When Your Daughter Says She Wants To Ride A Pony

Once upon a time a little girl named Emilie who lived in the city told her family she wanted to ride a pony. The family was very busy and knew nothing about ponies, so they scratched their heads and hoped if they didn’t mention it again the little girl would forget and pick another activity. Like soccer. Or playing with dolls.

But the little girl didn’t forget and every time they drove past a stable with ponies grazing in a field, she pressed her nose against the window of the car and dreamed of wrapping her tiny hands in a mane and galloping through the woods. She went to the library and checked out books about ponies. She learned all the different breeds, the assorted colors, what ponies ate, where they came from, and most importantly she discovered the yearning she felt was not going to go away. So she asked her parents again if she could please ride a pony.

The parents loved their daughter, so they made arrangements to take her to a free lesson at the local stable on a Sunday afternoon. Before they knew it, their daughter was enrolled in a weekly class. Every Saturday morning the Mom, Joy, drove her daughter to the stable and watched from outside the ring as Emilie learned to go up and down, up and down, and soon their car smelled like leather boots and mud and hay and peppermints.

Joy noticed that Emilie’s whole week was planned around the one hour lesson she took on Saturdays, and she saw how her quiet daughter laughed when she cantered around the ring. When Emilie started jumping and could speak of nothing but the excitement and happiness it brought her, Joy thought there must be something to this horseback riding thing and signed herself up for lessons, too.

Meanwhile, back at the city house, the very busy, high powered attorney father named Norm woke up one Saturday morning and realized he was alone. His family had all gone off to do their various activities and he had become an “accidental hermit”. The Dad thought of how each night at dinner his wife and daughter chatted happily about the horses they loved, the new things they learned together at the stable, and the way their favorite ponies warm breath felt on their hands when they lifted treats from their palm. So he put on his boots and drove to the stable where his wife and daughter were riding.

As soon as he took his first lesson, the Dad knew he was hooked. So he signed up for more lessons. He and his wife and daughter rode together in the evenings, and now at the dinner table, when they joined the son named Jed, they chatted together about horses and ponies and hay and mud and boots and bridles and horse colors and cantering. The brother Jed listened carefully and was happy for his family. But he was so busy with his own life he decided not to try riding himself, and that was okay.

One day the Dad found out he had a disease called MS, or Multiple Sclerosis. His doctor said he couldn’t run anymore, but for exercise he could still ride horses. So the Dad bought a horse for himself, one for his wife, and another for his daughter. Now the family included the Mom and the Dad, the little girl named Emilie, the brother named Jed, and three horses: Music, Jewell and Jake.

When the horse named Jake became sick he was retired to a farm with lots of grass, and the Mom and Dad bought the daughter another horse named Katarina. When they found out Katarina was going to have a surprise baby, they scratched their heads and wondered what to do. The high powered attorney and his family realized they didn’t want to live in the city with the traffic and the noise anymore, so they bought a house in the country and moved their horses across the bay. Music, Jake, Jewell, Katarina and her foal, who would be named Conan, made their home at a new farm across the lane from the country house where the family now lived.

Every morning when they left for work and school the family waved at their horses, grazing happily in their fields. Emilie, who was now a big girl, wondered if little girls pressed their faces to the window when they drove by her horses in the field and wished they, too, could ride a pony. Each evening the family walked across the road and spent many happy hours together at the stables with their horses.

Years later the daughter became a veterinary technician so she could help ponies who were sick. She raised and trained Katarina’s foal by herself, and lived surrounded by the horses she loved. The Mom, Joy, lost her beloved horse Jewell, so she bought another horse and decided she wanted to ride her new horse in competitions, like her daughter had so many years before. Norm, the high powered city attorney with MS, became a professional bird watcher and amateur photographer, and worked to save the land on the other side of the bay while riding his best friend, Music, through the fields and down the lanes. And in the evenings, when they gathered together, the family all laughed and scratched their heads and wondered what they would have been doing if the daughter hadn't asked to ride a pony.

The moral of this story is ~ when your little girl says she wants to ride a pony, remember all the possibilities life has to offer and embrace them. Then go buy the best pair of muck boots you can find, because you’re going to need them.

Many thanks to the St. Landau family for including me in their journey.