BUDA – Tony Greaves was born in West Texas, Lamesa, where he grew up with Shetland ponies all his life. His mother said he learned to walk holding on to a halter of a little filly they called “dappled filly.” Greaves couldn’t say dappled at such a young age, so they settled on the name “Daffy.” He had her for many years until she died.

Greaves raised his first miniature horse, Greaves Big’Un, in 1963 when he was a senior in high school. In 1978, when the American Miniature Horse Association (AMHA) was founded, Greaves registered Big’Un at 15-years-old. His family always had Shetlands, but he always loved the smallest ones.

“When we would go to an auction or something, I would search the barn and find the smallest one and beg my dad to buy it,” Greaves said. 

When Greaves was younger, he had a comic book of Bozo the Clown. Bozo had a miniature circus of animals he carried around in his briefcase that would perform when placed on a table. Greaves said that that was the size of animals he wanted.

Photo by Amira Van Leeuwen
31” Melton’s Fantazon’s Boogie Nights.

He remembers telling his dad that he wanted to raise 22-inch horses.

“Oh, you’ll never get them that little,” his dad replied. 

“Well, I’m going to try,” Greaves said. And fortunately for Greaves, his father lived long enough to see him get his horses down to 28-inches.

Now, Greaves is continuing his dream.

“I had one stallion that I sold two years ago — I didn’t really want to sell him, but I had somebody who just absolutely had to buy him. I popped off and gave her a price that I thought she would never pay, and she did. He was only 24.5 inches tall, full-grown,” Greaves said. 

Greaves now has one horse named Jackpot, about one-year-old and 21.5 inches tall. According to Greaves, several buyers are interested in him, but he has held onto him because the horse’s father is 26-inches tall. Greaves thinks Jackpot will be about 23-inches tall when he is fully grown.

Little America Miniature Horse Farm is a family-owned miniature horse farm in Buda. Tony Greaves and his wife, Carol Greaves, purchased the land in 1995 and have registered over 1,500 horses. Greaves and his wife have two children and have been married for 56 years. 

The name was inspired by Greaves’s time touring with Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians in 1966 and 1967. 

“We did a lot of patriotic music, and I always loved patriotic music. Carol said, ‘Well, what about calling our farm Little America Miniature Horses?’” Greaves said. 

Initially, Little America Miniature Horses used the United States map as its logo, and then they came up with the logo of the horse head with a flag pattern.

“It’s worked out really well because we use flags when we go to the horse shows; we use flags on the stalls and we use flags in our advertising,” Greaves explained. 

One of the first expensive horses Greaves sold was to Paolo Gucci for $50,000.

While the COVID-19 pandemic was at the forefront of many business owners’ minds, Greaves said he thinks it ended up increasing his business because of their website because people had time to tour the ranch digitally..

“It just seemed like last year, I had more interest,” Greaves said. He also attributes his business increase to the internet and consistently updating the website. 

“A lot of people don’t keep their website up. I mean, people will call me and ask me, ‘When was your website last updated?’ and I say ‘An hour ago, you know, sometimes literally,’” Greaves said.

Greaves’ favorite thing about Little America’s Miniature Horse Farm is the horses and foaling season. The couple has ten cameras in their foaling area to check on the pregnant mares. Greaves checks on the mares twice daily, in the morning and at night. Once the mares appear close to giving birth, they put the horses in their foaling barn just outside the house. If Greaves thinks the horse will give birth in the next night or so, he will put a beeper on them. The beeper will go off when the horses lay down for 15 seconds and set off an alarm that will wake Greaves up.  Greaves said if they are in labor, he will go out to the barn and be with them while they give birth to ensure everything goes okay. 

“The problem is that sometimes the babies are so little that they don’t break out of the amniotic sack, and they can suffocate, so we try to be there with them, especially the tiny ones,” Greaves said. 

Greaves said he also loves to show his horses and miniatures all over the United States yet they are lucky because most of the larger shows are in Texas. 

The Greaves family has shown horses in Virginia, Ogden, Utah and Reno, Nevada. For about the last 10 years, the world show has been in Fort Worth, which will be coming up the last week of Sept. through Oct. 1. Little America Miniature Horse Farm has 13 horses it plans on taking to the world show.

