When Dread Turns to Joy

The thought of having to sell my pony has crept closer and closer in recent years.

Every time the topic came up, a feeling of dread washed over me, and I would shut down because I didn’t want anything to change. But recently, the perfect opportunity came up for my pony, Saucy. She is an older, 12.2-hand Welsh cross pony. We bought her when I was 9 years old, and we have had her ever since. I did everything with her, from hunters to eventing, and she taught me so much. I owe her everything, and she owes me nothing in return.

As soon as we pulled up to their barn, Emma and her sister came right into the trailer to see Saucy.

Saucy is the kind of pony where no one ever really believes how good she is until they see her in person. She is sassy (hence the name “Saucy”) but she isn’t anything like the pony you grew up riding who would buck you off every time you tried to canter or who would relentlessly drag you over to the nearest patch of grass. She will make sour faces and pin her ears at everyone unless they have treats. But underneath that, she loves trail rides, being groomed, and on top of everything, food. And best of all, she will happily and safely pack a little kid around who is still learning to post.

I outgrew Saucy a few years ago. She was living a semi-retired life at my friend’s barn where she would go on the occasional trail ride, but she needed more of a job. She needed a little kid who would groom her regularly, love her, and learn to ride on her.

Through mutual friends, we heard about a little girl named Emma whose pony suddenly passed away the week before, and her mom was casually looking for a new pony. It was such a sad story — the little girl had just cantered for the first time ever on that pony, and then he passed away the next day.

Emma’s smile is contagious and she was just so happy. She didn’t want to get off of Saucy!

My mom, who loves Saucy as much as I do, set up a time for Emma and her mom to meet Saucy. Emma was so excited when she came to meet and ride Saucy. Her big blue eyes were bright and filled with joy, her fiery red curls were bouncing as she bounded down to the barn to see Saucy, and that big smile with the missing front teeth never left her face. Right away, Emma wanted to get Saucy out of her stall, groom her, and feed her carrots. She put her tiny saddle, helmet, and vest on and headed out to the ring.

Emma immediately felt comfortable on Saucy. She walked, trotted, went over poles, and even cantered with me leading her. Her happiness was contagious. As I watched her trot around the ring laughing while she tried to catch her sister, who was running on the ground, a smile slowly started to spread across my face too.

When we got back to the barn, Emma announced that Saucy was her favorite out of all the ponies she had tried, and she was prepared to buy Saucy with her own piggy-bank full of money if she had to. Emma left the barn with her sister and mom, who seemed to also like Saucy. Emma’s mom contacted us a little later in the evening and said that they wanted to lease Saucy.

After seeing Emma ride Saucy, I didn’t feel any dread, sadness, or reluctance at all. Instead, I saw a little girl who loves ponies have her dreams come true, and my pony was going to have a gentle job where she will always be loved, happy, and have another enthusiastic child to teach. I was so genuinely happy for Emma, and I am eagerly awaiting all of the updates and pictures of them together.

Note — it was extremely difficult to choose one picture that encompasses all of the memories that I have with Saucy. After a solid 30 minutes of searching through all the pictures I had available, I was able to narrow it down to 25…

Read more from Grace at her blog, murphyslawofriding.wordpress.com.