Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 7, 1993 TAG: 9305070587
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
First came Holy Land U.S.A., a nature sanctuary and religious replica of the real Holy Land, featuring scale models of Calvary, the Mount of Olives, Jericho Road and the Empty Tomb.
Now, just down the road, there is Fantasyland, with its faux facade of the Old West hiding the world's smallest miniature horses and other exotic animals inside.
Is Virginia 746 becoming Bedford County's tourist attraction of the bizarre?
What will be next? Alligator World?
Bob Pauley doesn't know. He never really planned on building Fantasyland.
After all, the road running between Virginia 122 and Virginia 24 already was home to Holy Land when he moved there 12 years ago. Holy Land was enough.
All Pauley, 51, wanted to do was live in peace and raise the world's smallest miniature horses on his 300-acre Hobby Horse Farm. But when you raise the world's smallest miniature horses, you don't live in peace.
People stop their cars. Tour groups stop their buses.
They see the curious little horses grazing in the pastures along the road and they can't resist. Pauley said his once-quiet farm would get overrun with visitors. "It just got to be too much to handle," he said.
So, why not build a display barn for them? Maybe charge admission?
The idea for Fantasyland was born. "What really started it was people wanting to see the horses all the time, and you can't run a breeding farm and be open to the public," Pauley explained.
Why the name Fantasyland?
"It was a fantasy of mine," he said.
Why the faux western facade?
"I've always wanted to own a town and this is as close as I could get."
Pauley started work on his creation seven years ago and finally opened it to the public Thursday. He designed and built all of it himself. Inside, there are stalls displaying his various breeds of miniature horses, from Clydesdales to appaloosas to Arabians to pintos.
In addition, Pauley has started collecting other animals for display, including miniature sheep and donkeys, Tennessee fainting goats, pygmy goats, Vietnamese potbellied pigs and an assortment of birds.
"I've got the golden hen," he said, pointing to a gold-featured hen.
He doesn't know yet whether she lays golden eggs.
He does have goldfish, however. He also has a rubber-tired train that he plans to use on weekends for children's rides. He even built a tunnel for the train out of some old fuel tanks.
The admission price is $4.50 for adults and $3.50 for children.
But the main attraction is Pauley's miniature horses, which he claims are the world's smallest. He said there are some breeders in Texas who boast that their horses are smaller, but he disagrees.
For one thing, he said, he was the one who sold the first miniature horses in Texas. It is obviously a sore point with Pauley. "We're unique," he said.
Pauley became interested in miniature horses 28 years ago.
He said he always liked small animals and he wondered if anyone raised miniature horses. It took him two years of scanning horse trade publications before he found someone who did - in Lincoln, Neb.
He drove there that same week.
The man in Lincoln led him to two other breeders, in Michigan and Indiana. At the time, Pauley was living near Richmond and owned an automobile body and paint shop.
Soon, though, he had 67 horses. The Richmond Times-Dispatch came out and did a story. National Geographic came out. PM Magazine. Life magazine. He then left the car business and took up horse farming full time.
He moved to Bedford County 12 years ago because he wanted a larger farm. Pauley now has about 80 miniature horses, but he has had as many as 350. Some of his horses have sold for $35,000 and $50,000, but typically they run about $3,500.
He said he is still perfecting his craft.
When he started, his horses stood about 34 inches tall. Now, after breeding the smallest with the smallest, he has some as short as 25 and 26 inches.
He hopes to go even lower, and now that Fantasyland is finished, Pauley said he should be able to give his miniatures more attention. His goal is 21 inches.
"It's possible, I think."
by CNB