Q. Are they a mini, miniture, minature, midget pony, miniature Shetland, miniature pony, mini pony, miniture pony, or minature pony? What is the proper name and spelling of this breed?   A. It should be miniature horse - or more specifically American Miniature Horse. They shouldn't be a dwarf or midget, but a nicely proportioned horse in miniature.

Q. How much does it cost to keep a miniature horse? A. We are feeding 44 right now on $41 a week for grain, so that's pretty close to $1 a week for grain. If they are in a dry lot and need hay, one would consume about two bales in a month, and around here good coastal is around $3.50 a bale. So you are looking at around $11 for feed and hay. They need their feet trimmed on the average of 8 week intervals, at an average price of $15, so $7.50 per month there. Worming every three to 4 months, 1 tube of Zimectrin will worm the average size mini 4 to 5 times, so about $1 a month or less there. $11 + $7.50 + $1.00 = around $20 per month.

Q. I was wondering how I would go about testing a stallion to see if he is homozygous for the black gene. About how much does it cost and what do you have to do? A. This page has just about everything you need to get you started...info on color genetics and how to get testing http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/service/horse/coatcolor.html Right now the color testing is limited to base colors (red or black), agouti (gene that modifies black to bay), cream (dilute gene - palomino, buckskin, smokey black, cremello, perlino, smokey cream), Lethal White Overo (frame overo), and tobiano.   They are working on a few new tests; Sabino 1 is the first to become available. You could test for LWO and Sabino 1 (sabino is usually grouped with overo patterns).  Other DNA tests are available through Animal Genetics, Inc., 1336 Timberlane Road, Tallahassee, FL 32312  850-386-2973.  They use hair.  Get a result in 5 working days or less.  It was $25.00.  They will send the results email and than follow up with a nice certificate.