About this blog

I have owned or been around horses much of my life. My Aunt was the first woman to graduate from Auburn University's School of Veterinary Medicine in large animal medicine, and was the first woman President of the American Veterinary Medicine Association. Before I had horses, I worshipped horse related TV shows, read horse books, studied horse pictures, pretended everything from my bicycle, to the kitchen stool, to the limbs of a tree were horses. I dreamed of the day that I would have a barn filled with horses of different colors. I had horses of my own, rode horses of others and spent as much time as possible in their company, but not until I was in my late 40's did I have that barn filled with horses of many colors and they were much smaller than the horses of my childhood dream.

I am handicapped and spend most of my time in a wheelchair or on crutches. Never-the-less, I rode for several years until I realized that should my wonderful little trail horse so much as stumble on a rock, I'd likely be in the hospital for weeks. It was time to step out of the saddle, but I could not imagine a life without horses. I decided to downsize.

I'd heard about miniature horses from horse loving friends, but I didn't know anything about them. I didn't see how anything so small could be much fun and after a lifetime of joy in riding, just couldn't see the real pleasure in sitting in a pony cart. I spent several months Googling small horse breeds. I really loved the look of Haflingers, but mainly because I had hiding in the back of my mind the thought that if I hated driving, Haflingers were still large enough to ride. I'd actually settled on Haflingers when I forced myself to step back and remember WHY I was trading down in the first place. I finally chose miniatures horses for the simple reason that I would never be tempted to ride them! Old and faithful dreams die hard, even when you know they aren't healthy for you.

I bought my first 3 miniature horses 5 years ago and have never had the time nor the desire to regret that decision. Even though I had spent months researching miniatures, nothing prepared me for the reality of life with small equines. Over the past 5 years I have sat up for hours on end with sick horses, sat up for hours on end waiting and worrying over impending births, trained, groomed, read, been frustrated at the lack of information or the abundance of incorrect information, fought the massive amounts of shedding hair everywhere, smooched silky noses, assisted births, watched mares teach their foals, watched foals teach their mommas, cussed and laughed joyfully at my too small to ride horses.

With this blog, I hope to be able to teach you what I have learned and will be learning.