Miniature Horse

The Miniature Horse is defined by height rather than by ancestry: under 34 inches for the American Miniature Horse Association, or under 38 inches for the American Miniature Horse Registry's B division.

They descend from small horses bred in Europe from the 1600s as curiosities for nobility and later as pit ponies in British and Appalachian mines.

A good Miniature is a scaled-down horse, correctly proportioned, not a dwarf. They are driven, shown in hand, and used increasingly as therapy and guide animals, and they live a long time, commonly into their thirties.

The trade is health and expectations. Dwarfism is a genuine and testable problem in the breed and dwarf foals suffer for it. They founder easily on rich grass, they need dental care more often than full-sized horses, and they are too small to be ridden by anyone but a small child.