The latest addition to the Little America family is Lisa Vanderpump, one of the stars of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Vanderpump Rules, and a celebrity on the 2013 season of Dancing with the Stars.  She asked her friend, Tina to find the smallest, best conformation, light colored miniature horse that could be bought.  Tina, an experienced horsewoman who has trained Polo Ponies and has participated in Polo for years, was the perfect choice for the job.

A mutual friend emailed me about a month ago asking about the smallest and best that we had available and I made some suggestions, but didn’t hear back, so thought nothing of it.  Apparently Lisa, on her own had found a horse advertised as the smallest in the world, so they decided that was the one they wanted.  However, upon flying across the nation to purchase the horse they found that it was not what they were seeking.

Realizing that time was very short because the horse was to be a surprise for Lisa’s husband, Ken Todd, who was having his 70th birthday on July 20, 2015.  The horse had to be there if humanly possible.  It is ironic that that is my wife’s birthday too and the twentieth anniversary of buying our ranch in Buda.  We were at a horse show with three of the Thursday Kids, my daughter Lauren and her boyfriend, thirteen minis and myself.  Tina called but I was in the ring and didn’t check my phone until much later.  In desperation she visited a couple of other places, but everyone told her that if she wanted the smallest available, to go to Little America.  I finally checked my phone Saturday night and found a couple of messages plus texts from Tina.  I called her back that night and said that I would be happy to show her horses when I got back, but that wouldn’t be until Sunday night.

The next morning she called back and asked if there was any way that someone could let her “preview” the horses before I got back.  I reluctantly told her that I would contact Armando, who is my right hand man at the ranch, and she could go over.  Later in the afternoon when I was watching the kids show, Armando called saying that they, Tina and her husband, Hank, liked two of the horses and really needed to get them the next morning.  After talking to Tina on the phone, I agreed and asked Armando to clean the pair, Little America’s Sensational Goldie and Little America’s Galaxy Boogie, up and halter break Galaxy who had just been weaned a few days before.

When I got home Sunday evening, I went to the barn and saw that he had clipped Galaxy and touched up Goldie who had been shown earlier in the year and had also made an appearance with me in February on KXAN’s Studio 512.

He told me that we had to have them at the San Marcos airport at 9 the next morning because they were flying to California to get to a birthday party that afternoon or evening!

When I talked to Tina that night I told her that I needed the contact information for the new owner so I could get the paperwork done.  She asked if she could give me that information when she got back from California because she could not reveal the name of the buyer before the presentation of the horses because it was going to be televised and she was not at liberty to tell me yet.  She also said that she wasn’t sure, but that she might buy one of them and her friend the other, that she would give her a choice.  I said that would be fine and proceeded to get everything ready.  She wanted to also buy a show halter that they could use when the horse was presented at the party.  I always love a good mystery and was up for it!

The next morning Armando and his son, Gabriel, went with me to the airport.  When we got there I wasn’t sure where to go, so pulled into the parking lot and called Tina.  She told me to pull out on to the tarmac and gave me the plane’s number.  She said her husband and son, their pilot, were already there and she was about 15 minutes away.  We pulled our mini pickup and mini trailer out to the plane.  When we unloaded the horses we drew a crowd of the workers and each plane that landed while we were there walking them around.

We took some pictures with Tina and her son/pilot, Houston, then loaded the horses into the plane, a Cessna Mustang.  Another irony, my nephew teaches pilots that plane at Simuflite Dallas, where he and his dad Ricky are both instructors. They had removed two seats, put down a tarp and had it nicely bedded with shavings for the four hour trip to the west coast.

After the horses made it and the party was done, Tina texted me that the buyer was Lisa Vanderpump and they were gifts for her husband, Ken Todd.  A day later I was at the USDA waiting to get paperwork for horses going to Mexico, Ricky called me and said, “Your horses are on TV.  They were just featured on TMZ.”  From there the publicity has been fun to follow.

It turned out, Lisa was shocked to see TWO horses, but decided that she couldn’t choose between the two, so she was going to buy both.   Hank and Tina wanted to buy Galaxy as their gift to Ken, but Lisa insisted and bought both of them. (TMZ reported incorrectly that she got a two for one deal for $3,500.  She had planned on one but ended up buying both.  Many other sources copied the erroneous info.)  It happens that about a year ago after a wonderful evening with Lisa and Ken, Tina asked herself what could she get a person who had everything.  Then she thought, Lisa loves animals, I love horses, how about a tiny miniature horse?  She discarded the thought, then a year later, Lisa came up with the same idea!  What is it they say about great minds?

