 9 the next morning because they were flying to California to get to a birthday party that afternoon or evening!

When I talked to Tina that night I told her that I needed the contact information for the new owner so I could get the paperwork done.  She asked if she could give me that information when she got back from California because she could not reveal the name of the buyer before the presentation of the horses because it was going to be televised and she was not at liberty to tell me yet.  She also said that she wasn’t sure, but that she might buy one of them and her friend the other, that she would give her a choice.  I said that would be fine and proceeded to get everything ready.  She wanted to also buy a show halter that they could use when the horse was presented at the party.  I always love a good mystery and was up for it!

The next morning Armando and his son, Gabriel, went with me to the airport.  When we got there I wasn’t sure where to go, so pulled into the parking lot and called Tina.  She told me to pull out on to the tarmac and gave me the plane’s number.  She said her husband and son, their pilot, were already there and she was about 15 minutes away.  We pulled our mini pickup and mini trailer out to the plane.  When we unloaded the horses we drew a crowd of the workers and each plane that landed while we were there walking them around.

We took some pictures with Tina and her son/pilot, Houston, then loaded the horses into the plane, a Cessna Mustang.  Another irony, my nephew teaches pilots that plane at Simuflite Dallas, where he and his dad Ricky are both instructors. They had removed two seats, put down a tarp and had it nicely bedded with shavings for the four hour trip to the west coast.

After the horses made it and the party was done, Tina texted me that the buyer was Lisa Vanderpump and they were gifts for her husband, Ken Todd.  A day later I was at the USDA waiting to get paperwork for horses going to Mexico, Ricky called me and said, “Your horses are on TV.  They were just featured on TMZ.”  From there the publicity has been fun to follow.

It turned out, Lisa was shocked to see TWO horses, but decided that she couldn’t choose between the two, so she was going to buy both.   Hank and Tina wanted to buy Galaxy as their gift to Ken, but Lisa insisted and bought both of them. (TMZ reported incorrectly that she got a two for one deal for $3,500.  She had planned on one but ended up buying both.  Many other sources copied the erroneous info.)  It happens that about a year ago after a wonderful evening with Lisa and Ken, Tina asked herself what could she get a person who had everything.  Then she thought, Lisa loves animals, I love horses, how about a tiny miniature horse?  She discarded the thought, then a year later, Lisa came up with the same idea!  What is it they say about great minds?

Guess I will have to set my DVR to record The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills next season so I can keep an eye on our pretty pair!  Stay tuned…

The view of the inside of the plane

Lisa Vanderpump horse stall

Designed and built by Mohamed Hadid

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And the beautiful van that took them from Finland to Russia:

They certainly traveled in style, arriving in Russia during the first snow of the season.  You can see that they are living in wonderful style in their new barn.    

The following is an article that Peter (Calvin) Goryansky wrote for a Russian publication.  He translated it into English for me and I helped him edit is somewhat, but thought that you might enjoy it.

«The story of small people with the big Love to Miniatures»

     It all began in February, 2005, when at breakfast my family, while watching the morning news on TV, saw a report about American Miniature Horses. My Father has always loved originality, and always likes to be the first to find something new, something that has not been seen in Russia. From that moment my dad couldn’t quit thinking about the miniatures and was determined to be the first to bring them to Russia.

    We have always loved animals, but we have none other than dogs.  Once we decided on miniature horses, we began to study in earnest.  We read many books, studied anything we could find on the Internet, went to exhibitions – but all the exhibitions were for big horses because in Russia practically nobody knew anything about the Miniature Horse. When we were completely convinced that Miniature Horses were what we really wanted, we began to work with the Russian governments learning documents needed for import. This was very difficult because Miniature Horses had never been registered in the Russian Federation. Also we spent quite some time searching for farms to visit in the USA, finally sending out about ten emails to farms that we wished to visit. From all our contacts we finally received an e-mail message from Mr. Tony Greaves who was the former president of American Miniature Horse Association (AMHA), and also is one of the most successful and long time breeders in the world of Miniature Horses! We agreed upon a meeting.

