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BY PAMELA SELBERT
Of the Post-Dispatch
10/09/2004
Kay Goessling of Ladue thinks this is just good horse sense: Miniature horses make terrific pets.
"They're great for anybody, but especially for kids, because they're not as intimidating as full-size horses," she says. "They have wonderful dispositions, unlike ponies, and will follow you around just like a dog."
Goessling had greeted us outside her home, and was eager to show off her couple dozen miniature horses. She has owned and bred the adorable pint-size creatures for 13 years. Many are fine enough for the show ring; four have been inducted into the miniature-horse hall of fame, while some are sold as family pets. And others simply stay on as pets at the nine-acre Ladue farm that Goessling and her husband, Paul, call Goose Creek, or at the family's 150-acre farm in Wildwood.
With Goessling leading the way, we headed for the corrals - there are three - and the barn in which eight small-scale stalls have doors just 31 inches high. Paintings and photos of horses, as well as ribbons and plaques from successes in the ring, decorate the walls.
On this occasion, just two of the stalls were occupied. Tan-colored Maverick, a fine-looking sorrel pinto with a blond mane, peered quizzically over his stall door. He was the first miniature born at Goose Creek, back in 1992.
"He's very sweet - we stress temperament when we breed," Goessling says, affectionately stroking the diminutive flank. "We've shown him often, and he has ribboned on every occasion - he was top horse in show three times." These days, his activities are limited to stud service, as Goessling doesn't breed and show a horse at the same time.
In the other stall is Sandy, a pregnant mare. Goessling says when a horse is close to giving birth she is confined to the barn. And if she "goes down" at night, the Goesslings are awakened by a TV in their bedroom that's connected to "foal alert" in the barn. Goessling says that years ago she bought every video available on foaling and has often assisted in the process.
Just outside the barn door, a grassy corral is teeming with perky colts not much bigger than Goessling's English setters, Gauge and Maggie, who mill among them. Her cocker spaniels, Duke and Duchess, seem equally at ease with the tiny equines.
Goessling bends to hug and pet each of the seven colts, all born over the past few months. Gestation lasts 11 months; Goessling is preparing for the 13 colts that will be born into her herd next year.
Goessling, 63, says her love affair with miniature horses began when she saw one in the Veiled Prophet Parade in 1988. Years earlier, she had fallen off a horse and broken her arm, which left her somewhat afraid of full-size horses, but "having a miniature seemed like fun," she says.
"At the time, most miniatures had long bodies and short legs. What we wanted was a shrunk-down horse," she says.
Three years later, after much searching, the Goesslings found what they were looking for - in Texas, Arizona and Nebraska - and in the summer of 1991, four miniature horses came to live at Goose Creek Farms. Now the herd has swelled to 49, many of which are on the Wildwood farm; five are on the "show string with their trainers," she said.
Miniature horses can cost from $400 to tens of thousands of dollars.
While we were admiring the colts, an even smaller creature waddled under the fence toward us. Goessling jokingly introduced her as 2-year-old Thumbelina, "our potbelly pig."
Although she does somewhat resemble the portly little pigs, she is in fact a dwarf miniature horse, the first and only baby of one of Goessling's mares (the mother was later sold as a pet). Thumbelina, with an outsize head, barrel-round body and stumpy legs, stands just 17 inches tall, and is quite possibly the smallest (and cutest) horse anywhere, her owner says.
"She rules the roost around here," Goessling says. "She goes anywhere she wants to, eats whatever she wants and loves the other horses."
For now, Thumbelina sleeps in a large igloo-style doghouse inside the barn. After being house-trained, she'll probably move into the house, Goessling says. To protect the floors from her hooves, she'll wear "booties," leather soles with drawstrings.
Goessling notes that word of her miniature horses has spread, attracting groups of schoolchildren, scouts and others to her farm, where she offers guided tours.
At least one local veterinary clinic also keeps miniature horses for people to enjoy. Hope Redeker, a technician at Equine Medical Associates, 17525 Manchester Road, says the miniature mother and son, pets of Dr. Thomas Loafmann, a veterinarian at the clinic, are a hit with clients. And for special occasions, the little male, a white 33-incher named Streak, has been known to pull a pony cart carrying children or adults; Redeker says miniatures can tow up to five times their weight.
She said miniatures are becoming more and more common as family pets.
Goessling understands the attraction. "I just love them," she says with a grin. "They're a delight to have around."
A tale of two horses
WHILE DRIVING up the lane to Norah McDermott's farm in Jefferson County, you pass a corral and barn off to the left across a pasture lavish with tall purple and yellow wildflowers. The corral is some distance from the road, but not so far that you can't see that romance is in the air - between the two horses there.
One of them - taupe colored, stately and sleek - is pressing his chest tightly against the plastic fence that divides the corral in two. His head is draped over the fence and lolls with obvious affection on the neck of his companion, a rotund little mare on the other side.
McDermott says Buck, the big dun-colored horse, who stands 15 hands (or 5 feet) high at the withers, is a "proud" gelding. This, she continues, means that, despite his gelding status, due to some oddity of nature, he can still entertain romantic notions even though he can't procreate. And although no youngster - he's a venerable 34 - he's still as frisky as can be.
His happy mood is due almost entirely to the presence of his black-beauty companion, miniature 3-year-old Cissy, who tips the charts at a scant 3 feet.
"She's actually here only to be his companion," McDermott says. "Jomo, his friend of 33 years - they had been born into the same herd - died several months ago, shortly before we moved out here. Buck was so miserable I was afraid I would lose him, too."
McDermott bought the farm in May after living for years in south St. Louis County. The move only compounded Buck's distress - but that was before he met Cissy, who belonged to the farm's previous owner, Jim Broderick. Fortunately for Buck, Broderick agreed to let his petite mare stay on as the big steed's companion.
"Now he couldn't be happier," says McDermott. "Not many horses are lucky enough to have their own pet!"
- Pamela Selbert
©2004 St. Louis Post Dispatch
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