# our 1st mini horse! maybe we should geld him???



## minibarn (Jul 20, 2010)

We've talked of getting a couple mini horses sometime to add to our hobby farm but I didn't think it would happen yet. A former goat customer called me last week and wondered if I'd like to trade something for a little stallion who she'd like to find a new home for. It was an offer we couldn't resist so we brought him home today! Sawyer is 1 yr old and hasn't had any training and is a little shy yet. The pics aren't great but I would like to know what you think of him especially if you own mini horses as well. I must admit we're going into this with very little prior horse experience. Also, what would you call his color, and will it change as he gets older? It's sorta darker brown with light hairs mixed in. thanks.


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

*Re: our 1st mini horse!*

Awww...cute! Congrats! :stars:

As for color...maybe brown varnish or chestnut varnish or roan maybe? Kinda hard to tell.

Are you planning on gelding him? He'll make a much better pet if he's gelded. :hi5:


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

*Re: our 1st mini horse!*

Very cute! 
Agree that if you aren't planing to breed him he will be a much better pet gelded. :thumb:


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

*Re: our 1st mini horse!*

Very cute! I agree that he'll be a better pet gelded, unless you are planning on breeding minis. Mini stallions can be HUGE SNOTS, much worse than bucks. There is a mini stud at the barn I clean stalls for and ride at and he is the WORST of the stallions. They have two big Friesian stallions, a Warlander (Friesian x Andalusion) stallion, an Arab stud and an Appaloosa and they pale in comparison to this mini's antics. He will literally try and take a chunk out of your calf if you turn your back on him while cleaning his stall and he tries to savage the poop-scoop.

Of course they can be managed like any other stallion, but people figure they are tiny and they can let things slide and they quickly turn into nightmares...and they all seem to have some sort of complex as if they absolutely must compensate for their size with their attitudes.

I really want to say he is grey. Most greys are well...more grey....but there are some that are what Arabian people call a "rose grey" and he looks it. If he is indeed grey he will get lighter every year until eventually he is white. The greying process is different for every horse, so he could lighten very slow or very fast.

He could also, however, be a "varnish roan" as the appy patterns are very prevalent in minis. What that is, is a horse with the appy gene (whether it is visible as patterning at birth or the foal is born solid) and the gene starts to "varnish" the coat as the horse ages. Generally it will get lighter and lighter and some dark spots will come through on the coat until eventually all the color that is left is on the knees and lower legs, some bars of color on the bridge of the nose, and a few dark spots here and there on a mostly white body. As with grey, the speed of varnishing differs with each horse. I love appys, but that is why I don't know if I'd want to breed them. You can have a pretty appy foal born with a blanket who later on in life loses it if it decides to start varnishing.

Color genetics in horses are confusing and SUPER confusing with minis as they seem to be one of the only "breeds" of horses that can have every single gene in the horse kingdom.


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## minibarn (Jul 20, 2010)

*Re: our 1st mini horse!*

thankyou for your comments. I am hoping to possibly also get a mare eventually to breed him to, so we will probably keep him a stallion. He has a separate fenced area of the pasture right now and I might put the pygmy buck in with him soon to be his buddy. Any advice on how to raise him to good behaviour is welcome! Could a stallion make a good cart horse?


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## kid'n'kaboodle (Mar 5, 2011)

*Re: our 1st mini horse!*

Congrats Carolyn. He is very cute.  How high is he?


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## Springbett Farm (Jan 5, 2011)

*Re: our 1st mini horse!*

Hi! I own three mini geldings whom I adore!  I was guessing your guy is a bay roan? I am a member of another forum, too- a mini horse forum that is just as awesome as this forum. Pm me so I can recommend it to you. They can give you lots of great advice as far as feeding, color,training,etc.
Is he registered? He is sure a cutie! Please consider gelding him unless you have lots of experience dealing with stallions. Yearling colts are great until they start getting their you-know-whats. Start him out respecting you and you will go far- be kind, but firm. Have fun with your new guy!


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

*Re: our 1st mini horse!*

Still almost positive he is grey. Definitely not a classic roan. A true roan has a dark, solid colored head and legs and roaned body. This guy's face is not completely solid, it looks to be greying as well.

All it should really take for you to keep him well mannered is to be firm with him when handling. Don't allow him to invade your space, get nippy or pushy. Because of his size it should be a lot easier than a full sized stallion to correct him. I'm sure you'll do great! And yup, there is no reasons he couldn't make a cart horse.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

*Re: our 1st mini horse!*

Too cute... congrats.... :thumb: :hi5:


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## minibarn (Jul 20, 2010)

*Re: our 1st mini horse!*

We will do our best to show this little guy who's boss. He's not registered. He's 35" tall now. Will he get any bigger? I'll try to take better pics of him soon.