Most of the time, Greaves will put the stallion’s name in their name, which gives him a clue as to remember who they are. He comes up with names for the horses based on his surroundings. 

“One night, I was watching Mr. Selfridge on PBS, and the beeper went off. I ran out and delivered a baby, and her name was Lady Selfridge Boogie; her daddy’s name was Boogie Nights,” Greaves said.

Another of Greaves’s favorite names is Little America’s It’s a Trip.

“I almost stepped on this one [cat]and kind of kicked it out of the way as I was running out, and it got in my way again, and I tripped over it,” Greaves said.

Greaves also has what he likes to call his “private collection,” which comprises some of the smallest miniatures in the world.

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Get started! How to clean a mini horse harness:

Supplies Needed

• Pledge
• Brasso brass cleaner
• A soft cloth or two to clean with, preferably microfiber or an old tshirt
• Rubber glove (optional)
• Old toothbrush (optional)

Instructions to Clean a Mini Horse Harness

1. I start with the brass on my harness because the cleaner can get on the leather. Put on your glove and either put some Brasso on the cloth, or on your glove, and rub it in a circular motion on each brass part of your harness. The more tarnished the brass is, the more you’ll need to rub to clean it up.
2. Once you’ve restored the shine, use a clean portion of your rag to wipe off the rest of the product.
3. Repeat for the rest of the brass on your harness. TIP: Unbuckle each piece to work on it, then redo the buckle before you continue so you don’t change the way your harness is fitted for your horse! You can use the opposite side of the harness to remind yourself where to redo the buckle.
4. If your cloth is covered in Brasso, use a different cloth for cleaning with Pledge. Spray the pledge on your cloth (NOT on the harness) and rub it on the leather portions of the harness, taking care to avoid the embroidery.
5. For hard to reach areas of the harness, spray Pledge on the toothbrush and gently use it to clean those areas, then wipe them dry with the cloth.
6. Repeat until you’ve finished cleaning your harness!
7. Head to an AMHA show and get it dirty again!

Find your next miniature horse driving prospect with Little America. We have foals by LR Phantom’s Secret Storm, son of 35-time World Champion Single Pleasure Driving and Roadster horse, Silver Meadow’s Phantom Storm.

We also own 22-time AMHA World Single Pleasure Driving and Roadster winner, Lymrick’s Irresistible Force, “Guinness” and have his progeny for sale. Not only has Guinness won World Reserve Grand Champion Single Pleasure Driving Horse in both open and amateur, but he’s also been World Grand Champion Roadster Horse at AMHA World!

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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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“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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“Jumps for Hunters and Jumpers will be made of 1-1 1/2″ schedule 40 PVC piping or other suitable light-weight material with jump cups, not to include pegs, nails, bolts, etc.  All jumps must be a minimum of five (5) feet wide… Jumps thirty-two inches (32) or more in height must have a second rail added.  All post and rail jumps must have a ground pole.  Uprights are to be a maximum of forty-eight (48) inches in height. …Any decorations or jump wings must not protrude more than twenty-four (24) inches from the uprights.”

Supplies

• ??— 10′ length of Schedule 40, 1.5″ diameter PVC pipe (Use the underlined totals in the directions to calculate how many 10′ lengths you will need according to how many jumps you want to make, and which height of uprights you want–hunter and/or jumper.)

  

• 2-4 — 1.5″ PVC caps (2 for hunter uprights, 2 for jumper uprights)
• 2– 1.5″ PVC T connectors
• 2-6– 2″ PVC T connectors (For jump cups. 2 for hunter uprights, 4 for jumper uprights because jumps over 32″ in height must have a second pole added to keep horses from running under.. trust me, I had it happen at a show once when the rule wasn’t followed!  I like to have a cup/D-ring on both sets of uprights so I don’t have to change them out when I switch from hunter to jumper)
• 4– 1.5″ PVC Elbow connectors
• 2-6– D-rings (To hold jump cups. 2 for hunter uprights, 4 for jumper uprights. I like to have a cup/D-ring on both sets of uprights so I don’t have to change them out when I switch from hunter to jumper)
• 12– 1″ Sheet metal screws
• Saw
• Drill and bits
• Screwdriver

