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Tiny Trotters

Gordon Harris '71 is a leading breeder of miniature horses  Gordon Harris '71 is a leading breeder of miniature horses There is cute. There is adorable. And then there is this: a miniature horse stampede. On a cloudless summer Saturday in Clayton, Ohio, a barn gate opens, and out gallop a couple dozen animals—bays and […]

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Gordon Harris '71 is a leading breeder of miniature horses
 

Gordon Harris '71 is a leading breeder of miniature horses

There is cute. There is adorable. And then there is this: a miniature horse stampede.

On a cloudless summer Saturday in Clayton, Ohio, a barn gate opens, and out gallop a couple dozen animals—bays and red roans, palominos and chestnut pintos. They're all gorgeous, and none of them is more than three feet tall. It's a giggle-inducing moment. Watching the tiny mares and foals race into a paddock to graze is a bit like watching a class of preschoolers rush toward a plate of cookies.

But Gordon Harris '71, owner of Iona Miniature Horse Farm, raises minis for more than just the fun of it. He has sold horses for as much as $10,000 to buyers as far away as England and Australia. And he has selectively bred more than 250 foals, including world and national champion show horses, collecting so many ribbons and trophies that only a fraction of them fill the annex to his 193-year-old farmhouse. It is a vocation he never envisioned while growing up in suburban Great Neck, New York. "When I told people I got accepted into Cornell's agriculture school, I always added, 'But I'm not going to be a farmer,' " says Harris. "I was a science education major. I had never seen horses. Farming was the last thing on my mind."

horses 

In 1986, Harris—along with his wife, Bonnie, and their three children—were attending the Ohio State Fair on a day when mini horses happened to be on display. As they strolled through a barn, a woman handed two-year-old Ashley a lead rope and asked, "Would you like to take my horse for a walk?" Off they went, a toddler leading a mini, and the family was hooked. "Before you knew it, we had two mini horses in the backyard," says Harris, who also works as a psychologist in private practice. "One of them cost $5,000, and I was thinking, What am I doing?"

Nearly a quarter-century later, Ashley is a professional miniature horse trainer, and on this day there are a total of seventy-nine minis at six-acre Iona Farm. All of them stand under thirty-four inches at the withers, as measured from the last hairs of the mane, which is the height limit to be registered with the American Miniature Horse Association. (Most of a mini's growth takes place in the first year, and many of the farm's babies stand less than two feet tall.) Some will be sold as family pets, while others serve as breeding stock. In fact, Harris's first purchase, a horse named Anisette, is still having foals, which have sold for more than $80,000 over the years. Those earnings pay for the family's true passion—showing the minis in competition, which Harris says is much the same as showing regular-sized horses "except we run with them with a lead line instead of riding them." In that respect, he explains, it is more like a dog show.

Indeed, the canine analogy comes up often, whether Harris is describing the minis' amiable disposition, the fact that they like to be petted and tend to follow people around, or the price of doing business. "I can keep five minis for the cost of one big horse; it costs me less to feed a mini than my cocker spaniel," says Harris, who also owns five Chihuahuas and a toy Australian shepherd. "But they're lovable animals. That's the bottom line." Indeed, the Harrises have become quite attached to the horses—whether it's a black mare named Sweet Charity who nursed an orphaned foal, a twenty-eight-year-old farm fixture named Scarlet who has earned more than 250 first-place ribbons, or a three-time world champion jumper named Excalibur who can clear forty-four inches, roughly equivalent to eight and a half feet for a regular-sized horse.

Gordon Harris 

Miniature horses are also relatively safe and easy to handle, making them kid-friendly. So the Harrises are often asked to give tours of the farm and to participate in local events, such as Independence Day parades or visits to hospitals and schools. "Part of the fun is showing them off," says Harris. "It's incredibly rewarding. For instance, there are a lot of elderly people around here who grew up on farms, and now they're confined to a nursing home. But they just light up when they see these little horses. Even if they're wheelchair-bound, we can bring the horse right up to them so they can pet it."

Most memorable was the time when Harris brought a couple of horses to a retirement home called Friendship Village, where Harris met one woman who had not walked on her own for several years—until he brought a mini to her. "A few minutes later, she got out of her wheelchair, walked into the building, and went to the cafeteria to get sugar cubes for the horses," says Harris. "They have that kind of effect."

— Brad Herzog '90

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Iona Farm’s Lady Cosmopolitan (1:10)

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