    In June my parents, Leonid and Alla, went with me to the USA. We had never been there before; therefore the first days in New York made a big impression on us.  Upon arrival in state Texas, we were struck with an atmosphere which reigns in the real western small towns with cowboys, with saloons… We have a remarkable time in the city of Austin, capital of Texas where President George Bush had been governor. The Greaves family farm of Little America was just a few miles south of the capital. When we arrived at Tony’s the first time, his wife Carol and daughter, Lauren were very friendly! We examined his huge ranch, and Tony told us in great detail about almost 250 Horses which are kept on his farm. He loves the small size of Miniatures and had probably the largest herd of the smallest horses in America.. After the first meeting we selected several Miniature Horses, several of which were from excellent bloodlines and had show records of their own.  We had learned about lots of famous lines from our study on the internet and were glad to get to see some offspring from those lines.  The next day Tony explained to us about shows in the USA, about registration procedures, about creating clubs, and answered our many questions. … After a week in Austin, we had selected sixteen Miniature Horses who will be the first to arrive in Russia!   One night, we went with the Greaves to a supper in an unusual Texas BBQ restaurant where we simply talked and enjoyed the Texas meal!  We learned that Texans eat a lot more than Russians!

    On arrival in Russia, we were in constant contact with Tony, sending him many questions, and working together on many documents. During this time we got acquainted with many people in Russia which have helped us with the finalization of the documents, shipping and also in the care of horses.

    The negotiations with the Russian Federation stretched the usual thirty day quarantine in Texas to almost ninety days.  Since the shipment to Amsterdam was finally scheduled for the beginning of October, we were able to enjoy another trip to the USA, this time to visit the most important show, the American Miniature Horse World Show, which took place in Ft. Worth, Texas.  We stayed there almost a week and experienced a great variety of emotions! We were struck with amount of classes in competitions (more than 200), Tony introduced us to many very interesting people, and we visited the well-known auction where we bought one more magnificent Horsy from Tony’s farm ready for the next shipment! At the show I especially enjoyed the Liberty Class, where the horse performs with music, showing beautiful movement and natural beauty.   When the music stops, the best performers approached their owner to be haltered. We had a wonderful time! After that we went back to visit our friends at Little America.  We appreciated Tony’s hours of work, with the USDA, export agent, and veterinarians, without which Russia would not get to see these fine creations! And we were so appreciative of Mikki Markowsi, of Emo-Trans, hard work!  It was sometimes difficult to work with some people all over the world, but Mikki helped us properly to make the transfer!

    After our visit with the Greaves, we drove to Houston, meeting the plane which would take them, and us, to Holland where they were to be quarantined again, this time for three weeks, while we cared for final preparations of documents and a new stable. After the quarantine, the horses went on a special big trailer to Germany and there they traveled by ship to the Russian border were my father and brother Evgeny met them.  .The road was difficult, with several stops and sleepless nights because of bad weather. However, on October 19, 2005, our sixteen American Miniature Horses stepped on to Russian ground! They have arrived!  Our farm which we are calling «Little Paradise», is now on the top of the world with happiness!

    The horses were a little restless upon arrival.  Of course they have arrived at a place new to them.  We have spent a lot of time figuring out who are best to share stalls, calming them, petting them, watching them , we seemed more worried than they were!  In the morning, they began to get acquainted with us closer. And here, at last, three stallions have fields in which to run and to do a lot of playing… I am sure that it was a surprise when they went outside and probably for the first time in their life, they saw snow! It was the first snow of the season … they had fun, and we were pleased!  Then the other horses got to enjoy the white miracle!

“Now my parents, brother, his girlfriend, Natalia, and I carry are spending a lot of time with them.  We investigate each other, and they get to know us, as well.  The one thing which is certain is that we like American Miniature Horses!

Calvin Goryansky

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