Directions to Build Mini Horse Jumps

1. Cut the 1.5″ diameter PVC into the following lengths:

• Long side of base and jump pole length: 5′ (x3 for hunter, x4 for jumper) = (15′ of PVC used for only hunter, 20′ if doing jumper for an extra jump pole)
• Short side of base length: 10″ (x4) = 40″= (3.33′ of PVC used)
• Jumper uprights: 4′ (x2) = (8′ of PVC used)
• Hunter uprights: 3′ (x2) = (6′ of PVC used)

2.  Now it’s time to assemble the base!  Attach one 10″ piece to each of the two opposite ends of the T (x2) to form the sides of the base.
3.  Attach the elbows to the open ends of the 10″ pieces that are attached to the T (x4), with the open end of the T facing straight up so the uprights can go in later.
4.  Use two of the 5′ lengths to attach the two ends of the base and complete the rectangular base.
5.  Place the uprights in the T on the jump.  Put a cap on the top of each jumper or hunter upright pole.
7.  Use your measuring tape to mark where you will drill holes on the uprights:

• Hunter: By AMHA rules, hunter jumps have a minimum jump pole height of 18 inches and maximum of 28 inches, so I recommend starting with a hole at 18 inches, and ending at 28.
• Jumper: By AMHA rules, jumper jumps have a maximum jump pole height of 44  inches, so you don’t need holes past 44 inches from the ground.

8.  Time to drill holes for the uprights!  Grab a bit that’s bigger than the peg of the D-ring you’ll be using.  It’s hard to get the holes aligned perfectly through the upright and through the cup later, so you’ll want some wiggle room.  Get them as straight through both sides of the pvc as you can.
9.  Now onto the jump cups.  Take your oversized Ts and cut out a little more than half of the  section that branches out (see below).  You want it to be a little over half gone so it makes it easier for the jump pole to fall down.  That way your jump doesn’t get broken when a horse hits it!  Then drill a hole through both sides for the D-ring to go through.

10.  To keep the base together, I recommend that you use sheet metal screws.  You DON’T want to use PVC glue, because if any piece gets broken, you’ll have to cut it off and splice it together.  With the screws, everything stays together but if something gets broken, you can take it off without cutting.  We use screws at every connection point on the base except where the uprights go in.

11.  The final step is to put the jump cups on the up uprights, pins in, and adjust the length of your jump poles.  For measuring everything out, it’s easiest to use 5′ for jump poles, but for them to fall out of the jump easily, they need a few more inches taken off.  Just put the poles in the cups and see how much you want taken off, it should be at least two inches.

12.  Congratulations!  You’re now finished and can enjoy your jumps!  To learn how to make striped jump poles, visit our other blog post, How to: Paint Obstacle/Jump Poles.

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Miniature Horses as Pets

Miniatures are great as pets/companion animals. They’re smaller than “big” horses so they can be kept in the back yard just as you’d keep a dog or cat, and are lower maintenance than other breeds of horses. They take up less space, eat less, make less of a mess. In some cities where the zoning is more liberal like Austin, Texas, USA, they can even be kept in the back yard. Plus they don’t require shoes like many other breeds. They can be handled by children (I started showing when I was 3), or by the elderly (one of our customers bought a mini for his mother’s 96th birthday). Any age will do.

For people who are intimidated by big horses or had an accident with them in the past, or simply don’t have the energy for them anymore, miniatures are the perfect alternative. They’ll allow one to still be able to enjoy the beauty of the horse.

Showing Miniature Horses

At miniature horse shows you can do anything you do with a big horse except for ride. That might sound like a joke at first, like there’s nothing left if you take riding away, but boy would you be wrong. The two major associations for miniature horses, the American Miniature Horse Assciation (AMHA), and the American Miniature Horse Registry (AMHR) and their clubs offer lots of classes. A few are: halter, color, liberty, showmanship, jumper, hunter, obstacle, driving obstacle, and costume classes to youth, amateur and open exhibitors at local, regional, and world level shows.

One of the closest things you can do to riding is drive miniature horses. They’re quite strong and can pull a cart with two people without problem. Any miniature horse can be trained to drive; though they ideally training begins at three years of age.

