MacDonald Miniatures - PoohBear and Dirk!

Go to The Western Canadian Miniature Horse Club

I have to admit that this page is grossly out of date. I last updated it back in 1998, and in the last ten years my horses have grown from small colts into adult minis, still as loveable as ever but a wee bit heavier if they step on your toes! Between work, housework, and taking care of the boys, updating the page has been a bit of a low-priority item. The biggest problem now with updating this page is sorting through the hundreds of pictures that I have of the boys, and trying to decide which ones to use. Compounding the issue is that we finally purchased a farm out in Saskatchewan, and are in the midst of moving. I hope that visitors to this page will be patient (after 10 years, what's a couple more months?) and will come back now and again, as I will eventually revamp the site and bring it all up to date.

J.R. MacDonald
July 12, 2008

When Tonka passed away on Easter Monday in 1996, a part of me died with her. It would be a little over a year before another special horse would enter my life. But now, one has. Even when he's full-grown, he'll barely be knee-high to Tonka, but he'll hold as dear a place in my heart. I'd like to introduce everyone to Pooh-Bear, my new miniature horse colt!

Poohbear and his dam Penelope (Pen-el-o-pee) arrived on August 17th, 1997 after months of preparation to build their new home for them in my backyard. It took a lot of time and work, but it was well worth it. Penelope stayed with me and PoohBear in the city until November 23, 1997 when I had to make a hard choice. I had become very fond of my special little mare, but I also knew that she would be better off back on the farm, and that PoohBear would be better off with a playmate his own age and sex (thus eliminating the need to castrate him). So, with no small amount of sadness, I sent Penelope back to her farmland home, and exchanged her for my new colt - Russel's Dirk.

It's been a few months since Dirk's arrival, and he seems to have settled in quite happily with PoohBear and myself. He's still on the skittish side, but he's getting more and more trusting every day, and he aways comes up for a wary hug and nuzzle before scampering off to create more mischief with PoohBear. The two colts get along very well, being close to the same age and having bonded much faster than anyone had expected. I expect their youth has a lot to do with this, and it's hard to keep in mind that neither of them is even one year old at the time of this writing. They take turns chasing each other, grooming each other, and just generally horsing around.

The first images on this page show PoohBear at just three weeks old! I've been trying to take pictures of him on a regular basis, allowing me to share his growth with my friends out there on the World Wide Web. The newer pictures show PoohBear and Penelope at home in their paddock in my backyard, and the newest ones show PoohBear and Dirk. Unfortunately, once the horses arrived here, I was kept so busy taking care of them that I didn't have as much time for picture taking as I did in the past, nor are my notes quite as accurate as they were at first, so I can only approximate their ages with the later pictures. I will always be adding more pictures to add to these pages, so please be sure to check back often.