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## minibarn (Jul 20, 2010)

*Re: our 1st mini horse! new pics...*

Sawyer is getting used to us now and seems more comfortable. We are enjoying leading him around and just getting to know his personality. Here are pics from today. Does anyone know if he's done growing at 1 yr old?


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

*Re: our 1st mini horse!*

Horses grow quiet a lot through their two year old year. At three their growth is nearly completely, but they can get a little taller up until about 5 years, and from three to five years they will definitely generally fill out more in width and musculature.


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## RMADairyGoats (Jun 20, 2011)

*Re: our 1st mini horse! new pics....*

He have minis too :thumb: THEY ROCK!! Your lil guy is super cute  Congrats :clap:


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

*Re: our 1st mini horse! new pics....*

Cutie! What is his color called?


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

*Re: our 1st mini horse! new pics....*

Logan...I'm almost positive he is a bay horse starting to go grey.


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

*Re: our 1st mini horse! new pics....*

I agree firelight...grey is a good guess. :thumb:

Carolyn...did you get to see his sire/dam?


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## minibarn (Jul 20, 2010)

*Re: our 1st mini horse! new pics....*

I don't know what Sawyer's sire looked like but I did see his dam down the road from the place where I got him so I got a pic of her. The lady who owned Sawyer had gotten him from a neighbour just 2 months ago. Now she was given a new stallion who then didn't like this little guy so she offered him to me in exchange for a potbelly piglet later this fall. I couldn't say 'no'. So now what do you think of his color in relation to his dam's color?


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

*Re: our 1st mini horse! new pics....*

His dam is a red roan with a flaxen mane. So a chestnut with the roan (the REAL classic roan gene, not the varnish roan appaloosas get) gene, and the flaxen gene (flaxen is expressed as a white mane on a chestnut.) I'm still going to say your guy is definitely a grey. But grey works on top of whatever colors are underneath, so at this stage of grey it starts to get hard to figure out what he was before he started going through the greying process. He doesn't look like he was a roan to begin with to me... With the black on his tail and lower legs I still want to say he was bay to begin with, but he could have also been a very dark chestnut (maybe liver.) I have a harder time with minis because they have SO many color genes present in their gene-pool. You can literally have a pinto/appaloosa with classic roan AND dun AND grey all at once. Lol. Of course you can have mixed breed horses like that, but so many color genes aren't usually present in a pure breed.

I have a foal that is a pinto (tobiano), is red dun AND roan. She has a base color of chestnut with a white pattern and two modifying genes acting on top of it. Makes it confusing. Color genetics fascinate me, and there is quite a bit known about horses. If you are REALLY curious you can pull hairs and send them in for testing and they can tell you 100% if he has the grey gene, and what his base color is (chestnut or bay.) I think UC Davis does all the tests, but I'm not sure. I know they exist and can be done commercially.

I SO wish there was more research on goat colors. I think they would be even more fascinating.


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## firelight27 (Apr 25, 2009)

*Re: our 1st mini horse! new pics....*

Also wanted to say I LOVE his dam's color, and that if your guy is indeed grey then his sire HAD to be grey because his dam is definitely not and a grey horse has to have a grey parent.


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## newmama30+ (Oct 4, 2010)

*Re: our 1st mini horse! new pics....*

1) He is a nice lookin lil guy
2)Yes he can be a stallion and still be a cart horse, I have one, but they are bull headed, and as soon as I have the money mine will be a gelding!
3) I did breed my guy to my daughter's mare, but after not being able to get rid of her foal last yr bc he wasn't registerable, and now knowing that I might get $60 at the auction for this yr's foaal, IMHO follow the same advice with the mini horses as with the goats, breed up to improve on them. Our mare will be 13 next summer when she foals again, I don't plan on breeding her back again. I love the Mini's they are easy to handle and train, didn't take a whole lot to train last yrs foal to walk on a lead, stop, and back! and he was alot more of a handfull than our full grown stallion. of course each horse is differant. Good Luck with your boy!


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## minibarn (Jul 20, 2010)

*Re: our 1st mini horse! new pics....*

Well, I'm beginning to think we may end up gelding this mini horse after all. He's become quite used to us and likes to be petted but also is quick to turn and kick at us for no apparent reason. Is this because he's a stallion? If this stops with gelding him, we'd rather do that and be able to enjoy him as a pet. I contacted the vet, and they would do the whole thing for about $300canadian. Does that sound reasonable for gelding a mini? We basically got him for nothing so maybe it would make sense to spend this on him. onder:


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## lissablack (Nov 30, 2009)

I think you are making a good decision. I'm not a horse person, but having a stallion for your first horse just sounds kind of like keeping a buck for a pet, and your first goat. If it was me I'd pay the money and get it done.

Jan


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

If you have no intention of breeding him or using him for stud then I would geld him. No reason to keep him intact unless he will be used.


