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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 494
 
| I have a buddy sour horse that requires me to always haul 2. I have heard/ seen a few people hauling mini's with them and of course they take up less space and easier to haul so I am considering it. I have heard that they get along well together and other stories of the polar opposite. Anyone with personal experience with this? Thanks! |
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Location: WI | I bought a mini for my mare to haul along and yes it helped a ton. My mare was horrible she would work herself up so bad that she would bleed just standing in her stall (happened 2 different times). The mini rode right underneath her in the trailer so didn't take up an extra spot and stalled with her also. She LOVED her mini.... up until she had her own baby. After she had a foal she wanted nothing to do with it. |
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 Midget Lover
   
Location: Kentucky | You may want send a message to SKM. |
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 Namesless in BHW
Posts: 10368
Location: At the race track with Ah Dee Ohs | We had a mare once that was scared to death of mini's. A friend was riding her at the time and they had one. The mare got to live with the mini and they became good friends. When we hauled somewhere the mini loaded after the mare and stood under her belly the whole trip. I think a mini would be great for your horse. |
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 Big Gun
Posts: 2216
Location: Texas | I bought a mini for my horse because he was walking the fence too much, but I don't take her with us to shows. He does fine be himself at shows, but I have to keep them separated because my big horse is mean to her. |
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 Expert
Posts: 3815
Location: The best kept secret in TX | I haul two anyway, but when I bought my gelding he was in the pasture with 5 mini's because all the normal sized horses would push him around. He was a bottle baby so he is very timid and shy around other horses. He barely tolerates my mare, but he likes the goat and the dog LOL!
A mini would be great. |
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 Saint Stacey
| Yes...my daughter is one of those crazy barrel racers that hauls a mini pony for company. Vegas frets horribly if she is alone. Caesar has been the best thing ever! You can just put him in a stall with her or tie him out. At home she could care less about him. That goofy pony has been to 7 states and has probably had his picture taken with people more than Taylor Swift. We haul them loose in a 3 horse and he just lays down when he's tired. We are pathetic, lol! |
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Expert
Posts: 3815
Location: The best kept secret in TX | SKM - 2015-01-06 5:05 PM Yes...my daughter is one of those crazy barrel racers that hauls a mini pony for company. Vegas frets horribly if she is alone. Caesar has been the best thing ever! You can just put him in a stall with her or tie him out. At home she could care less about him. That goofy pony has been to 7 states and has probably had his picture taken with people more than Taylor Swift. We haul them loose in a 3 horse and he just lays down when he's tired. We are pathetic, lol!
AWE! I love the pony's name! So cute!  |
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Saint Stacey
| Here is what we have learned about hauling with a mini: 1) Rope horses are not pony broke. You can clear a warm up pen full of rope horses in about 5 seconds flat if the mini gets a wild hair and decides to start squealing and bucking while in the middle if them. 2) If the person leading the mini is a pretty girl, it gives every cowboy around a reason to talk to her. 3) All girls love mini ponies. So they oh and ah over him while their boyfriends stand there helplessly. Then they are forced by the girlfriend to get in a Selfie with the pony. 4) Small children love mini ponies. You could end up looking kuje the pied piper with a gaggle of small children following the mini pony. 5) Mini ponies are less than thrilled with all the attention. While they might tolerate it very well, they will give you the hairy eyeball about you subjecting them to all this torture. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
| I have had 2 bad experiences
1. We bought a mini and tried to gradually introduce it to our horses. They all looked at it with no interest. They snorted a bit and were fine. When we turned them out together my mare literally tried to kill the poor thing! She jumped on it and rolled it like a barrel and tried to attack it. We rescued it and it was completely uninjured thank goodness, but that was the end of that.
2. We had a gelding that really needed a companion, we hauled him with a pony but he became so attached that whenever I rode him and left the pony at the trailer, he would throw an absolute fit. Head tossing, whinnying, and constantly tried to go back to the trailer, which was completely out of character for him.
Hope you have better experiences, I have heard of people using goats. Anyone had experience with that? |
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Saint Stacey
| Vegas wasn't thrilled with Caesar at first. We made a pen right next to her stall. We made a hole in the wall where he could stick his head into her stall. After about 2 weeks she finally decided he was okay. We then put them outstand in a oen togethervdyring the day. That was in November. Their first trip together was Odessa. The stalls there are huge so they got put in the same one. They've been best buddies ever since. The other horses have gotten use to him over the fence for the past year. We can stick him out with all of them now and he's fine. But they probably would have killed him had we not introduced him the way we did. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 494
| Thank you all for the imput. Have you ever had problems with them crawling under fences? |
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 Roan On The Range
Posts: 7889
Location: Stephenville, TX | epoh - 2015-01-06 9:26 PM Thank you all for the imput. Have you ever had problems with them crawling under fences?
Yes. I have a mini mare as a companion for my gelding because he'd run the fence like a lunatic when the neighbor horses would leave (which was often). She's pretty short and I had to do some pony-proofing so she'd stay in. My gelding loved her at first sight. It took a few days for her to warm up to him, but now they're best friends. I went with the pony as a companion because I wasn't sure if he'd take to a goat and I didn't want to listen to a donkey. Now when people comment on my stock they say "hey, nice roan...OMG LOOK AT THAT ADORABLE PONY!!!  "
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Industrial Srength Barrel Racer
Posts: 7268
| SKM - 2015-01-06 5:29 PM Here is what we have learned about hauling with a mini: 1) Rope horses are not pony broke. You can clear a warm up pen full of rope horses in about 5 seconds flat if the mini gets a wild hair and decides to start squealing and bucking while in the middle if them. 2) If the person leading the mini is a pretty girl, it gives every cowboy around a reason to talk to her. 3) All girls love mini ponies. So they oh and ah over him while their boyfriends stand there helplessly. Then they are forced by the girlfriend to get in a Selfie with the pony. 4) Small children love mini ponies. You could end up looking kuje the pied piper with a gaggle of small children following the mini pony. 5) Mini ponies are less than thrilled with all the attention. While they might tolerate it very well, they will give you the hairy eyeball about you subjecting them to all this torture.
