Pepper, A Miniature Horse, Dances To ‘Frosty The Snowman’: Video

BONDURANT, IA — Steve Pinkley doesn’t know if his miniature horse Pepper was scratching an itch to dance, or just scratching an itch. But the Iowa horse didn’t miss a beat when “Frosty the Snowman” was playing in the background, so the crew at Pinkley’s Red Roof Farms is going to test the theory that Pepper likes Christmas music.

“We really think Pepper was scratching,” Pinkley told Patch, “but to the beat of the music.”

Pinkley and his son-in-law, Ryan, were getting things ready for customers for the Bondurant, Iowa, farm’s Christmas tree and holiday merchandise sales on Small Business Saturday when the approximately 10-year-old horse began dancing the jig.

“We brought Pepper in from the pasture and wanted to take some pictures,” Pinkley said. “He wouldn’t hold still. He kept going and going.”

Pinkley posted the video Saturday on Facebook, and a local television station picked it up. He’s gotten a lot of mileage out of it.

“Everyone wants their picture taken with Pepper right now,” he said. “They haven’t seen Pepper dance, but they sure have come out to see Pepper.”

Pepper, who stands about 3½ feet from hooves to ears, isn’t the only diminutive animal at the farm. Pinkley also has two other miniature horses, miniature donkeys, miniature pigs and miniature sheep.

The big draw for kids is that small animals aren’t imposing or intimidating.

“They’re at the right height and not scary to kids,” said Pinkley, who runs the business with his wife, Dana, and their children. “They’re right there where kids can pet them, and they don’t have to stand on anything to see them.”

The Pinkleys have large animals, too, including Amos and Andy, a pair of Haflinger draft horses who pull a wagon around the farm. The myotonic goats — called fainting goats because they temporarily seize when they’re agitated and faint — are a big hit with the kids, too.

For many of the kids who come to the farm, located northeast of Des Moines, “this is the only taste of country life they get every year,” Pinkley said.