L
ittle America Miniature
Horses is home to over 175
miniature horses regis-
tered with the American Minia-
ture Horse Association (AMHA),
We are located just south of the
Texas capital of Austin, at the
gateway to the beautiful famed
Hill Country. AMHA is noted
for the smallest of miniatures
with the maximum height 34”.
Tony Greaves has bred miniatures for over 56 years and is known world-
wide for the largest herd of the smallest horses available. We have ap-
proximately sixty 30” and under with Tony’s “private collection” headed
by his smallest stallion, a nine year old stallion measuring only 24.25”.
His little harem is all 30” and under. For several years Little America has
had the smallest horse at the AMHA World Show and likely will do so
at this year’s World Show to be held in Fort Worth, Texas, August 23-31,
2019, at the Will Rogers Equestrian Center.
The Greaves Family and horses are almost synonymous. When Tony
was born, his family was raising Shetland ponies and his granddad had
horses before that. Of course
previous to that, everyone who
lived in the country depended
on horses for transportation
and for work. According to
Tony’s mother, he learned to
walk by holding the halter of
his first pony. Tony couldn’t say
“dappled filly,” calling her “Daf-
fy,” and it stuck. Daffy was his
pony who he rode and drove
until he went away to college.
People ask, “Why min-
iatures?” When Tony was in
elementary school he had a
“funny book” (later called
“comic book”) about Bozo the
Clown in which Bozo had a
circus with animals so small that they were carried around in a briefcase
and performed on a table top. Tony said, “That’s the size of animals that I
want.” He hasn’t gotten them that small yet, but has certainly made head-
way with our smallest horse being 24”.
Our first miniature-sized pony was born in the spring of 1963, just
months before Tony graduated from high school. While in college, Tony
told his dad to keep Big Un, that first miniature, as long as he had land
and horses. For many years, Big Un was a teaser for Flight 8 Farms, the
Greaves family’s Quarter Horse ranch. When the American Miniature
Horse Association (AMHA) was founded in 1978, Big Un became our
first registered miniature, fifteen years old and 31 inches tall.
After college and graduate school and a time performing as singing ac-
12 Fall 22
2019
2020 MINIATURE HORSE WORLD - Winter Edition
tors in New York, Tony, Carol, and their daughter Lisa, returned to Texas
to run Flight 8 Farms (Quarter Horse stud farm) for his family. During
that time he started searching for miniature mares to accompany Big Un,
who was still the teaser for all the Quarter Horse mares. While search-
ing, Tony renewed friendship with his family’s friends Vern and Betty
Brewer with whom he made several mini hunting trips. During one of
those trips, Vern, Betty, and Tony discovered a future miniature legend,
Orion-Light Van’t Huttenest.
Tony bought several small herds of miniatures during the growth
phase of building the ranch, which the first few years was known as
Flight 8, then Greaves’ Miniature Horses. Eventually, Carol came up with
the name “Little America” and it stuck.
Fourteen years after Lisa
was born, our second daugh-
ter, Lauren, was born and we
gave her a filly. From that grew
Lauren’s part of the herd, which
usually numbers between
twenty and thirty head.
Tony and his younger daugh-
ter, Lauren, have both been
very active through the years
in AMHA where Tony served
as Executive Secretary for 5 ½ years and also 3 terms as President of the
worldwide association. Lauren served as the first President of the youth
organization, the American Miniature Horse Youth Association (AM-
HyA) for two terms.
We have two grandchildren and continuing the tradition, they were
each given a filly the day after they were born. Our grandson, Grayson’s
first miniature was Little America’s D S Grayson’s Girl and our grand-
daughter Ella’s was Little America’s Terrific Gabriella. Both mares are
progeny of our first really tiny mare, Crescent’s Melodee, who their
mother, Lisa, showed when she was a little girl. Unfortunately, our grand-
children live in New York, but they enjoy their horses when they visit
Texas:
So you see that we are not just in miniatures because of a current fad,
but because of a multi-generational love of horses. We are not limited
to only the smallest under 30”, but have something for everyone. One
of our latest stallions, owned by the Greaves younger daughter, Lauren,
boasts 22 World Titles in Single
Pleasure Driving and Roadster.
We welcome visitors by appoint-
ment and encourage a digital tour
of all our horses as well as much
more of our history. You can
check it all out at http://littleam-
ericaminis.com where you can
see every horse and much infor-
mation about history of the breed
and information about AMHA as
well.