The American Miniature Horse is an American breed of small or miniature horse. It has been selectively bred to display in miniature the physical characteristics of a full-sized horse, and usually stands no taller than about . It frequently has the appearance of either a small Arab or a small draft horse; genetically it is no different to pony breeds such as the Shetland.
Characteristics
The American Miniature has been selectively bred to display in miniature the physical characteristics of a full-sized horse. It frequently has the appearance of either a small Arab or a small draft horse. Although its appearance is horse-like, it is genetically no different to pony breeds such as the Shetland.
The American Shetland Pony Club registers horses in two sections: section A is for horses no taller than , and section B for those standing up to . The American Miniature Horse Association does not register any horse standing over . Height is not measured to the withers, as is usual in horses, but to the root of the last hair of the mane.
All coat colors, eye colors, coat patterns and markings are equally acceptable for registration. Some colors that are rare in full-sized American horses are seen in the breed, such as bay silver dapple – light bay with white mane and tail and black legs.
History
The American Miniature Horse was developed in the twentieth century. It appears to derive at least in part from animals brought to the USA from the United Kingdom. These may have included British and Dutch pit ponies imported in the late nineteenth century and used until the mid-twentieth century in the coal mines of the eastern and central United States, and some descendants of small horses bred in England in the first half of the twentieth century by Lady Estella Mary Hope and her sister Lady Dorothea.
In 1972 the American Shetland Pony Club started a stud-book for the miniatures, called the American Miniature Horse Registry. A separate breed association, the American Miniature Horse Association, was formed in 1978.
In 2005 almost horses were registered in the American Shetland Pony Club stud-book, and the American Miniature Horse Association register held over .
The American Miniature is distributed throughout the United States, and is also present in Germany and the United Kingdom.
References About the Breed. American Miniature Horse Association. Archived 30 April 2014.
The Association. American Miniature Horse Association. Archived 1 April 2013.
Breed Standards. American Miniature Horse Association. Archived 1 April 2013.
American Miniature Horse. Morton, Illinois: The American Shetland Pony Club. Archived 14 December 2006.
Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. . Archived 23 June 2020.
Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. .
Breed data sheet: American Miniature / United States of America (Horse). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed August 2022.
Breed data sheet: American Miniature Horse / Germany (Horse). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed August 2022.
Breed data sheet: American Miniature Horse / United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Horse). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed August 2022.
Judith Dutson (2005). Storey's Illustrated Guide to 96 Horse Breeds of North America. North Adams, Massachusetts: Storey Publishing. .
Élise Rousseau, Yann Le Bris, Teresa Lavender Fagan (2017). Horses of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. .
External links
American Miniature Horse Association American Miniature Horse Registry of the American Shetland Pony Club