Riverdance Miniatures in Victoria, Australia may have set a new record for the world's smallest horse. This prematurely born foal stands only 15 inches high, or 3.3 "hands", in horse-speak. The previous record for a fully grown horse was 4 hands and 1 inch.
Miniature horses are in fact, miniature horses, and not ponies. They have a higher rate of dwarfism than normal horses, because, well, they were bred for it (see earlier post on a tiny horse going bonkers).
Add one of these horses, one of the formerly featured miniature pigs, and maybe a tiny sheep, and you'd have yourself the most adorable, most genetically screwed up farm on the planet!
Thanks to Harry Hancock for sharing.
Life Science
Comments
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Posted by: Coturnix | November 25, 2008 3:56 PM
it's so cute!!!
there's also the miniature cattle...
Posted by: peter | November 25, 2008 4:03 PM
im torn on minis. on the one hand they are so adorable. on the other, they look so delicious.
Posted by: Andrew | November 25, 2008 4:21 PM
I love horses. These things are just the biological equivalent of "My Little Pony" toys, however. They are not horses; they are little bundles of grotesque wrongness which the marketers have somehow convinced people to think of as cute.
{{{shudder}}}
Posted by: Luna_the_cat | November 25, 2008 4:28 PM
Obviously fake. Horses are big.
Posted by: Katie | November 25, 2008 5:11 PM
so out of curiousity, how big is one of these compared to an eohippus?
Posted by: peter | November 25, 2008 5:33 PM
eohippus averaged 9 inches at the shoulder, so it's 6 inches larger.
Posted by: Andrew B | November 25, 2008 5:36 PM
peter: there were a number of species of "eohippus", ranging in size from as big as a collie (maybe two feet high, I guess) to as small as a domestic cat.
There's more to the Eocene "dawn horses" than size, though. So these miniature horses are as small as some ancient ones, but otherwise are very different from them.
Posted by: Maureen Lycaon | November 25, 2008 6:15 PM
OMG I want one!! I want a mini-farm! That would be AWESOME... genetically irresponsible, but totally cute.
Posted by: Christie | November 25, 2008 7:09 PM
Your minifarm needs miniature rabbits. It would be adorable to trap them with a carrot in a bottle.
Posted by: milkshake | November 25, 2008 7:26 PM
All the horribly deformed ones that die in a few months, and the less deformed ones that live, but can't walk properly...not cute. Not cute at all. This is an industry that creates hundreds of animals which have short lives filled with pain...not to advance our knowledge of biology or genetics or medicine or anything at all which could improve life for others...just so that some of the lucky ones can be owned by people who want something "cute".
Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrongwrongitywrongwrongwrong.
Posted by: Luna_the_cat | November 25, 2008 7:57 PM
"Look at the size of that boy's head! I'm not kidding, it's like an orange on a toothpick!"
Posted by: Zelly | November 25, 2008 8:59 PM
I'm waiting for a pygmy mammoth . . .
Posted by: Dan S. | November 25, 2008 10:32 PM
Dan S. -- don't you mean mimmoths?
Posted by: Luna_the_cat | November 26, 2008 3:53 AM
Ahh Luna_the_cat THANKYOU ! Sorry for yelling but you took the words right out of my mouth. Selective breeding is inevitable and serves many a good purpose, however the practice of breeding for the express purpose of creating "esthetically curious" grotesques is ethically bankrupt.
Posted by: BlindRobin | November 28, 2008 9:12 AM
technically, this is genetic modification. We are taking inherent (natural) elements within the species, and exploiting them in an unnatural way. The pigs had the predisposition to be this small, but by cross breeding (purposefully) two small pigs to get smaller pigs more frequently, we've engineered them this way. These pigs would not likely exist in a human-less environment. It's not beneficial for them to be this small. So what ever you do, if you must have your own mini pig, don't flush it down the toilet when you get bored-it won't be able to handle the sewers with the giant rats, alligators, and turtles!!! :)
Posted by: katie 2.0 | December 1, 2008 9:16 AM
Awesome! But, instead of cranberry sauce, it'd have to be horseradish!
Remember; a miniature horse is not just for xmas... Although they do make a real live nativity diorama.
Posted by: eddie | December 2, 2008 1:50 PM
Unfortunately, most of us are drawn towards tiny. We associate it with "cute" . This has spawned a lucrative market. Look at the toy breeds of dog. The smaller animal gets the reward. What they don't tell you is the smaller the animal the more frequent the health problems. Maybe it has to do with a smaller immune system?
Can't deny, they are cute!
Posted by: The Traveler | December 3, 2008 3:11 PM
Great story about miniature horses!
Johnny
Posted by: Trubee Jones | December 4, 2008 9:21 PM