Talk:Miniature horse

Annoying Redirect

I read this page, and then I followed a link over to read the article about ponies. That article mentioned miniature horses and miniature ponies, so I clicked the link for miniature ponies, and I ended up right back here. This page does not talk about miniature ponies as anything distinct from miniature horses, so I'm annoyed, but I don't know what ought to be done about it. Are miniature ponies something different than miniature horses? -ErinHowarth (talk) 22:57, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

Well, with minis are really just little tiny equines, but what is called "miniature horse" has more horse-like features, and a "miniature pony" would be more pony-like in proportion. You can compare pictures of American Miniature Horse and Mini Shetlans Pony for example to see the difference. Pitke (talk) 07:33, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

The Miniature horse people basically go ballistic if you dare to call their little dears "ponies." (I've judged minis. I've read the breed standard, I've seen the wide range of body types that's actually out there. They ALL have pony breeding and often a pony phenotype even though the breeders and breed standard vehemently deny this. Some of them have so much dwarfism that they actually look like sausages with legs, but that's another problem...) Europeans acknowledge the existence of a "mini" Shetland, but trust me, it's better to just have them all in one place. Montanabw^(talk) 21:14, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Montanabw is right. White Arabian mare (talk) 19:32, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Arabian type Minis

There should be a note in the conformation section about how many Minis, especially those bred within the last ten years or so, have Arabian conformation, with dished faces, flat croups and crested necks. I had added a sentence or two about that, but somebody removed them. White Arabian mare (talk) 18:37, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

I probably did so; we don't want to confuse these with real Arabians (they've been showing them with Arab tack for at least 20 years that I know of). Also, and more important, if we are going to add material like that, we need to go out and find sources to verify the information. (See WP:RS) If you can find articles on breeding to a more Arabian look, feelfree to post them here and we can see if we can work that into the article. Montanabw^(talk) 04:26, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Ok, I will see if I can find any. I've seen ads for Minis that you'd swear were Arabians if there wasn't a human in the picture as a size reference, and the stallion in the pic at the top of that section has Arabian conformation. White Arabian mare (talk) 02:05, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

When I've judged them (not often) I see a lot of broad foreheads and dishes, but that could be other pony influence... I'm not in a hurry to compare minis to Arabians due to the problems minis have with dwarfism and other problems. There isn't any close-up Arabian breeding in them; they are more like comparing a Shetland Sheepdog to a Rough Collie; a great example of how selective breeding can imitate a phenotype even when the original genes are waaaaaay back.  ;-) Montanabw^(talk) 01:42, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Pony differentiation

The lead should include a brief description differentiating ponies from miniature horses. Often a reader just needs to find out if this is the correct article for the desired information -- or if another article is more appropriate. If possible, please clarify this in the lead (I have read the entire article and am still unsure). Thanks, ~107.15.152.93 (talk) 08:04, 27 January 2018 (UTC)

Proposed merge of American Miniature Horse into Miniature horse

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

To not merge, as American Miniature Horse is a notable subset of Miniature horse warranting separate discussion. Klbrain (talk) 10:07, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

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Content fork. Doesn't need two articles. Put American MH into Miniature Horse. Separate registries for different countries doesn't make a separate breed for encyclopedic purposes. We don't have separate dog or cat breed articles by country even though there are multiple registries, so why would we do that with horse breeds. See as examples Border Collie and Persian cat. Use similar logic, standards, and formats. ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 07:57, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

Er, no, oppose – not a content fork, one is a general page about a type of horse found in many parts of the world, the other a page on one of the several distinct breeds within that type (of which the most significant by far is the Falabella). Why is the article on the American breed proposed for merging while those on other miniature breeds are not? Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 08:57, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

To answer your question, I was editing List of North American horse breeds and reading its talk page—not looking at miniature breeds. And most of the content of AMH came from MH in the first place; but you would know that because I see you're the editor who did that. ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 09:46, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

I would oppose this too. American Miniatures are a sub-group of Miniature horses. Showing classes sometimes specify one or the other in the UK and handlers are very vocal on the subject of how the American Miniature has changed the breed type and not for the better. Indie (talk) 14:50, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Added images

I added some images. I specifically selected the top two images so as to show the comparison of the miniature horse size to humans.   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 14:12, 7 July 2025 (UTC)