Mini Horse Palooza

I recently attended a mini horse palooza! The four day occasion consisted of show classes, clinics, social get-togethers and two auctions.

This was an event put on by multiple sponsors including the American Shetland Pony Club, American Miniature Horse Registry and the Pinto Horse Association (which offers a lot of miniature horse classes at their PtHA shows).

Due to time and travel restraints, I attended just the clinic day which featured over a dozen clinicians and 104 attendees from 20 the USA and Canada.

The clinic was oriented towards show ponies and minis. Although I will hopefully some day end up with a backyard driving mini, probably not a refined show pony, there was still plenty for me to learn and apply. If you have not previously read about my interest in miniature horses, you can read last year’s post Miniature Horse Driving Clinic.

As a person new to this pony/mini show world, I was struck by the friendliness of the event organizers and clinicians. I’ve been to plenty of horse events where I could barely get anyone to make eye contact with me, return a smile or engage in casual chit-chat. Not so with this crowd. It didn’t seem to matter if I was talking with a multi-national champion trainer or another amateur enthusiast. Folks were delightfully welcoming and down to earth.

There were multiple presentations scheduled in different areas around the show grounds. Topics ranged from driving to showmanship to obstacles to jumping in-hand. In addition, there were clinics about the benefits of dental, hoof care, massage and chiropractic work for the mini/pony. I leaned heavily on attending the driving presentations but wished I could have worked in the other subjects too. So much to learn!

As a bonus, the clinic registration fee included a lunch and gift bag at no extra cost. I got to come home with a new tote and all kinds of nifty horse samples and coupons!

And they had the most fantastic door prizes including fun gift bags full of horsey stuff, several huge grooming packages from Farnam and $50 tack gift certificates. My number wasn’t drawn for any of them, but I appreciated the work that someone put into gathering up all those items for the lucky winners to enjoy.

There were also vendors at the event, including Star Lake Tack. Walking through their trailers full of horse stuff for sale, I felt I was walking through a miniature doll house. I didn’t buy anything, but I gushed over the teeny-tiny fly masks, hay bags and halters. The thought occurred to me that equipment shopping for a new miniature horse would be a hoot.

On a related note, the venue where this event was held was a place I had once shown my horse, Bear. Readers may recall that Bear passed away last year.

I took a little walk down memory lane as I located the stall where Bear stayed. And then I cringed when I recalled that day wasn’t one of our better performances. The best thing I can say about the class is that I stayed on.

I laughed at how often my ambitions seem to outstretch my abilities when it come to horses. I always want to do more than I am apparently capable of doing. Would it be any different for me with miniature horses than the big ones? I’m still hoping someday to find that out.

Anywho, I am so glad I got to attend this mini palooza. It sure was a whole lot of miniature horse fun!