Meet the Miniature Gypsy Vanner, a New Horse Breed in the Making ‎

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The Miniature Gypsy Vanner is a relatively new horse breed that's becoming increasingly popular in Europe and North America. They are identical in appearance and temperament to their distant cousins the Gypsy Vanner.
Mini Gypsies are often colored and boast abundant feathering on the legs. They are generally reliable easy to handle horses which makes them great around children.
Most Miniature Gypsy Vanner's are on average 11 to 13 hands tall with breeders aiming to reach the 9hand 36 inches mark within the decade.

These beautiful horses are a delight to look at and have captured the hearts of horse lovers worldwide. They make great pets or family horses and happily pull a carriage or carry children on their backs.
The goal of Mini Gypsy breeders has always been to create a perfectly scaled down version of the original Gypsy Vanner.
Preserving Cob like traits like stockiness heavy feathering and a docile temperament while gradually decreasing size is at the center of every breeding program.
While Miniature Gypsy Vanner's are considerably smaller now than they were a few decades ago there is still work to be done.
The American Miniature Horse Registry has two height divisions for miniature horses A up to 34 inches 8 5 hands and B between 34 38 inches 8 5 9 5 hands. Most Mini Gypsy breeders are aiming to be in the B category.
Currently Miniature Gypsy Vanner's under 10 hands are considered a rarity. However, there is an upside to having gypsy Vanners of various heights available to the public. Melanie Block who is a Mini Gypsy Horse breeder herself commented
The neat thing about the Mini Gypsy is that for many years anyway there will be a range of sizes available for whatever beautiful kind and usable work pony people want.
to have ranging from in general 13 hands and under.
One of the biggest challenges in creating a new breed is maintaining genetic diversity and minimizing inbreeding. Breeders must ensure the offspring they produce is healthy and free from genetic defects. To avoid issues arising from foal size miniature broodmares should be paired with a stallion of the same height or smaller.
Mini Gypsies originate from the Gypsy Vanner horse breed also known as the Irish Cob. While Gypsytype horses have been around since1850 they weren't recognized as an official breed until 1996.
The Romani Travellers of Great Britain and Ireland originally developed.