BREEDING IN PAHRUMP: Mini-horses maxi-popular

The saying, good things come in small packages, can surely apply to Joe and Casey Crisp's miniature horses.

A Pahrump paramedic who pulled into the supermarket, remarked she could've sworn she saw a horse in someone's back seat. She did. Crisp said the horses can be shipped quite easily in 20-foot crates.

Casey Crisp, who grew up in the Illinois farmland, and Joe Crisp, from Los Angeles, have 50 of the horses on their property. The animals measure 3 feet tall or less.

"We've used them for nursing home facilities and educational programs," Casey Crisp said. "Most of these all are breed stock."

"The first thing we breed for is disposition. If they can't be friendly, especially with children, we don't breed them," she said. "There's two different registries, some of them are only 32 up to 34 inches in height, the others go up to 38 inches. They're measured at the last hair of the mane."

The mini-horses have some of the same breeds as the larger horses, Crisp said, like Appaloosas and buckskins.

"Whatever big horses you like, you can find that comparison in a small horse," she said. "They're also not intimidating for children. If you're interested in introducing them to horses, they're not as likely to be intimidated."

Crisp recalled one mini-horse who fit right between the beds and let a nursing home patient pet him up and down without moving.

Crisp, who formerly raised Arabians, said she began raising mini-horses after a trip to Scottsdale, Ariz., in 1994.

"We went to an Arabian show and they had one mini there as a promotion for an all-miniature horse show," she said.

A few weeks later she attended the miniature horse show in Las Vegas, saw a horse she liked and had it delivered. Four years ago, Crisp said she moved to Pahrump since the zoning was a problem for her horse raising in Las Vegas where she had to keep horses at three different locations.

The Crisps now have 27 brood mares, but Casey said they don't breed them all the time, they're allowed to take a year off.

"We have three live foals on the ground and we're expecting five more by the end of July," Crisp said.

The Crisps concentrated their breeding program, with two main stallions that have produced pintos, palominos and buckskins. When the pedigrees become mature, they're crossbred.

"They're shown here locally in Pahrump, which is cool; there's classes for them at the POSS Shows," Crisp said. The last Pahrump Open Schooling Show for the summer was last weekend, the next ones are scheduled for Sept. 8 and Nov. 3 at McCullouch Arena, both starting at 8 a.m. Crisp said she brought her mini-horses to a Harvest Festival a few years ago and they quickly ran out of Polaroid film photographing people with the animals.

The miniature horses were originally bred for royalty in Europe, Crisp explained. In the new world, they became useful as work animals.

"Over here they pulled mine carts because they required less head clearance and less air," Crisp said. "This little animal can pull 500 pounds and not break a sweat. So they're very strong."

In the Middle Ages, King Henry VIII put out an order during his reign to slaughter horses smaller than 14 hands, which led people to raise them underground with a limited stock, which caused inbreeding that made them even smaller, she said.

"These horses live a long time. It's not uncommon for them to live into their 30s. At one time we had four generations, from great-grandmother down to the grandson," Crisp said.

Casey Crisp said she sold only a handful of her horses in the last four or five years; Joe Crisp admits she keeps many of them. Casey Crisp said they're like family to her, she has gotten to know all of their personalities. One horse she called "Heaven Can Wait" because she was born in February in a rare Pahrump snowstorm and at her grandmother's suggestion, they brought her in the house.

"I warn people, they're like a potato chip. You can't have just one," she said. "So many people use these as pets for their kids. There's a great demand for people who are disabled and can't handle a standard size horse who don't want to give up their love of horses."

"If you have one mini, a bale of hay will last you a month, as opposed to a standard size horse, that will last a week."

The miniature horses don't need horseshoes either, Crisp said, their feet are smaller and less dense, they don't carry a lot of weight.

"They withstand the elements tremendously. In the winter they look like buffaloes. They get hair on them like you would not believe," she said.

Crisp's miniature horses have achieved some popularity outside of Pahrump horse shows. Two weeks ago, she took a miniature horse for a photo shoot for a Great Dane magazine in front of The Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip, where Crisp recalled they were mobbed by a bus load of tourists who couldn't leave when they saw the horse in front of the volcano.

During a convention for selling television shows, she brought her horses and met celebrities like actor Kevin Costner, she's also met basketball star Scottie Pippin and singer Reba McIntire.

The photo shoot on the Strip was the same day she sold one of her mini-horses to a customer from Japan.

"That was a repeat customer we had sold some horses to," Crisp said. "They bought a colt and five fillies from us. They got a hold of us through a friend who had sold them some appaloosa brood stock."

"The Japanese buyers were a little bit different. They almost put you through an interview process," he said. "We do let people see the horses. The first and foremost thing when we sell a horse, we'd like it to have a home for the rest of its life."

Crisp said a miniature horse sold by a friend in the business to an Australian buyer was accompanied by a nanny on the flight back Down Under.

"We have a little horse we've been showing named Neat 'n' Nice," Crisp said. "So far, out of three shows he's been a grand champion and two reserve champions. There's only been three shows, so we're elated with him."

She added, "He's 16 years old, which is unheard of for a horse."

A few other Pahrump residents own mini-horses, but only one or two, she said. Her horses are called Magic Meadow Miniatures.

"One thing that strikes me is how personable they are. They like people," Crisp said, echoing the sentiment of many animal lovers. For the interested buyer she said, "they usually start at about $1,000 for pet quality. Then they go up to $50,000."

Pet quality means they have some minor flaw, like their legs aren't absolutely straight, that wouldn't be good for shows.

"We're not talking about an inferior animal, it just doesn't quite fit into the criteria for a show animal," she said.