Miniature Horses as Therapy Animals

Many have probably heard about miniatures being used as therapy animals. The seeing-eye-miniature horse idea got some publicity for a while there. However, our favorite use of them therapy-wise is done by Hearts and Hooves. Hearts and Hooves is a non-profit organization that takes miniatures to hospitals, nursing homes, and many other places to provide emotional healing. It was founded by one of our customers, who purchased her first mini from us and found his companionship to be very healing during cancer treatment. From there she decided to pay it forward and founded the group and began using them to help others heal. Therapy works particularly well with miniatures because they’re small enough that they can easily go into buildings. This helps them visit people who can’t easily make it out to a ranch to be with full sized horses.

Mini Horses as Investments

Finally, miniatures, like many other animals, can be used as investments, with values that range from a few hundred to a hundred thousand dollars or more. Successful breeding programs and horses that produce quality foals will up the value of your miniature horse. While the American Miniature Horse is a relatively young breed, there’s still a rich history behind it and the stallions that founded and have progressed the breed during its first 40 years. These bloodlines add value! Some notable names to look for in your mini horse’s bloodline are Boone’s Little Buckeroo, Orion Light Van’t Huttenest, First Knight’s Billy Idol and SMO Bolero de Suerte.

Also, developing a winning history in the show ring can increase a miniature’s value. The highest titles awarded at the American Miniature Horse Association’s World Championship Show each year are the “World Grand Champion” titles. These are given for halter stallions, geldings, and mares at both junior and senior levels, and for each of the driving divisions.

What can you do with a mini horse: Lots of things!

What can you do with a mini horse? Keep them as pets, show them, use them as therapy animals, or an investment. Do you do something different with your mini? Let us know!

Little America Miniature Horses is one of the the United States’ largest miniature horse breeding operations, with over 150 miniature for sale. Our herd features bloodlines from notable stallions in the industry, as well as World Grand Champions and progeny of World Grand Champions. Find your next miniature, or first miniature by looking at the horse section of our site today! Then come back and tell us your answer to: “what can you do with a mini horse?”

–Lauren Greaves

The post What can you do with a mini horse? appeared first on Little America Miniature Horses.

You can’t go too far into the history of AMHA without Tony Greaves and Little America horses popping up. Tony has worn many hats in his service to the AMHA. He was a past AMHA President, a volunteer Executive Secretary, and a board member for several years. A staunch supporter for AMHA, he has tirelessly exhibited and demonstrated the versatility of the Miniature horse all over the world, to anyone who would listen. He has been an ambassador for the breed and knows the history of our horses almost better than anyone. When asked about his favorite horse that he produced, he asked to write about two horses … his two incredible boys.

As told by Tony Greaves

Years and years of little horses have filled my life since I was born into a family that was breeding Shetlands over sixty years ago. Through the years I have found that you are very lucky when a very special horse enters your life. We had two horses we felt were so incredible, that the name seemed to pick itself.

Our first “Incredible” was foaled in 1999. Little America’s D. S. Incredible. For many years one of my goals was to breed the smallest colorful appaloosa with great conformation, with emphasis on a beautiful head. On March 30, 1996, late in the afternoon, I went to check on the mares close to foaling, which were kept in the yard beside our house. Little America’s Tex Belle was going into labor, so I sat on the porch to watch what was going on, to be handy if I was needed. The progress was quick and when the foal arrived and I pulled the amniotic sack off, I was so thrilled to see what was inside the sack … so tiny, so colorful, a head to die for, so incredible that I actually cried. I know, “real men don’t cry,” but every rule has its exception, and this was mine. J just said, “Incredible, he’s Incredible!” I ran in the house to get my family and each one repeated my first words. In the days that followed, every visitor to our ranch had the same reaction, “Incredible.” I said that he named himself the day he was born, but how did they know it?

