At first glance, they resemble large dogs. But that can’t be. See the mane and long tail?
“They look just like little stuffed animals,” Mrs. Larson said. “Then they take off running, or rare up, or buck, or do one of their horse things and people just go, ‘It’s alive!’”
A self-described “horsey person,” with horseshoe earrings dangling from her lobes, Mrs. Larson and her husband have been raising miniature, Arabian-style horses in Bell County for about two decades. They are so cute, she says, they not only stop traffic, but strangers ask to have their picture taken with them. One elderly gentleman visited almost daily to admire his favorite, a paint named Diamond.
“Oh, he just fell in love with her. He just thinks Diamond is the end all to end all. He would just sit out here and watch her play,” Mrs. Larson said, recalling when Diamond was just a foal.
To get an idea how tiny these horses are, Mrs. Larson said although they’ve never done it, they could fit all 15 miniatures in their 32-foot trailer.
“They look like a horse somebody washed and it shrank,” Mrs. Larson said.
And these little guys don’t require anywhere near the amount of food or space that full-size horses do. The American Miniature Horse Association literature says they need only one-half acre per horse. (Mrs. Larson recommends one acre, however.) Overall, they require one-tenth the cost of maintenance of a large horse. This can be a big savings considering the skyrocketing cost of animal feed. And of course, there’s another advantage.
“The manure is minimal, about the size of a big dog,” Mrs. Larson said.
The best size for miniatures is between 24 and 26 inches, but the AMHA officially registers them up to 32 inches tall. For such small stature, miniatures are heavy, weighing up to 200 pounds. They’re stout enough to carry 75 pounds under saddle, and can pull 1,500 pounds in a cart.
Miniatures came to the United States in about 1888. They are descendants of horses bred by the English and Dutch to pull carts through coal mines. Today’s animals are the result of about 400 years of breeding. The AMHA says they have registered more than 150,000 miniatures.
The Larsons bought their first miniature in the mid-1980s from a Lorena woman who was thinning her herd. They soon started breeding, but quickly learned the difference between Arabian-style and tiny Shetland ponies. They prefer, and raise the Arabian-style, keeping strict record of their bloodlines.
Raising miniatures is a tightrope act, Mrs. Larson says, because there is the danger of breeding so small that the horse becomes dwarfed like Thumbelina, a Guinness World Record holder at only 17 inches.
The Larson’s miniatures typically deliver their babies in spring. They worry about coyotes and buzzards, and put expectant mothers in the barn when they start to produce milk. But after losing two during birth, Mrs. Larson decided to go high-tech.
“I’ve got four cameras in my barn so that I can watch them from my bed, and if it looks like they’re going to have a baby, then I’m out there,” she said.
Looking toward retirement from her teaching job at Temple High in a few years, Mrs. Larson said she plans to train miniatures to assist visually impaired people the way seeing eye dogs are now used. According to the Guide Horse Foundation, there is strong demand among visually impaired people who are horse lovers, allergic to dogs, and those who want a guide animal with a long lifespan. Miniature horses can live up to 40 years.
Founded in 1999, the Guide Horse Foundation’s Web site says there is a critical need for volunteers and donations. Mrs. Larson said the guide horses are trained to wear tennis shoes so they won’t slip indoors and ring a bell with their mouth when they need to go outdoors.
With so much interest in their miniatures, the Larsons are holding an open house called “Meet the Babies” at their farm Labor Day weekend.
“That’s what this is for. Stop by and pet my babies,” Mrs. Larson said.
