Adoption Story of the Month

My minis arrived at Triple H April 1, 2009 in a snow storm from Paris, Arkansas. There were 14 minis, all malnourished. Subiaco, estimated to be 5 years old, was very close to foaling. Even with extra care from Alison, Steve, and HHH, there wasn’t enough time and after 3 weeks she lost her foal.

Coury, estimated to be a 4 year old mare, showed with ultra-sound that she was 5 months pregnant. With much excitement my friend Pam & I went to Triple H on June 1st, and got Subiaco and Coury. It was midnight when we arrived home by Dazey, ND, so I left the minis in the trailer over night with some hay and water, rather than put them in a dark, strange correl. It is a 16 ft. trailer so they had room to move around. My husband Dale unloaded them early the next morning. By the time I got home the next evening from work, my granddaughter, Jerica, had them named. Coury became Pebbles, and Subiaco became Butterscotch. Both were on the wild side, but learned real fast that a pail meant pellets, and within a couple days they were running to see us. 8 year old Jerica could lead them both, and my 4 year old grandson Jared, was leading Pebbles (Coury) within a few days.

Christain was also very close to foaling when she arrived at Triple H from Paris, Arkansas. Very thin, but with extra special care from Alison and Steve and HHH she delivered a thin, but healthy foal, Slator, on May 17, 2009, just 6 weeks after arriving in starving condition. Christain is estimated to be 8 years old.

The first two pictures are Subiaco and Coury when they arrived at HHH. The next two pics are Subiaco and Coury when I picked them up to take to my home. These next two pics are Christain when she arrived and soon after she foaled. The next is a picture of Slator alone. These pictures were all taken by Alison and HHH.

I brought Christain and Slator home on July 13. From the extra attention Christain received before she foaled, she was quite tame and led real well. My minis had the run of 3 correls they shared with an old Shetland/welsh named Dusty and a black mare named McCue. The next picture is my little mini herd with McCue.

Christains name has been changed back to Trixie which was on her coggins papers, although she gets called both, and sometimes my grandson Jared calls her Justine because he couldn’t remember her name. “Trixie” has been a long time pet name for both Dale and I, both dogs and horses.

My old shetland Dusty, was in poor health the last 6 months, and the dusty correls were bad for him, so he had an open barn door and access to our yard at all times. But he would get lonesome so we started letting Pebbles run loose in the yard with him. He loved the company. And we found that she loved company also. When the grandchildren were playing in the yard, she would be about 20 or 30 feet away. If they’d go in the house, she’d find me and stay close. If I’d go in the house, I’d come back out and she’d be almost on my doorstep. Sometimes she’d get out of site, and we’d say, “Pebbles where are you?” and she’d come out from behind a lilac bush or other as if to say “I’m right here!” She also was my magic pony for awhile. One day my son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren were gone, and Dale and I left for about 2 hours and when we came home Pebbles was back in the correl with the other horses. I assumed someone stopped and seen her out and put her back in the correl. A few days later I met Dale and my son Travis on my way home, so Pebbles was alone in the yard for about 15 minutes.

When I got home she was again back in the correl. So did she magically “wish” herself back in the correl with her buddies? So I walked the three correls that they had access too and found no opening in the correl panels. I finally decided she walks under one of the gates. She never comes out by herself, just back in. That was fine until Slator realized he could get out with her by going under the gate. The two of them would get out of sight for a couple of minutes and Dale would get real nervous so he put a bale by the gate so Slator couldn’t get out anymore.

I work for NDDOT so in the summer have to stay away from home now and then. So McCue went down to pasture with two other horses I own, so that my granddaughter Jerica (almost 9 years old) could feed the minis with just a little supervision from her parents and grandpa Dale. After 4 days away, when I got home she had Slator giving her kisses.

When I got Pebbles (Coury) from HHH in the picture above, she didn’t look too bad. Keep in mind that she is also six months pregnant. In September I showed Jerica how to check her bag to see if it would start filling out. In July, August, and September I stayed in Ellendale, Wishek, Edgeley, and Jamestown. In Oct. I got on a job 6 miles from my house. Nice! I go with Asphalt paving jobs, and in order to pave the temperature has to 40 degrees and rising. Well, Oct. was cold. So I did a lot of waiting around for the temp to go up. So I could take time 2 or 3 times a day to run home and check on Pebbles.

So on Oct. 21 at 8:00 I ran home to check on Pebbles and there she was with her new baby “Paris”. The temperature was in the mid 30’s. Paris was still wet, but standing. Of course Slator came to see what we were doing and discovered Paris and thought he had a new playmate. So Pebbles and Paris got moved to an adjoining correl for 2 or 3 weeks as Slator got a little rough. Now they are good buddies. Paris is named for Paris, Arkansas. She is a little fur-ball. She gives kisses and loves attention. At 3 months she had a halter on for the first time and got her hooves trimmed. Can’t say any of them liked that too well.

All of the minis come into the barn to see us when we go out there. Butterscotch (Subiaco) usually comes to see what we are up to and then goes back to the hay bale. The rest of them stay in the barn with us until we leave. I purchased a pony cart and would like to eventually have Trixie (Christain) and Butterscotch both trained to pull a cart. Maybe Slator also. He has changed from the light colored baby he was when I got him to a Bay almost a big as his mother at 9 months old.

Pebbles makes a great pet as she likes to stand next to you and get scratched and petted. Her legs aren’t as filled out as the other two mares, but maybe because she was pregnant and less active. Maybe they will fill out this year. We’ll wait to see what Paris is like. She is so sweet and can’t wait to see her without all that hair.

We have had many visitors come to see our minis and Dale tells everyone about them. We do so love them and enjoy having them here.