By Alyssa McCarthy Parker in From The Field on on Feb 23, 2015

I don’t know if there is ANYTHING cuter than a miniature horse. I fell in absolute love with the little guys and gals at Little America Miniature Horses. Tony and Carol Greaves were fantastic hosts and it was great to learn so much about a breed of horses that none of us really had any experience with.

It was also heartwarming to meet Tony’s “Thursday Kids,” a group of young kids from the surrounding areas that come to the barn after school to work with the minis. They learn all about grooming, training, handling, they work on an obstacle course, and several of them practice showmanship.

Among the Thursday Kids is a young man named Kameron, who is legally blind, but comes alive with confidence while he works with his favorite horse Rainbow. Together the pair has won several World Championships.

We can’t wait for y’all to see the segment on Little America Miniature Horses! Stay tuned for updates on when it will air!

Until next time,

Alyssa

– See More Here

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Greaves and his family now own Little America Miniature Horses. He and his wife, Carol, live on their 200-acre ranch in Buda, TX. The two raise miniature horses to sell them or show them.

The number of horses they have varies, but they currently have 170 miniature horses. Greaves said miniature horses are created through selective breeding.

“When I first started 36 inches was considered little,” Greaves said. “I would pick a mare and a stallion and hope that their baby would be smaller. I also want every generation to be better. I look at the good points and the bad points of the horse. If the mare has bad legs I want to make sure I breed her to a stallion who has good legs.”

Bloodlines, color and size determine the price of the horses. The smaller the horse, the more expensive they are. Prices of Greaves’ horses range between $500-$50,000. Horses that are sold as pets are less expensive than those purchased for the purpose of showing or breeding.

People who show horses seek out the bloodlines of Greaves’ horses.
“They want my bloodlines to put in their line,” Greaves said. “I’ve been doing it for so long and I’ve gotten them so small that people who really want to breed small want a small stallion. Usually people have larger mares and breed them with a smaller stallion. But I have such a large group of little mares that I get more little babies.”
Greaves said many people confuse miniature horses with ponies. But, Shetland ponies are up to 48 inches tall and miniature horses are 34 inches or smaller. He prides himself on the fact that all of his horses are under 34 inches and 80 of them are under 30 inches.

Little America is known around the world and Greaves has sold horses to people in Russia, Australia, Scotland, Belgium and France.

The Internet has revolutionized how Greaves does business. He said 60 percent of the horses that he’s sold over the past five years have been purchased over the Internet.

Greaves’ goal has always been to raise a herd of 22-inch miniature horses. Recently, he bred a 24-inch horse named Fan Man. Greaves still aims to breed that perfect tiny herd.

“As far as I am concerned, the object of breeding any miniature animal is to breed the smallest, good confirmation animal that you can get,” Greaves said. “My goal is to breed the smallest perfect horse.”

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I thought it might be fun to offer an aerial tour as well.

The picture above shows most of the ranch; it’s just missing one corner, the pasture where we keep the stallions in the winter.  This is the only photo that shows the back pasture where we keep many of the horses in the winter.

You can see evidence of the drought we’ve had in this picture, it’s been a very dry year!

We have three major barns that we use for the horses.  The one at the top of the photo above is our main barn.  The show string, our geldings, yearling and two-year-old colts and fillies live here.  The barn farthest to the right in the picture is our hay barn as well as a shelter for horses in that pen/pasture.  And finally, everyone’s favorite, the foaling barn is at the bottom of the photo.  The foaling barn has six stalls with closed-circuit cameras that run to the house where we can watch for mares to go into labor.  The mares who seem to be farther from foaling spend the night in the lot to the left of the barn so they can be checked on during the night.

The view above really points out the terracing of the land, which helps prevent erosion in those pastures.  That land is split into several pastures by electric fences.  During breeding season, we put one stallion and a specific group of mares in each of these pastures.

A big thanks to my friend Matt for flying me around the ranch and putting up with all of my cameras!

Here are some video clips from the flight:

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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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I quickly finished putting out feed for the mares and drove the Gator back to the pasture to check to see if I was right.  As I got closer I saw a big flash of white on the “something laying in the grass” and thought, “Yea!  An appaloosa hopefully.  Just hope it is okay.”  As I got closer I saw the tail swish and breathed a sigh of relief to know that it was indeed a tiny little appaloosa, and best of all alive!

His dam, Little America Color’s Mandy, is a six-year-old mare and this is her first foal.  She is more difficult to handle than most of our mares and I knew that I would have a difficult time catching her in the eighty-five acre pasture, but figured that I could carry her foal and she would follow us back up to the barn.  When I reached them the foal sat up, but didn’t stand, so I was able to catch him and examine him all over.  I found that he was very correct, tiny, bay with a star and snow cap blanket.  I also found that the lashes one of his eyes were inside his eyes, so I brushed them out and checked both eyes.  They were very red but that is not too unusual for a newborn.

I picked up the tiny guy and put him in my lap between me and the steering wheel.  Mandy started running around the Gator, but I finally got her attention and she located the foal, so we started driving slowly to the barn.  As we went along I started thinking about a name, first thinking of Little Man, but as I thought more, I decided on Little America’s My Color Man.  We generally use part of the sire (stallion/father’s) name.  Since his sire is Little America’s My Oh My, I used “My”.  His grandsire is Winner’s Circle True Colors, I used “Color”.  And since his dam (mother), I used Man.

Sire:  Little America’s My Oh My

Grand Champion at the Ft. Worth Exposition and Livestock Show in January 2012

Once we got to the barn I wormed Mandy since we worm all our mares within twenty-four hours which seems to cut down on foal heat scours.  I noticed that one of her hooves needed trimming so I trimmed a little on both of her back feet then took the pair to the foaling barn which is next to our house where we can keep a close watch on new babies and mothers for a few days.

When I put them in the yard I watched long enough to note that the dam was moving away every time that he tried to nurse.  Since this was her first foal and she was “ticklish” I guess.  I brought them into the barn and tied her up and held him to try to get him to nurse.  He wouldn’t try because be had been scared trying to nurse before I found him.  I finally decided that I had to get something down him, so milked the mare and luckily he took to drinking from a syringe quickly.  I was able to get about fifty cc of colostrum down him so that was a relief.  At first I had to put a twitch on her to get her to let me milk her.  This went on every couple of hours for about thirty-six hours.  Thank goodness he finally started nursing and she started letting him nurse and is now progressing nicely.

Here he is at six days: 

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Our foaling barn has six foaling stalls and we have closed circuit TV so that we can watch the mares when they are moved into the barn.  Using Breeder Alert monitoring equipment we are awakened when a mare lays down flat for fifteen seconds.  The pager, which I carry during the day and attach to my pillow while I am asleep, alerts me to check the monitors which are located in several locations in the house, to see if the mare is in labor or just sleeping.  If she is in labor I will quickly go to the barn in case she needs assistance.  You can follow our foaling adventures as I plan to blog about it.  So stay tuned.

While you are waiting you can take a tour of the ranch.

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