Little horses aren't short on appeal

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Jun 14, 1998

Sandra Johnston always wanted a horse when she was a kid.

Now, the town of Shelby woman has three, including a 3-week-old, 20-inch registered miniature stallion named Marsh Creek Hi-Ho, Silver.

Silver, whose dark gray coat has a silvery cast, is the offspring of Dakota Spring Breeze, a 3-year-old registered mare who at 32 inches, towers over her colt.

Johnston's third horse is another miniature, a brown stallion named Coulee Country Gordy, who also is short of stature, but long on breeding credentials.

The horses live with Johnston, her husband, David, and 6-year-old grandson, David, on the family's miniature farm -- or farmette - off Hwy 14 in Mormon Coulee.

"They're like backyard pets. That's what so nice about them," Sandra Johnston said Friday. Johnston, whose husband is supervisor of curriculum for La Crosse public schools, said she became interested in the miniature horses after reading about them.

She purchased the mare in South Dakota and returned there last year to have the horse bred. to a registered stallion, Lucky Four Blue Heritage.

The absentee sire has a class A pedigree as do all three of Johnston's horses. To earn a class A designation with the American Miniature Horse Association, a miniature must under 34 inches high, Johnston said. Class B miniatures range from 34 to 38 inches.

Since giving birth on May 23, the mare has been bred again, this time with Coulee Country Gordy as sire. Silver is the mare's first colt, Johnston said.

The colt weighed 16 pounds and was 16 inches high at birth, she said. Since then, he's grown about one inch a week.

Although only children weighing under 80 pounds can ride the horses, the miniatures are great as cart horses.

A full-grown miniature horse can pull about double its weight, up to about 500 pounds, Johnston said.

The miniatures eat about one-tenth of what a full-sized horse eats and require about one-tenth of the pasture space for grazing, she said.

A miniature can be well fed and nourished eating only commercially prepared feed, but most also eat some hay or grass, Johnston said.

Because of their diminutive size, miniature horses are less intimidating than large horses and make perfect pets for children.

"They're just a wonderful horse for children, the elderly and the handicapped," Johnston said. "People in wheelchairs can come right up and pet them."

Johnston said 80 kindergartners from Southern Bluffs Elementary School, including young David's classmates, visited the horses May 22, the day before the colt was born.

"We felt so bad, they would have loved him," Johnston said.

David is learning this summer how to care for the horses, his grandmother said. On Friday, he took a turn brushing the mare's coat while the colt followed him around and nipped at his fingers.

"Taking care of them" is the best thing about the horses, David said.