Guess I will have to set my DVR to record The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills next season so I can keep an eye on our pretty pair!  Stay tuned…

The view of the inside of the plane

Lisa Vanderpump horse stall

Designed and built by Mohamed Hadid

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I quickly finished putting out feed for the mares and drove the Gator back to the pasture to check to see if I was right.  As I got closer I saw a big flash of white on the “something laying in the grass” and thought, “Yea!  An appaloosa hopefully.  Just hope it is okay.”  As I got closer I saw the tail swish and breathed a sigh of relief to know that it was indeed a tiny little appaloosa, and best of all alive!

His dam, Little America Color’s Mandy, is a six-year-old mare and this is her first foal.  She is more difficult to handle than most of our mares and I knew that I would have a difficult time catching her in the eighty-five acre pasture, but figured that I could carry her foal and she would follow us back up to the barn.  When I reached them the foal sat up, but didn’t stand, so I was able to catch him and examine him all over.  I found that he was very correct, tiny, bay with a star and snow cap blanket.  I also found that the lashes one of his eyes were inside his eyes, so I brushed them out and checked both eyes.  They were very red but that is not too unusual for a newborn.

I picked up the tiny guy and put him in my lap between me and the steering wheel.  Mandy started running around the Gator, but I finally got her attention and she located the foal, so we started driving slowly to the barn.  As we went along I started thinking about a name, first thinking of Little Man, but as I thought more, I decided on Little America’s My Color Man.  We generally use part of the sire (stallion/father’s) name.  Since his sire is Little America’s My Oh My, I used “My”.  His grandsire is Winner’s Circle True Colors, I used “Color”.  And since his dam (mother), I used Man.

Sire:  Little America’s My Oh My

Grand Champion at the Ft. Worth Exposition and Livestock Show in January 2012

Once we got to the barn I wormed Mandy since we worm all our mares within twenty-four hours which seems to cut down on foal heat scours.  I noticed that one of her hooves needed trimming so I trimmed a little on both of her back feet then took the pair to the foaling barn which is next to our house where we can keep a close watch on new babies and mothers for a few days.

When I put them in the yard I watched long enough to note that the dam was moving away every time that he tried to nurse.  Since this was her first foal and she was “ticklish” I guess.  I brought them into the barn and tied her up and held him to try to get him to nurse.  He wouldn’t try because be had been scared trying to nurse before I found him.  I finally decided that I had to get something down him, so milked the mare and luckily he took to drinking from a syringe quickly.  I was able to get about fifty cc of colostrum down him so that was a relief.  At first I had to put a twitch on her to get her to let me milk her.  This went on every couple of hours for about thirty-six hours.  Thank goodness he finally started nursing and she started letting him nurse and is now progressing nicely.

Here he is at six days: 

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Our foaling barn has six foaling stalls and we have closed circuit TV so that we can watch the mares when they are moved into the barn.  Using Breeder Alert monitoring equipment we are awakened when a mare lays down flat for fifteen seconds.  The pager, which I carry during the day and attach to my pillow while I am asleep, alerts me to check the monitors which are located in several locations in the house, to see if the mare is in labor or just sleeping.  If she is in labor I will quickly go to the barn in case she needs assistance.  You can follow our foaling adventures as I plan to blog about it.  So stay tuned.

While you are waiting you can take a tour of the ranch.

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You can’t go too far into the history of AMHA without Tony Greaves and Little America horses popping up. Tony has worn many hats in his service to the AMHA. He was a past AMHA President, a volunteer Executive Secretary, and a board member for several years. A staunch supporter for AMHA, he has tirelessly exhibited and demonstrated the versatility of the Miniature horse all over the world, to anyone who would listen. He has been an ambassador for the breed and knows the history of our horses almost better than anyone. When asked about his favorite horse that he produced, he asked to write about two horses … his two incredible boys.

As told by Tony Greaves

Years and years of little horses have filled my life since I was born into a family that was breeding Shetlands over sixty years ago. Through the years I have found that you are very lucky when a very special horse enters your life. We had two horses we felt were so incredible, that the name seemed to pick itself.

Our first “Incredible” was foaled in 1999. Little America’s D. S. Incredible. For many years one of my goals was to breed the smallest colorful appaloosa with great conformation, with emphasis on a beautiful head. On March 30, 1996, late in the afternoon, I went to check on the mares close to foaling, which were kept in the yard beside our house. Little America’s Tex Belle was going into labor, so I sat on the porch to watch what was going on, to be handy if I was needed. The progress was quick and when the foal arrived and I pulled the amniotic sack off, I was so thrilled to see what was inside the sack … so tiny, so colorful, a head to die for, so incredible that I actually cried. I know, “real men don’t cry,” but every rule has its exception, and this was mine. J just said, “Incredible, he’s Incredible!” I ran in the house to get my family and each one repeated my first words. In the days that followed, every visitor to our ranch had the same reaction, “Incredible.” I said that he named himself the day he was born, but how did they know it?