This is awesome!! I have a mini in the pen next to my mare, I would LOVE to put them together as they SEEM to get along well - then, I would have ONE less tank heater to have to pay for during the winter. I'm just scared to death she might hurt him. I guess I need to try it one day when I don't have to work and just watch them for a couple of hours. |
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Saint Stacey
| epoh - 2015-01-06 8:26 PMThank you all for the imput. Have you ever had problems with them crawling under fences? Yes. They are very food driven and ruled by their stomachs. Just like baby proofing a house, you must pony proof your fences.
Edited by SKM 2015-01-07 9:15 AM
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 352
Location: Texas | My mini lives with my big horses and is third in line as far as pecking order. We take her on occasion. She is wonderful, although likes mischief. lol I would give it a try. My big horses accept her as one of their own. It's a bad picture, but this is my Gabby girl.
Edited by batkitty 2015-01-07 9:26 AM
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 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
Location: MD | lol.. we have the worlds sassiest mini. shes amazing with kids but will straight up bite adults. it's kind of nice though, when you turn her out in the morning she wants to trot all the way down to her pen but she likes to try to run you over and when she does she's so little you can kind of just push her. haha. she runs the pastures and can hold her own. She's easy to haul but demands personal space so she always has to have a stud wall otherwise I would be afraid she'd pick on them in the trailer.
IMO you have to find the right mini, with the right temperament otherwise you might as well haul a full sized horse. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 364
Location: Texas | I have a mini! I did NOT want a pony I took him in to train and the man gave him to me and would not take no for a answer. He hasn't gone anywhere yet but he will lol. Him and one of my horses get along AMAZING but my other two could care less if he was there or not. He is BIG MAN at the barn not even my 16 hand paint that pushes all the other horses around phases him lol. His name is Elvis :). |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 723
Location: South TEXAS | I got a mini for my goofy,sometimes mean mare. It works great when traveling.
I have to b very careful though, cause kids want to play with mini and my mare doesn't always like that so I'm scared she may accidentally hurt someone. I keep a very close eye on them at the trailer. My mini will haul standing underneath or în her own slant. Defiantly had to mini proof fences |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | Loved reading this thread as I'm selling my gelding and I don't want my mare to be lonely, so was thinking about a mini. My mare HATES sheep (she's terrified of them) so I'm ruling out goats, and while mini donkeys are cute, I think minis are cuter.
One question I have...water tank situation? Since they are so little? And can they get in a trailer okay without a ramp?
Edited by mtcanchazer 2015-07-27 12:18 AM
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Saint Stacey
| mtcanchazer - 2015-07-26 11:10 PM
Loved reading this thread as I'm selling my gelding and I don't want my mare to be lonely, so was thinking about a mini. My mare HATES sheep (she's terrified of them) so I'm ruling out goats, and while mini donkeys are cute, I think minis are cuter.
One question I have...water tank situation? Since they are so little? And can they get in a trailer okay without a ramp?
Yes. Caesar just gracefully jumps into the trailer.He has no problem loading and unloading without a ramp. He has no trouble getting water out of the tank as long as it's over half full. When in doubt we just put a bucket out. They don't eat or drink much. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 372
| I inherited a mini that is a PITA
Because of this and her unwillingness to be caught she has the run of the place. No pen, no lot she just cruises around. If I put her in a pen she runs from you and ends up making the big horses run and that makes the people very angry.
That being said she is very resilient, she gets no grain just what she can snag from a feeder that gets to close to a fence or if some get's spilled during feed time. Winter time get's hay and spring/summer/fall just forages.
She also has her own water but prefers to stick her head thru the fence/panel/gate etc. to drink from others.
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | Maybe I should get a mini for my gelding...horses have a tendency to beat him up. I do know you definitely want to mini-proof your fence though! My cousins had a little guy that would regularly slither under the electric fence and roam their yard. We also have a mini in the mare pasture at my barn now. I pulled in the other night and it (I assume) had squeezed between the automatic waterer and the fence. |
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Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | Thanks for the ideas! Is a mini the best choice for a pasture mate for my mare? I know sheep won't cut it, another horse eats too much, same with cows. Not sure about a goat, but I think my mare will have the same reaction as with a sheep. |
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Expert
Posts: 3815
Location: The best kept secret in TX | My gelding likes his goat buddy. Although the first time he heard the goat bawl at him for trying to eat the goats feed He freaked out a bit. But he got used to it. And he never tried to eat the goats feed again.
Goats are fun:) LOL in a keep them out of mischief every second of everyday kind of way LOL
My gelding likes to get into things as well tho. They're partners in crime.
Goats are easy to haul and you can clip a collar on them and tie them to the bumper of your trailer if you need to take them with you. They're easy keepers. I don't haul mine, but my friend hauls her goat with her horse and has never had a problem. |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | epoh - 2015-01-06 9:26 PM
Thank you all for the imput. Have you ever had problems with them crawling under fences?
Son's gf has a mini that crawled thru a pipe to get from his pasture to her gelding's pasture. I would have given a lot to have seen that!! |
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Too busy outside!
Posts: 5417
| Getting a mini for my guy was the best thing I ever did! This is a pic of their first trip together- I don't tie Zeus anymore, he likes to ride underneath Chappy and Chappy is so careful not to step on him! :)
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