Someone reminded me in my Shetland thread that I referred to it as a horse, when in fact it is a pony. So this is about the differences.

The most obvious difference between the two is height. A pony is generally not taller than 14.2 hands and a horse not generally shorter than that at maturity. There are exceptions; a pony that grows taller or a horse that is shorter.

But there is also phenotype; differences in the appearance of the animal. A pony generally has a stockier appearance and shorter legs with thicker coat.

The problem is that this is all rather unscientific and hence sometimes I confuse the terms.

My curiosity is where miniatures come into this. By height they are a pony, but by phenotype a horse, far more delicate in appearance.

How do miniatures come about? Is it cross breeding, forcing certain features?

http://www.equineboard.com/minature-horse-vs-pony-108.html

I already made a posting about the difference between a horse, miniature horse and pony after we had some rather confusing posts about such things.

As to how minis came about, they were probably selectively bred from abnormally small horses. Some minis are stockier like ponies but they are more like mini drafts than shetlands, based on the relative structure and proportions.

I do apologise for missing that-there aren't enough topics in this forum for it to have been buried, I just plain missed it when I looked. So let's take the direction of this thread differently-to the origins of miniatures.

I have read of them being used as far back as the 17th century as work animals; as pit ponies for pulling carts of ore in height restricted situations. So it would seem that perhaps they are a naturally occurring breed that was bred specifically for appearance.

Can anyone confirm this?

Most of the information I've read refer to the minis of old used in pit mines and the newer breeds such as the American mini. But most seem to agree they were breed from the smallest specimens available from different pony breeds.
http://www.theminiaturehorse.com/historyminiatures.htm
This link states the falabella (the smallest mini breed in the world) was developed from the Andalusian, which is a horse breed further supporting this theory.

Thank you for the information. It always worries me when I know that a particular animal has been breed with a particular feature in mind because of the other, less desirable features that tend to come along with it. Look at dogs that have been inbred, and how unhealthy they tend to be. Does this happen with miniature horses too?

In my experience there are no obvious health problems that are common to them. I have owned two now, my youngest only being with us about a year. But my parents kept them all my life and they were spritely and healthy.