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

Yes, I would definately geld. The kicking is not only due to being a stallion, but also due to bad manners...he needs a firm hand and discipline when he does this. Stallions have a mind of their own and do not make good pets at all. They can be very dangerous especially to kids. 

To own a stallion, even a mini, you should be very experienced with horses and have worked with stallions previous to owning them. Not that you aren't, but they are very different then mares or geldings and shouldn't be kept as pets. Along with the danger factor...a stallion that is not able to breed and be around mares is not going to live as happy a life as if he were a gelding. 

As far as $300 geld fee...I don't know if that's reasonable where you are, but look around if you can and see what other vets are charging. I'm getting one of my studs gelded this week. They said it was $250 for him...he's a 4 yo paint.


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## minibarn (Jul 20, 2010)

my idea was to also get a mini mare and then be able to breed them but I'm thinking maybe it would be better not to own a stallion and just take the mare somewhere else for breeding if we ever want to do that. I'm definitely a newbie with horses so maybe looking after a stallion is more than I can handle. I'm trying to decide if he's worth keeping & gelding (will it really make such a huge diff in his attitude?) or if we should be looking for a new home for him again soon. He's really become quite a snot just in the last 2-3 weeks especially when we enter his stall. He likes to be petted when we're still on the other side of his pen wall but we come in, and he wants to kick us out! He also isn't walking as nice anymore on a lead as he did at first. If this all changes again for better with gelding, then I would like to keep him but if he still probably won't settle down too much, then I'm not sure I want to deal with it.


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## sulphurfire (Jul 5, 2011)

Geld him that is my opinion, and don't let him get by with having obnoxious behavior. A quick wrap with a buggy whip will teach him that kicking is unacceptable. That is dominant behavior he is trying to make the rules and he needs to understand that you are the top animal. As long as you stay consistent with expecting good manners they will improve. Think of him as a young child who is testing his limits and define those limits for him.


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## Randi (Apr 22, 2011)

Adorable! I love mini's. Color--bay roan or chocolate roan.


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## GotmygoatMTJ (Apr 25, 2009)

He's very cute and I agree with Firelight that he appears to be a liver chestnut turning grey.

We have a 6yro gelding mini that was gelded when he was 3. He still thinks hes a little hot stud muffin and can be very bullheaded. I was ground driving him the other day and out of nowhere (nothing spooked him) he just decided it would be fun to full on GALLOP. He about pulled my arms off and kind of tweaked my already messed up back. The farrier also had to bring him down to the ground just to trim his feet! But once this little guy got his head up, he was up! He lifted my 250lb farrier with his HEAD. 

So my advice, get him gelded if you are not going to breed him. It'll save you a lot of trouble!


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## BarrelRacer (Jul 22, 2013)

He is a red roan and he may or may no change.


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## audrey (Jul 17, 2012)

Stallions are absolutely NOT for anyone but the most experienced and knowledgeable equestrians. Plus, this little guy doesnt have anything about him that screams reproduce! Its way harder to sell horses than it is goats. I think you should just enjoy horse ownership a while, and learn how to handle them, before you dive into breeding. Take some lessons at a professional barn. Horses are not like any other animals, they aren't like big dogs, as some inexperienced people will tell you. Gelding him will help with his attitude, but you being skilled enough in your horse skills, knowing how to handle him will be the true key to having him be a good citizen.

Every time you handle a horse, you are training it, you are either training it to respect you, or not. I would also strongly suggest you get rid of him, since you are already considering it. A baby horse is for sure, also the worst thing you can get when you are starting out in horse ownership, add a stud colt to the mix, and that is the biggest recipe for horse ownership disaster. If you can, just give him back, else, geld and sell. YOu won't get more than 100 for him though, since he's not got that good of conformation, he's not registered, and he's well on his way to being spoiled. In the mean time, take some lessons, and prepare yourself for horse ownership. It will be all the fun it is supposed to be, if you have the skills to know what you are doing.


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## TheMixedBag (Oct 16, 2010)

I gotta agree with gelding him. He's not registered and not built well enough to warrant breeding. Mini stallions are a dime a dozen, and while he's not the worst (Einstein the dwarf wins that award in my book), he's just not good enough to be a stallion. Besides, it takes a bit more knowledge to successfully breed minis (from my experience). Mares seem to be harder to foal and dwarfism is a nasty surprise that even the best breeders still fight with. He will make a much happier gelding, and if you work on those manners (a riding crop or a short whip works wonders), you'll either find selling him is easier or he'll make a nice pet for you after all.

As for color, roan is a possibility, gray is very likely, and unless he has silver, I'm going to guess he's liver chestnut, though "wild bay" is also a possibility. His legs just aren't dark enough to be bay and he seems too light to be brown.


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

Just so you guys know, this thread is 2 years old.


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## TheMixedBag (Oct 16, 2010)

Teaches me to look at the last couple of posts...my bad.


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## audrey (Jul 17, 2012)

Doh lol


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