When we started showing him, he was only weeks old, and he seemed to draw crowds every time we brought him out. Every time he left the ring, we had people follow us back to our stall area just to get a closer look at him. I think that some people have a very special bond with some horses and this was mine. He and I seemed to be on the same wave link. We seemed to communicate in the ring. I would set him up, back up and look at him, and his eyes would follow my every move; never putting an ear back, never taking his eyes off mine. Over and over I had people ask me how I got a weanling (and later a yearling and two-year-old) to “show like that.” He had so much personality and I encouraged his exuberance, letting him walk on his back legs out to get his awards, eventually teaching him to take a bow, using it when he won Supreme. One judge told me that this wasn’t a circus, but Incredible enjoyed his performance, the crowds loved it, and so did I, so we outvoted the judge.

He was quite successful in the shows, becoming High Point Champion in several divisions for the Southwesten Miniature Horse Club and the Greater Houston Miniature Horse Club. I was thrilled when he placed seventh, as a weanling, in a class of fifty-seven at the World Show in Lexington, VA, showing against a field of mostly yearlings and two-year olds! One person who had admired him for several shows offered to give me a blank check for him, which I turned down.

We ran ads featuring our “dream horse” and enjoyed the name which aided in creativity: “We are looking to an Incredible future,” “Incredible dreams do come true,” and others. We were thrilled to be drawn for the cover of the Miniature Horse World for the world show issue. I spent days taking pictures and worked with the editor, Barbara Ashby, who was a fan of Incredible, too.

About the time we were getting things ready for his cover, he started being head shy when being haltered and a few times had a spell, something similar to fainting. We took him to several vets who could find nothing wrong. At that time, we were swimming our show horses to tone them and on July 22, 1998, while he was in the pond, he bobbed under, which wasn’t really unusual, but this time he made no attempt to surface. We quickly brought him out of the water and tried CPR for what seemed like an hour. Finally we gave up, and I sent my helper to the barn and I just sat there with Incredible. Our vet surmised that he had suffered an aneurysm and that we could have done nothing to save him, but that was little solace to us. I couldn’t believe that the dream of my many years of breeding was lying beside me as I sat there helplessly. After quite some time, I went to the barn and got the tractor and took him to the back and buried him. I then went to my office and just sat there. All those hopes and dreams came to a halt. All those plans were gone. And he was to be on the cover of the next Miniature Horse World magazine. I knew that the deadline was only a few days later. Thoughts were whirling in my mind, should I change the cover to another horse, should I just leave it alone. I finally emailed Barbara simply saying, “Please add this to the cover of Incredible: “March 30, 1996- July 22, 1998.” He became the first horse ever pictured on the cover posthumously.

I first stated that we had two horses that named themselves Incredible. The second one was born the year after the first died, Little America’s Too Incredible. We chose the name because he was also extremely tiny and excellent. His show record was fairly similar, but not quite as extensive as the first. He garnered several Top Tens and Championships, but never won a Supreme. I did have one judge tell me that he was the most perfect tiny miniature that she had ever judged. He matured at 25 ½”. Of course he was bred to be small, being out of Little America’s Kewpie Tornado 26 ½” and Little America’s Silver Tornado 26″.

We showed him until he was three years old and then started breeding him to a few mares. We were very pleased with the tiny foals with refinement that he produced and were looking forward to using him in our “tiny” program for years.

This past December, Carol and I went to New York to babysit our grandson while his parents went on a belated tenth anniversary to Europe. When we returned home we learned that a problem with dog attacks had returned. Two years ago we lost thirteen horses over a period of weeks to a marauding pack of wild dogs. On Sunday morning, I was getting dressed to go out to feed and looked out the window of our second story bedroom and saw what looked like a horse standing over another horse, but I wasn’t certain. I got my glasses and saw that it was a coyote standing over a horse with another coyote standing guard about twenty yards away. I yelled downstairs to Lauren, our daughter, who grabbed a gun and snuck out the door to get a shot at the predators. Unfortunately, they sensed she was there and starred to run just as she got off the first shot. When I found what the coyotes were standing over, my heart dropped … it was Too Incredible … our beautiful stallion. We were devastated to loose another of our wonderful little horses. Since then we have taken many precautions to prevent another tragic loss. We have added guard donkeys, guard dogs and much better fencing, just to name a few.

I am so thankful for all the incredible memories I have. Some people are lucky enough to have one special horse in their life, I have had hundreds. Each horse has amazed me with their own personality and their talents, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for those two incredible boys.

-Original document: “The Incredible Boys” article with images (PDF)

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