“The Mini Minnion Educational Series”  is an online subscription available to all ages and is a way to continue to learn valuable horse skills such as anatomy, first aid, tack, breeds, colors and wrapping skills, (among other things) at home. The subscription includes access to weekly videos and supplemental learning materials as well as interactive activities that will help teach people these valuable horsemanship skills. We thought this would be helpful for horse-crazy kiddos who are missing spending time at the barn. And maybe provide parents a bit of a break.

The Minnion’s Tale ( Taken from the Body N Soul Blog)

Anyone who has spent any small amount of time at our barn has heard us talk about our “minions” and the “mini-minions” Any other barn might refer to these different groups like kids, teens, working students but while these words are also used at our barn, we affectionately call those diehard group of core students our Minnions and Mini-Minnions. 

The terms, while used over a variety of different eras, have had a variety of different meanings,  and recently came to us from the movie “Despicable Me” with Steve Carrell starring as Gru, the evil villain who is bent on being the “world’s most evil villain”. The Minions are Gru’s faithful helpers who really are the whole reason he’s able to accomplish pretty much anything, as well as provide the best comic relief I’ve seen in a movie. The Minions are fun-loving, hard-working, and fiercely loyal to Gru and his plans to basically take over the world and earn his title as the “as the world's most evil villain” Basically, this can also describe my minions in the context of our barn; They’re fun-loving, hard-working, fiercely loyal to their horses (and perhaps us) and they pretty much are the entire reason we can do anything around our barn. They also support us as we try to take over the horse world.

We started out with two minnions; two teenagers who were basically working students that morphed into a family, who are the life and soul of our barn. The ones who started grooming for us at events, who have been around since the start of BNS and are the ones who now are teaching, and paying it back to the next coming group up. Now our minnions are the group of teens (ages from 14-19+) who are always at the barn. The diehard, do anything we need, be anywhere at any point in time kids.  More than just kids/ teens at the barn, but part of our family and the life and soul of our community. They are constantly learning (they learn everything a working student would) and can (and do) single-handedly run the barn.

Our “mini- minnions” are those in the younger age bracket (under 14) who are looking up to these older teens and are in the running to become the next minnions. They’re there ALMOST as much as the older ones. They’re willing to work, to learn, and to help, which makes them an invaluable asset to any trainer or barn. Once these mini-minnions end up with driver’s licenses we’re really never going to get any of them to leave! The beauty of it is, that anyone can be a minion. Or a mini- minnion. They just have to want to show up and learn. To us, minnions imply more than just the kiddos who hang out at the barn. They’re the reason we show up every day. The ones who push us to be better instructors, horsemen, and people so that we can share our love and passion for this crazy journey we’re on with these amazing horses.

Which is why even though we can’t currently offer a place at our barn where kids can come and learn about horsemanship and horse management skills, we’re developing an online version of our own horsemanship/horse management skills classes! We’re calling this the “Mini- Minnion” series. It’s available to all ages and is a way to continue to learn valuable horse skills such as anatomy, first aid, tack, breeds, colors and wrapping skills, (among other things) at home. We thought this would be helpful for horse-crazy kiddos who are missing spending time at the barn. And maybe provide parents a bit of a break.

Not a mini- minnion but still interested in learning? Don’t worry! You can still enjoy the mini- minnion series. And we’ll also have other educational opportunities available online! Check out our store for more details, or reach out if you have any questions!

For a complete education on the real Minions visit https://despicableme.fandom.com/wiki/Minions It’s highly enjoyable and educational.