# Do you think this is real?



## dashygirl (Nov 21, 2006)

At first I was like no way is this real, but the more I look at it, the more I think it is.


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## Visibre (Jul 14, 2009)

Yes, this is real. lol.

It's the smallest horse in the world and one of the biggest ...


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## sillybunny11486 (Oct 2, 2009)

I thought the current smallest was a foal?


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## bubblegum (Oct 6, 2009)

definatly real, saw an article on it a while back,


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

Isn't that Tinkerbell? The little dwarf mini?


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## My Beau (Jan 2, 2009)

Pretty sure her name is Thumbelina.


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## Rissa (Feb 10, 2009)

ShutUpJoe said:


> Isn't that Tinkerbell? The little dwarf mini?



Thumbelina!


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## juneau (Apr 6, 2009)

Her names Thumbelina! I have seen her on tv, youtube and other places. she is real.


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## ChevyPrincess (Aug 27, 2009)

Poor baby! She is so deformed! That is so sad, look at her poor neck and back legs are shorter than her front legs. She must have all kinds of problems...


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## Honeysuga (Sep 1, 2009)

Im pretty sure deformities aside she has a wonderful quality of life, with all of the media coverage and her going to hospitals and stuff i almost guarantee she is kept in the best health she can be.


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## Brighteyes (Mar 8, 2009)

Ha ha, you're right; that horse has it made!  I've seen lots of articles and videos on her. Spoiled little thing!


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## Honeysuga (Sep 1, 2009)

Though i do feel bad for her, in one of her videos they have her in a little pen and people keep reaching in and touching her and she is trying to bite and kick but she cant get her little legs up high enough... poor little girl, must be hard always being poked at and petted, even if she is spoiled as heck.


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## BaileeJJMommy (Oct 6, 2009)

This is mean, but her build reminds me of a wild boar or hog. lol
I bet she is very spoiled, but I hope they don't try to pass on the tininess and breed her.


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## dashygirl (Nov 21, 2006)

Oh my gosh - how cool! I learned something new today!


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

I was close lol Doesn't she have dwarfism?


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## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

Severe dwarfism. It makes me sick to my stomach. This stuff REALLY ticks me off. It promotes the idea that dwarf miniatures are cute, when they're just a riddled mess of painful problems and ailments. The vast majority die far before reaching adulthood. Any miniature horse breeder worth a lick would be downright ASHAMED to produce something like that.

Yeah, great quality of life. That's why she's constantly trying to kick the ever loving daylights out of every child grabbing at her. It never ceases to amaze me how things like starvation and neglect are abuse, and yet this is seen as perfectly acceptable - a simple "mistake" like Lethal White Overos.

No baby is a mistake and it can all be prevented. Irresponsibility causing severe pain is the exact definition of abuse in my opinion.

/end rant


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## dashygirl (Nov 21, 2006)

MacabreMikolaj said:


> No baby is a mistake and it can all be prevented.


I don't understand what you mean by this in relation to the rest of your post. Please elaborate.


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## mom2pride (May 5, 2009)

I've seen that picture around for a long time; I don't think it's fake. It's cute!


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## LeahKathleen (Mar 5, 2009)

dashygirl said:


> I don't understand what you mean by this in relation to the rest of your post. Please elaborate.


I think what Miko means is that in the horse world, you can't pass of a baby as a "mistake" - breeding like that is flat out ignorance.

I don't think she meant in the sense that it often is used with human children (i.e. "no baby is a mistake because every life is precious") - I believe shes means that when you breed a horse with deformities like that, you are at _fault_. It cannot be passed off as an "accident" because education and proper precautions could have prevented it.

Correct me if that's not what you meant, Miko.


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## dressagebelle (May 13, 2009)

I do agree that it is cute in that particular picture, but I also agree that horses with dwarfism do suffer from lots of problems, and do die young. Some don't even make it past a couple of days. If you think about it though, as sad as it is, miniature horses came about by people breeding the smallest horses to the smallest horses in hopes of getting a small horse, and so on and so forth through the generations, and in doing so, have created problems such as dwarfism. Other horse breeds, as well as dog breeds also have issues that have been created by trying to breed to such a specific want/need, so even if you say breed two "perfectly normal" minature horses together in the hopes of getting a "normal" minature, you can potentially end up getting a dwarf miniature, so it is not always intentional.


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## mom2pride (May 5, 2009)

If I remember right, that tiny horse wasn't bred to be that small, she just 'happened'. And her owners have no intentions of breeding her. That's not to say that other people wouldn't try to copy what happened, though...that's the sad part.


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## dashygirl (Nov 21, 2006)

LeahKathleen said:


> I believe shes means that when you breed a horse with deformities like that, you are at _fault_. It cannot be passed off as an "accident" because education and proper precautions could have prevented it.


That is more or less what I thought, I just wasn't sure.

So then tell me this - can dwarfism happen in horses just as it can in people? Because dwarfism in people cannot be "prevented", it's genetic, right?


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## MN Tigerstripes (Feb 20, 2009)

I don't believe it can be prevented... the effects can be mitigated through the administration of some hormones. I'm not 100% on this though, I'd have to look through my Physiology book first.


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