A little horse back from a big trip

PHOTOGRAPHER: John Enger

Elizabeth Lazarou wasn’t looking for a horse at the Unadilla livestock auction.

“I just needed some tack,” she said. “I already had horses.”

But when she saw a skinny, unkept miniature horse tied carelessly to a pen wall with a length of twine she couldn’t help herself. She bought the miserable little guy and named him Mr. Squigglesworth.

That was back in 2008. Now, after countless hours of training and care, Squiggles is close enough to the miniature horse ideal to bring Lazarou to the American Miniature Horse Association World Championship Show in Texas. She and Squiggles got back from the show last week with a top-10 award.

The show is the culmination of scores of regional miniature horse shows across the country. Squiggles gathered enough points at roughly 15 shows this year to qualify.

Over the three-day event, Squiggles and Lazarou competed in a number of categories, but only placed in the exhibition round — basically the looks category. Still, considering his upbringing and the fact that he was competing against miniature horses from across the country, Lazarou said Squiggles did a great job.

The less than 3-foot-tall gelding has come a long way. If things had gone a different way back at that auction, he could have been dog food.

“I saved him from the killing pit,” she said.

Some background here: There’s a guy at the Unadilla auction everybody knows as the meat guy. He buys the horses that are too skinny or old, that nobody wants, and sells them by the pound to the processing industry. They go into a number of products — dog food and glue and such.

When Squigglesworth came up on the block, the meat guy started bidding.

“I couldn’t let the little horse go like that,” she said.

Lazarou outbid the meat guy, taking Squiggles with a winning bid of $80. There’s not a lot of meat on a tiny horse, after all.

Leaning over the pen before the auction, she wondered why such a nice little horse was so poorly cared for. He was skinny and couldn’t see past his untrimmed forelock.

“Then I got him out into the parking lot and he was on his back legs kicking,” she said. “It took five people to hold him down.”

The bad attitude was remedied with a quick visit to the vet for gelding, followed by months of personal attention. These days Lazarou said Squiggles is just exactly what a person wants from a tiny horse — kind and good with children.

“He’s always eating our junk food, drinking our beer,” she said. “When we go to fairs we just let the kids play with him.”

After a year of strenuous shows, she said she’ll probably not show Squigglesworth again. Kids don’t play with show horses — and the happiness of children is really the whole point of miniature horses.

“I’ll still bring him out to fairs,” she said, “but I think we’ll take a break from shows.”