Our Mini Shannon

We certainly have a way of picking animals. It's taken five months now to get this miniature horse calm enough to accomplish this photo, but this past weekend was sweet success. I wouldn't say she is broken or bullet proofed by any means, but my two daughters and husband have worked awfully hard to take good care of her and begin simple ground training.

Shannon is 6 years old, give or take some as she was purchased through a breeder that got her from an amish family. We realize that could mean about anything, but one thing for sure is that she was in with about 25 other minis and a stud roaming around and not worked with at all. So, basically we paid a foolish price to rescue her!

Shannon is a size B pinto, and makes it by 1 inch to spare. No perfect lines or papers here, but a real treasure as a pet. She is strong as can be and we figure she can take the weight of our 40 lb. daughter. We have a small saddle as the girls ride a paint up at a neighbors farm, but Teacup was wanting to ride bare back and I thought that might just be alright as this lady is not used to the weight. Obviously we are novices and extremely naive ones at that as we are still trying to decide if we have a fat mini or a mini with foal. We are guessing a fat mini that needs more exercise and less sweet feed. After hearing the additional fee of a pregnancy test on top of our vet bill, we decided to shoot for the surprise method. So far, no surprise and so we are counting the months until she is out of her window of possibilities so that we feel the freedom to exercise her more.

Shannon's got a long ways to go as we still have the occasional attempt to nibble, butt my husband when working in the field and she is just plain a sassy mare. She definitely needs discipline not to get into our personal space! However, through the fence she is as tender as they come with eyes that can melt you. She is a good listener too and we are whispering her into seeing things our way a bit more. I think she's turning around some, enjoying our company and tolerating being petted and groomed much more than before. She's a keeper and the problem with these minis is they are so cute and such social animals that she really needs a friend. Someone once told me they are like potato chips and you just can't have one, but for now we've got one and that's good enough to practice contentedness with. We originally bought her with the intention of cart training but delayed that thought after getting to know Shannon, so we really never dreamed this would occur. Oh, and see the nice smile on my husband's face? What a guy.....he just had his foot stepped on prior to my photo taking. Perhaps new boots are in order for him.