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IN MEMORY OF C.M. BOND
Bond Miniature Horse Farm, Lavonia, Georgia
A Tribute By Carolyn Miller
As Published in Eastern Miniature Magazine March 1992
Another one of the Old Breeders has departed from our Miniature Horse world, but C. M. Bond
Has left his mark not only in his breeding program, but also in many of the Bond horses seen in the show ring.
By his own words, he had been involved with the breeding and raising of animals all his life. As a young boy being raised on a farm, his main interest was horses and mules. He was often found riding a plow mule at the end of the day’s work, providing his father was nowhere in sight. At the time, it was always his dream to one day own a horse-not just a horse-but, a LITTLE one.
C. M. Bond began raising horses right after college, with his primary interests being in American Albino, Arabian, and Tennessee Walking Horses. These were not LITTLE horses, however, and the desire to own one still existed.
Mr. Bond felt that the only way he could ever attain his dream of a little horse was to actually raise one himself. Knowing that our Dawn Horse (or Eohippus) was the ancestor to the present day horse and that this horse was small, it was concluded that all living animals carry genes as a history book of the past and that it would be possible to regress backwards genetically to the small horse. Although logic said it could not be done, that spark within said to try. Mr. Bond formed a breeding partnership consisting of his wife, daughter and himself, and what started out of curiosity and as a hobby, soon became a reality.
Mr. Bond had a farm store for many years prior to making the little horses his full-time occupation, while still dabbling with American Albinos. However, according to Mr. Bond, the Miniatures of the late 70’s and early 80’s were the rage in the horse world.
Mr. Bond believed the stallion to be the most important factor in the breeding program, and he had to have been bred to be small with a gene pool of small. He strongly felt that just because a horse was small, this did not mean that it would reproduce small. He used many stallions from his original stock, developed several bloodlines, and was quite proud of his American-only stock-never importing an animal. With these several bloodlines and no outside horses, he finally realized the dream of The Bond Miniature Horse. Mr. Bond, after years of selective breeding, stated that his foals are now of good conformation and small size, although in the beginning he did have his ups and downs.
He felt that the Miniature Horse was much more sensible than the larger horses, but again he was never really sure if that wasn’t because their size made the Miniature easier to handle. He generally felt that the breeding of the Miniature Horse was the biggest development to hit the horse world and would be not only the most popular breed, but would sustain where others might fall.
Mr. Bond was proud to have been a part in the breeding, development, and promotion of the Miniature Horse and we have, today, suffered his loss, but will reap the rewards of the legacy he has left us for years to come.
*Information for this article came from phone conversations by the author with Mr. Bond in the late 80’s and is subject to error and or omissions. Picture is of C.M. Bond cradling a foal.
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