The Christmas Pony

It was Christmas morning and the fog was causing a mist clinging on to the trees to become droplets that ran off the leaves of the Eucalyptus dropping to the ground softly and smelling so strong with the aroma.

The children were so excited as Santa had been there the night before, however since we had animals they had to feed first.

The home was at the top of the hill surrounded by oaks, eucalyptus and native brush with one big oak tree in the front yard, just beside the front steps.  The children left the house to feed our critters before they could open their presents.

Katy came running back into the house yelling “Santa brought me a pony, Santa brought me a pony” over and over again.  Knowing that we knew Santa personally we knew there was not a pony from him, for sure.

Standing at the front door and looking over our young daughter’s head there was a pony standing next to the large oak tree.  He was white with dark eyes and covered in the mist as if he was not really there.  Katy was so excited she jumped down and hugged the pony, so glad that her wish to Santa was granted.

The white pony was old; his hair tangled and hung long over his body.  His feet were overgrown in need of a good trimming with a bit of mud on them climbing up into the fur on his legs.  He had lice in his hair, crawling over his old body and causing him to itch.  He was so glad to have someone to scratch his itching body; there was a comfortable look in his eyes as he received the hug from a little girl that obviously loved him already.

We got a halter and carefully slipped it on his head, lead him to an enclosure that would keep him safe and provided him with fresh water, a flake of alfalfa and a small bucket of grain.  He was so very thin and ate like he hadn’t eaten in such a long time.  Since he was now settled in, the children returned to the house to open their presents after feeding the other livestock.

Later during the day we went out to take care of him, followed by a happy little girl with her Christmas wish still obvious in her eyes.  He was groomed, de-liced, fed and loved for the rest of the day.  As night arrived he was asleep in his enclosure with his head down, one rear leg tipped in relaxation and ready for sleep with a full belly that he probably hadn’t had in a long time.  A hug from Katy and he was put to rest for the evening until morning.

The next day we called the vet to come check “Snowball”.  The diagnosis was that he was quite old, probably in his mid to late 20s.  He needed to have the critters that were crawling on his body taken care of, his feet trimmed and cleaned as they were now diseased due to his previous lack of care.  His teeth had to be taken care of so he could eat more easily and he was given a few shots; a vitamin booster and something to help get him healthy.  When the vet left, Katy was there to take care of her new present, to comb his tail and mane, comb his long hair and clean the dirt from his body.  He was loved by a girl that thought Santa had brought her just what she had wished for.  We began to wonder if there was truly a Santa and he had usurped us and actually given us a present.  How great was a little girl’s wish for that pony she wanted so bad.

We lived rural on an oak and eucalyptus covered hill that dropped down on two sides.  The front meadow was green and moist with soft grasses, the rear livestock area was set with pens for the livestock.  The hill down sloped steeply and the eucalyptus had dropped the crowns of their blossoms making it like a roller derby to make it down the hill.  You were never sure where you might step to allow your feet to scoot out in front of you.  We had no close neighbors and the nearest we knew and they did not have a white pony.  Snowball was just lost or he had wandered away from his home.  We had to find his owners, he couldn’t be ours, he just couldn’t.  We already had many horses and a few ponies.  The wish of a child didn’t realize what she already had and how much a young family of 5 had to spend on livestock feed already.  We just had to find his real home.

Our town was small, just a bit inland from the Pacific Ocean in the Watsonville, CA area.  The town was named Aromas and only 717 people lived there.  It was a great town to raise your children; it was safe and everyone watched out for everyone else.  We knew so many people and took our “lost pony flyer” to the local small store, our only store so everyone in town was going to go there sometime.  We told the store owners that we had found Snowball on Christmas and were looking for his real owners.  Katy still believed that this pony was a gift from Santa.

Everyday Snowball was walked by Katy.  We saw a darling dark haired little girl with the pony behind her, going for their walk.  Katy was small and afraid to ride him plus he was not in good shape yet.