When we started showing him, he was only weeks old, and he seemed to draw crowds every time we brought him out. Every time he left the ring, we had people follow us back to our stall area just to get a closer look at him. I think that some people have a very special bond with some horses and this was mine. He and I seemed to be on the same wave link. We seemed to communicate in the ring. I would set him up, back up and look at him, and his eyes would follow my every move; never putting an ear back, never taking his eyes off mine. Over and over I had people ask me how I got a weanling (and later a yearling and two-year-old) to “show like that.” He had so much personality and I encouraged his exuberance, letting him walk on his back legs out to get his awards, eventually teaching him to take a bow, using it when he won Supreme. One judge told me that this wasn’t a circus, but Incredible enjoyed his performance, the crowds loved it, and so did I, so we outvoted the judge.

He was quite successful in the shows, becoming High Point Champion in several divisions for the Southwesten Miniature Horse Club and the Greater Houston Miniature Horse Club. I was thrilled when he placed seventh, as a weanling, in a class of fifty-seven at the World Show in Lexington, VA, showing against a field of mostly yearlings and two-year olds! One person who had admired him for several shows offered to give me a blank check for him, which I turned down.

We ran ads featuring our “dream horse” and enjoyed the name which aided in creativity: “We are looking to an Incredible future,” “Incredible dreams do come true,” and others. We were thrilled to be drawn for the cover of the Miniature Horse World for the world show issue. I spent days taking pictures and worked with the editor, Barbara Ashby, who was a fan of Incredible, too.

About the time we were getting things ready for his cover, he started being head shy when being haltered and a few times had a spell, something similar to fainting. We took him to several vets who could find nothing wrong. At that time, we were swimming our show horses to tone them and on July 22, 1998, while he was in the pond, he bobbed under, which wasn’t really unusual, but this time he made no attempt to surface. We quickly brought him out of the water and tried CPR for what seemed like an hour. Finally we gave up, and I sent my helper to the barn and I just sat there with Incredible. Our vet surmised that he had suffered an aneurysm and that we could have done nothing to save him, but that was little solace to us. I couldn’t believe that the dream of my many years of breeding was lying beside me as I sat there helplessly. After quite some time, I went to the barn and got the tractor and took him to the back and buried him. I then went to my office and just sat there. All those hopes and dreams came to a halt. All those plans were gone. And he was to be on the cover of the next Miniature Horse World magazine. I knew that the deadline was only a few days later. Thoughts were whirling in my mind, should I change the cover to another horse, should I just leave it alone. I finally emailed Barbara simply saying, “Please add this to the cover of Incredible: “March 30, 1996- July 22, 1998.” He became the first horse ever pictured on the cover posthumously.

I first stated that we had two horses that named themselves Incredible. The second one was born the year after the first died, Little America’s Too Incredible. We chose the name because he was also extremely tiny and excellent. His show record was fairly similar, but not quite as extensive as the first. He garnered several Top Tens and Championships, but never won a Supreme. I did have one judge tell me that he was the most perfect tiny miniature that she had ever judged. He matured at 25 ½”. Of course he was bred to be small, being out of Little America’s Kewpie Tornado 26 ½” and Little America’s Silver Tornado 26″.

We showed him until he was three years old and then started breeding him to a few mares. We were very pleased with the tiny foals with refinement that he produced and were looking forward to using him in our “tiny” program for years.

This past December, Carol and I went to New York to babysit our grandson while his parents went on a belated tenth anniversary to Europe. When we returned home we learned that a problem with dog attacks had returned. Two years ago we lost thirteen horses over a period of weeks to a marauding pack of wild dogs. On Sunday morning, I was getting dressed to go out to feed and looked out the window of our second story bedroom and saw what looked like a horse standing over another horse, but I wasn’t certain. I got my glasses and saw that it was a coyote standing over a horse with another coyote standing guard about twenty yards away. I yelled downstairs to Lauren, our daughter, who grabbed a gun and snuck out the door to get a shot at the predators. Unfortunately, they sensed she was there and starred to run just as she got off the first shot. When I found what the coyotes were standing over, my heart dropped … it was Too Incredible … our beautiful stallion. We were devastated to loose another of our wonderful little horses. Since then we have taken many precautions to prevent another tragic loss. We have added guard donkeys, guard dogs and much better fencing, just to name a few.

I am so thankful for all the incredible memories I have. Some people are lucky enough to have one special horse in their life, I have had hundreds. Each horse has amazed me with their own personality and their talents, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for those two incredible boys.

-Original document: “The Incredible Boys” article with images (PDF)

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