I was once just like you. Full size horses only, preferably one, and preferably broke and ready to ride. I looked at mini horses and just couldn’t imagine wanting or needing one. Sure, they’re cute, but you CAN’T ride them, what’s the point?
Almost continuously throughout my childhood and adult life, I’ve had a horse. For eight years, I had an absolute Unicorn. She was the quintessential grey Arabian. Refined, athletic, an absolute Ferrari to ride. We did everything together, jumping, dressage, chasing cows, trails, camping, distance riding and I could even ride her completely tackless. Then, the unthinkable happened, she dropped dead.
I once read that the worst luck happens to your best horses. Martina died on a chilly day in January in Idaho. There was fresh snow on the ground from the day before, so we could see her tracks clearly. She was standing, and then she fell over dead. She didn’t thrash around at all. Just died right where she stood. She was fine at breakfast, and then she was gone.
It was a devastating blow that I think I’ll share more about in a later post. With horses, the highs are so high and the lows are so low. You want to hold on so tight, but they remind us that in this world, you can’t hold onto anything tight enough. People, horses, pets, friends, times and places, they’re all temporary.
About a year after losing Martina, I had my son, and we still had Monk and Bamboozal. We took Bamboozal home to my parents’ farm in Florida, right down the street from where he was born. He was settled in there, enjoying retirement at the farm he spent most of his life at. Max rode Monk when he had time and I focused on caring for a newborn baby during the beginning of the pandemic.
When our kiddo was about one, I took on a green mule from my dad. Mule Pancake. I didn’t have the time to devote to her or the skills to bring her along, so I consigned her with a fantastic trainer and she went to the BEST home. She’s still there now, and winning ribbons and hearts.
Feeling bewildered by the still HUGE loss of my once-in-a-lifetime heart horse Martina and having had a failed go with a complicated mule, I set my sights on a mini horse. A mini horse felt safe, emotionally and physically. Horse shopping as a new mother is absolutely INSANE. You’re keenly aware of your physical safety. Shady sellers are all over the place, and you just about have to buy sight-unseen these days to even secure a horse! Who knows what you get when you bring it home and who will take care of the baby if you’re injured?? I tabled my desire to get back to riding and focused on finding a good mini to share with my kiddo.
I didn’t care what color, all that mattered was that I found one with a good temperament. I saw an ad from a well-known pony trader a few hours away from us and went out to see Jasper. He was two things, very calm, but also attentive. Some horses are so quiet and cold blooded that they seem kind of dull to what’s happening around them.
Jasper, from the first moment we met, was quiet, but also wanting to “say hello” and engage with us. He seemed aware of our interest in him and aware of the little person we brought with us to meet him. It’s funny to think back to four years ago and our first encounter with him, when he seemed a certain way, which is hard to articulate without it sounding kind of silly. Now that I know him so well, it’s obvious, he’s just very emotionally intelligent. He’s looped into people and kids, and a little more attuned than most horses appear to be.
We brushed him and let the trader give us her spiel. She ran him around in a a round pen with other ponies to show he could “go in traffic” and then saddled him up. We lead our then two-year old kiddo around on his back, and at one time, our son shifted in the saddle a little, and Jasper stopped in his tracks and waited for us to get him balanced again. He was said to be “broke to drive” but the seller didn’t have a working cart. Max and I both ground drove him, and I was so pleasantly surprised at how soft his mouth was. He was so responsive and light, but also had a calmness about him.
We didn’t negotiate at all, he was a bargain of a price. Although he had no papers, quite a few grey hairs and what we didn’t know at the time, he had a raging case of strangles chondroids, that ended up being pretty expensive to treat, more on that for another day too…
A little over four years on, and I can’t imagine life without Jasper McTavish. He’s been an absolute gem for our kiddo to learn about horses with. Care, handling, husbandry, riding and driving. I’ve developed a love for driving, and an appreciation for small horses that I never could have imagined.
Jasper has really opened my heart in a way that I didn’t expect. He’s just a little horse, a mini pony. Unregistered, plain black, sometimes washed out, sometimes too shaggy, but underneath is a heart that is as big as any large performance horse. Pound for pound, Jasper is as good as any war horse ever was. I’ve seen him connect with children, elderly and disabled people and he really does have a unique emotional intelligence. I think this is why people take minis to children’s hospitals and old folks’ homes.
Life is as busy as it can get, but I really need to make it a priority to get Jasper certified as a therapy horse. Is it all mini horses that have this capability or is Jasper unusually special? Do you have any Miniature Horses? I would love to hear about them! Drop me a comment or find us on social media @jasper_mctavish on instagram. Until next time, Happy Trails!
