October 13, 2006: World's smallest horse
 

http://cellar.org/2006/thumbelina.jpg

Daily Mail via Spluch.

Meet Thumbelina, the world's smallest horse. She's just 17 inches tall despite being an adult horse, 5 years old.

I want one!

She was born at an American horse farm that specializes in tiny horses; normally the tiny beasts are twice Thumbelina's size.

That means Thumbelina is not really a freak of nature. My high school biology teacher used the local miniature horse farm as an example, when explaining genetics. Part of the theory of evolution is that genetic mutations happen and the new changes are accepted or rejected over time, slowly leading to improvements and adaptation. The mini horse tells us that you don't necessarily need mutation to vastly change a species.

It was a good explanation, but I would have used dogs as an example. The teacup Chihuahua, the Great Dane, the English Bulldog and the Russian Wolfhound, all are the same species. We have bred them specifically for genetic variations, and created dogs that wildly vary, to the point where most of the variations would not even continue to exist without human intervention.

That's cute. I heard them talking about thumbelina on Fox and Friends (via Sirius Radio)...now I know

SMALL!

:)

I...must...have...small...horsey!

How cute is that?

HOOF? YOu need to check this out! :)

Wow. A house horse. I mean, one that doesn't require reconstruction of the house in order to accomodate it.

Poor thing looks horribly deformed.
Probably has numerous health issues related to it's being a genetic novelty item.

Having a tail so long it hangs at your feet would be a pain in the ass.

omg, that is SO damn sweet my pancreas is hurting. Seriously though; where do we GET ONE? I want one to give to my wife -- a palomino one. It would be cool to see it kick the cat around the house. I would gladly trade one of my kids for one of those horses.

Name it Epony (pronounced Ee-pon-ee pun on Celtic horse goddess).

Ahem.... Don't you think it's just intelligent design?

I wonder if she wears tiny little horeshoes. And how much weight can she carry?

I saw a program a while ago where these really small horses are used like guide dogs. The horses in question wore sneakers so that they wouldn't make too much noise indoors.

Check out my screen name. My friend and I made it up because we thought of the ultimate pet that we could design and breed: a dog-sized flying horse. A "pegusita"!

Now that half of the work has been done, we just need to add wings to the sucker. And then soon all the world will revel in taking their pegusitas for a walk/fly.

/Yes, it's stupid, but the story behind the name is true.

Does the little horsie remind anyone of else of human dwarves? Normal, *but*, stuff is sort of out of proportion...they aren't just shrunken photocopies of the so-called "normal" examples of their species?

She doesn't look half bad compared to a lot of them. Some you wouldn't even consider throwing on the barbie.

I do not see porn in this horses future!! Looks like seeing-eye horse it is.

Speaking of that, has anyone here ever had horse meat? Is it used in dog food? I wonder how it tastes. I know horses are rendered into glue and such and maybe even into jello, but is there any place you can get horse meat for consumption?

These little guys look like they might be tender.

Its illegal some places, isn't it?