A Little about Havencroft Miniatures
“
Our beginnings”
We hope you will enjoy
your Web visit to our Safe Haven.
As is often the case
it seems, we started with “full-size” horses, and loved them. I
worked with retired Standardbreds from the harness
track and spent 2 years volunteering with the Standardbred
Retirement Foundation and 3 more years on their payroll working at retraining
and finding good loving homes for horses that for one reason or another just
couldn’t stay on the racetrack any longer. They were big, loving, steady
horses, that taught me more than I could ever express.
In 1995 I
“discovered” miniatures and was absolutely “hooked” on
these little guys with so much spirit that they carried within themselves,
along with their gentle, affectionate nature. So I started writing for
more information, researching and talking to anyone I could find who knew about
miniatures.
In 1996 my husband and
I attended a herd dispersal auction for miniatures. (I was going to find more
people to talk to and to see how much more I could learn).As we walked through
the barn a little yearling colt caught my eye. He was small, and a beautiful
golden color with a flaxen mane and tail. I spent the best part of two hours in
the barn talking to him and getting to know him while Noel watched the progress
in the ring and did some of his own talking and learning. Knowing that now was
not the time to bu,y I finally left the little guy
and went to see who would take him home that day. As I sat in the bleachers
chatting with a really nice lady who was more than patient with all of the
questions I was asking, the auctioneer was moving to the final few horses in the
sale. As the little guy I had spent time
with entered the ring, and the bidding began I listened to the answers the kind
lady next to me was helping me with, all the while trying to watch so I would see
who bought the little guy I was regretting I couldn’t bring home. The
auctioneer’s voice rose as he announced “SOLD” and I looked
up to find the auctioneer pointing at………. MY HUSBAND!
“Noel what did you just do?” I asked disbelieving, and the wonderful
man just looked at me and said, “I bought a horse”. He had not been
in the barn with me and did not know about all of the time I had spent with our
little “Champ” but somehow Champ was coming home with us!
Since that time the
big horses here have all gotten new loving homes and we have moved to
“exclusively” miniatures.
We placed our first
“show horses” with a trainer as we learned, and had the best first
year with our very own horses in the
show ring that I think a person could have. (Big thanks to Sam, Marcia and Robby Barth
of Showtime Training Center)We watched and learned and got our “feet
wet” in the show arena ourselves a few times that year too.
Miniatures have stolen
our hearts, and our lives will not be
the same. So many wonderful people to meet, things to learn, and
experiences yet to be gained.
When interviewed for
the local newspaper and asked “why minis?’ these were our answers.
“ Minis make us smile and laugh daily, minis are ‘quiet
therapy” in the sad times, minis are a gentle loving passion for us. We
saw the face of the 90 yr old gentleman who use to farm and wanted to
“see” them, and were told that he hadn’t talked so much at
the nursing home in years after his visit.. The delight on the faces of the
children who visit and all these little ones are teaching our grandchildren
with their unending patience”.
“Bless the
beasts and the children, for in this world, they have no voice,..
they
have no choice”.
Enjoyment of nature’s animals allows us to sample the pleasure all around us.