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| Q. CAN YOU TELL RIGHT AWAY AT BIRTH YOUR FOAL IS A DWARF? I WAS JUST WONDERING ABOUT THAT SINCE I"VE SEEN SOME FOALS THAT i WONDERED ABOUT. IS IT 'APPARENT' AT BIRTH ALL THE TIME OR DOES IT TAKE AWHILE TO FIGURE OUT? -Marty A. I personally don't think you can tell all the time right at birth. It is my understanding that they can or do get worse as they get older. Right now I think mine might be a minimal dwarf, but would not have thought that at birth. -barb I do not know about all dwarfs. With mine you could tell she was a dwarf from the minute she foaled. She had to have braces put on her legs right away to kep them from retracting. -bean With Little Bit you could definately tell he was a dwarf at birth, had all his legs braced the first night he was born. His little tongue was out of his mouth about 6 inches and it was purple. He could not nurse besides he was to short to reach his Momma's teats. Tessa, I am sure you could tell she was a dwarf but we did not see her until she was 9 months old. Dusty you could not tell, in fact he is Registered with AMHA He is a minimal dwarf, and to tell you the truth I would be courious if AMHA would give him his permanent papers. He looks a little more dwarfy than he did when he was given to me. -little_bit With Angel I could tell right after birth? Her little legs were and she had an undershot jaw? I held her up to Mom for 3 days every 11/2 hr. Went out the third evening to help her nurse and she had gotten up on her rubber legs and starting to nurse, she was leaning all her weight on Mom so she wouldn't fall. I knew right then that she had a strong will to live and I will do anything it takes to help this little girl. - bill From what I heard, it was known that Precious was a dwarf right from the beginning. Also it was a difficult birth. We adopted her when she was weaned. -pat & precious |
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| Q. CAN A DWARF BE REGISTERED? A.Not with AMHA or AMHR it is our understanding that WCMHR does |
| Q. I"m taking notes here for my general information and wanted to know if a dwarf required a special diet other than what you would normally feed a horse and also what about vitamins? -marty A. Certainly don't quote me by any means, but from what I am reading I think if they have any joint problems some are feeding the feed for senior horse, and some are using glucosamine which is great for arthritic type things. I am sure someone that feeds one will be alot more helpful here. I'm in training so to speak as well. -barb Every dwarf is different, just like the regular miniatures. My Tessa and Dusty live in the pasture with my 4 regular minis and a mini donkey. We have a LOT of grass, so I don't feed them anything else in the spring,summer or fall, in the winter when the grass is not too plentiful, I will spread out a big flake of hay across the pasture for everyone to share night and morning. That's it, and they are fat as little ticks! They get their daily wormer, they think it's a treat, and have their salt/mineral block to lick. A couple times a year I give them the paste wormer, Ivermectin. Miniatures are like the Shetlands, they utilize every bit of the nutrition they take in, that's why there are so many fat minis! Some dwarves have very special needs though, Little Bit drank his milk replacer from a bowl until he was about 8 months old. He didn't want any pelleted food for a long time, but if I recall right, he started eating it when he was about 4 months old. I had just weaned him off of the milk replacer when his hip broke,(8 months old) so then I put him back on it for the extra calcium for another 3 or 4 months. He could not eat grass hay until he was about a year old, his little digestive system was just not ready for it. He could eat just a tiny bit, less than half a handfull, and get constapated really bad! But after he was about a year old he was able to eat it okay. He was eating a 10% pelleted food for about 2 years, then all of a sudden he lost quite a bit of weight, now we think it was from the Clenbuterol, that they had him on for his allergies. Anyway an equine nutritionist at A & M researched for me and decided that Equine Senior would be the best food for him, and he ate that for almost a year. Then one day I was concerned about him because his urine was dark and pretty thick, partly because he was a little stinker about not drinking enough water! The urine sample said that he was getting too much protein in his diet. Equine Senior has 14% protein. The local vet said to cut the E.S. with the 10% pellet for a while and gradually wean him over to the 10% all together. A friend of mine in VA who has rescued many dwarves, says that a miniature of any kind does not need anymore than a 10% feed, unless of course it is a special situation, broodmares, breeding stallions, or underweight, sickly horses. She says too much protein can cause all kinds of problems in miniatures! -little_bit All of our horses get a 10%pelleted (Buckeye)and oats 50/50 of each. I had been convinced to put them on the Buckeye, but find none of our horses have done well on it so I am mixing the 2 currently and will be eventually feeding oats/flax/vitamins as they have always thrived on that. GRASS HAY ONLY as the vets here say any other hay is not for horses. I think it is the ammount fed that is also important Pixie gets the most of all the minis to maintain her weight. Because of her dental problems, we at times have to run it thru a spice grinder to make sure she gets the protein etc. salt/mineral blocks also. Worm (roate)every 8 weeks. Good to gather the info never know when you or someone else might need it. -Jean I think and this is my opinion- a dwarf should be treated as much like a horse as possible. LIke it or not they are still horses not our little toys. Sadie gets alfalfa hay in the morning about 1/4 of a small flake she wont overeat as most of my hroses when they are full they stop at night she gets 1 cup of soaked beet pulp not one cup then soaked but 1 cup of the soaked mixture- 1 cup of rolled oats and 1 cup of a strategy type feed called cadence -Sadie I may be coming in on this one a little late...but just thought I would add what Precious eats. She gets daily wormer in with her very small amount of sweet feed in the morning. (12%), a few hours out on the pasture if possible and then a very small amount of sweet feed in the evening but this time with glucosomine with MSM added also. All our horses get hay 24/7 in their stalls. (a timothy grass mix) She also enjoys a little treat of cut up apple or carrot or her all time favorite...horse pepperments. We try to be sure she does not get too heavy because of her bad legs....but so far her weight stays steady and the vet is pleased. -Pat & Precious |
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