I recently purchased a miniature horse just 9 months old. I intend to us Monty's methods to train this horse but am finding significant differences in the way his Uni horses react and the way my miniature and other miniatures react. Does anyone else have any experience with miniatures. Also does anyone know of a halter I can use that has the same effect as the dually halter because it doesn't come in a miniature size. Any information will be very much appreciated.
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Hi Peggy
I purchased my mini about 4 months ago from a stud near when i live. My boy is a miniature horse which are a bit taller than a miniature pony. My boy is 9 years old and is 8.5 hands. I have found him to display all the equine attributes of a normal sized horse. We have done 5 0r 6 successful Join Up sessions and he is now started under saddle and is happily carrying my daughter round the paddock! I have found that the red Dually fits my mini...just! it is on the tightest hole on all three buckles. So in reference to your statement about them displaying different reactions, i would probably give your pony a little time to mature a bit and make sure he or she has other equines to learn his language from. My mini was raised on a stud as i said, so he had plenty of others to learn from. I actually found it easier to read my mini than my old TB who was an ex racer. Give it time and you'll see all equine tendencies coming out in your little one :-)
Good luck and keep us posted hey!
Janelle
I've worked with minis and the main difference I see is that they tend to be more "spoiled" than a regular sized horse. That is, the folks that have owned them previously treated them more like a pet than a horse and let them get away with things because it was "cute" and so they developed bad habits like trying to lead the handler or rearing, biting etc. There isn't anything cute about a couple hundred pounds of mini doing those things any more than having a regular horse do them!
As far as J-U and halter work goes, I found that minis react just the way any horse would, provided they have spent any time with other horses (of any size). I was able to do my J-U's in a big square double stall with the corners blocked off. That seems to be about the right amount of running space. I would say to take care to not run them too long a distance if you use a regular round pen. The spoiled ones take a little longer to come into line with good behavior but they all do. I did find it helpful to put a pony tail holder in the forelock (they all seem to have an abundance of hair!) so that I could see the mini's eyes and he could see mine. Also, when rubbing between the eyes it may help to kneel down so the horse can see your face. I've found some mini's to be headshy (too much handling on the face? it is the place where everyone wants to touch the cute little pony) so I often use a wither rub to start with and work my way up to a face rub.
And although I've heard that a mini-sized Dually is forthcoming, in the meantime, I have used a hot nail to put extra holes in the webbing of my red Dually so I can use it on the smaller faces of mini's and other smaller horses.
Good luck and have fun!
Julie m, great info there! The lady who i bought my mini from was very careful not to spoil or over handle her mini's so fortunately for me mine did not have the bad habbits you warn about. I was told not to give him food rewards as this can make them bitey and to make sure he respects mine and my daughter's space. My little fellow has been great. His only problem was that he could be a little pushy when leading but with a few lessons on the Dually he is now great. Great idea about putting some extra holes in!
Janelle