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Mini mania

By Elvyn Jones - | Jun 9, 2010

Elvyn Jones

Theresa Gergick leads her 2-year-old filly Summer over a jump Monday on an obstacle course at her farm south of Tonganoxie. Gergick will bring her eight miniature horses, or minis, to a show from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.The Kansas Miniature Horse Club is having its show in conjunction with Tonganoxie Days.

As if to make that point, Gergick’s 2-year-old filly Summer reared up and kicked the trailer she was tied to with her front hoofs. Wanting either the company of her fellow mare Ophelia, the opportunity to move to a spot with better grass to munch or attention, the filly continued to act up until she fell over on her back.

The scene got Summer the desired response, as Gergick stopped putting Ophelia through a run on an obstacle course and started training the younger horse, which, despite her recent temper tantrum, ran the course perfectly without balking at such things as a tarp on the ground or a series of rails, over which horses don’t like to jump.

Gergick, a rural mail carrier with the Basehor Post Office, said the miniatures’ equine nature is one of their appeals. And with 12 full-sized horses and 12 minis and two more foals expected any day, she knows and appreciates horses.

Those aren’t the only horses on the family farmstead south of Tonganoxie. Her father Ed has another 20 minis and with his late wife, Daisy, was an early breeder of the horses.

Gergick and fellow members of the Kansas Miniature Horse Club agreed another appeal was that the horses’ small stature make them more pet-like and easier to train.

Jody Chenoweth, who was made a lifetime member of the club, said she and her husband, Fred, have had minis since the mid-1980s when the market collapsed for the quarter horses they raised.

Minis are much easier to work with, especially for children or those unfamiliar with horses, she said.

“When they don’t go into the trailer, you can pick them up and put them in the trailer,” she said. “Little kids can start out with them and not