The Incomparable Magic of a Christmas Pony

Pop Culture
From top left, clockwise: Margaret Ransom and her Christmas horse, Many Colors; Michelle Yu's daughter, Olivia, and Christmas horse, Iso; and Reade Baker and his family with his Christmas pony, Lady. (Courtesy of Margaret Ransom, Michelle Yu, and Reade Baker)

The poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” envisions a peaceful night in which “The children were nestled all snug in their beds; while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.” I can guarantee you that visions of sugar plums were never dancing in my head on Christmas Eve. It was always about ponies and horses. The Holy Grail of Christmas presents! A horse! A pony! The fulfillment of so many dreams and wishes. Sometimes I peruse YouTube to see the latest videos of the lucky ones who received a horse for Christmas. Usually, the horse has a bow or ribbon and the reveal at the barn is always a surprise. And it universally includes squealing, crying, and downright bawling. I get it. I completely get it. If there was ever a horse waiting for me, they would have to call FEMA to control my tears.

Reade Baker and his family with his Christmas pony, Lady. (Courtesy of Reade Baker)

So I asked my friends if dreams ever do come true. Who has received a horse for Christmas? Turns out that I know numerous people who have had a magical Christmas. The one story that makes many of my friends squeal with delight and envy is of Sovereign Award-winning Trainer Reade Baker’s legendary childhood story. In 1955 when he was 8 years old, he came into the living room and there was a huge wrapped box. Surrounded by his family, he unwrapped a pony! A real live Shetland pony! There was Lady, with a bow on her head, standing patiently in the box. A photograph captures the moment when Baker threw his arms around Lady and hugged her. His eyes peer over her back at the camera. His Uncle Lorenzo is looking on with love next to Uncle Charlie, who is smoking a cigarette. He is joined by his sisters, JoAnne and Judith, and Uncle John standing in front of the Christmas tree. One of his uncles had found Lady in Toronto and bought her for $35. He brought her back to the farm after he took out the back seat of his Buick. It’s the most perfect Christmas pony story ever.

Retired jockey CC Perkinson learned so much from her Christmas pony. She was 9 years old and had opened all the presents under the tree. She was sad and took her things upstairs. She says that “minutes later, my parents called me downstairs and said I forgot one present.” So she trudged down the stairs.  Her mom opened the front door and “Lo and Behold! MY PONY! Tied to a tree, waiting for me! BEST DAY EVER!” Sprite was a vision of beauty that morning – a muted color of gray with a very strong personality. Perkinson relays that “he ran off with me so many times and I held on for dear life with no saddle. My tears of fears turned into hysterical laughter of joy!” It was great training for a future jockey.

Author Linda Kesler Wright says that when she was 6 years old, she received her horse for Christmas.  The little, black-and-white paint pony was “older than dirt.” That didn’t matter to this 6 year old. “She was majestic!” There was no money for a saddle, “but the leather stitched (by hand) trim on the brightly colored blanket was stunning. Her bridle was a rawhide braided halter with rope reins. How I loved her!”  Wright recalls that “my lovely mare with her foundered hoof gave me the gift of trust, friendship, and devotion.” Her name was Pet and together they covered hundreds of miles in South Texas. “Obviously our adventures, in my mind, transcended our physical location.” 

What if you still believed in Santa Claus? TVG reporter and paddock analyst Catie May was 6 years old and lived on the Red Top Farm in Libertyville, Ill. Every year, her dad (who was the farm manager) would throw a big party for the local kids. Santa Claus always made an appearance. One year, they gathered outside the barn. “When what to my wondering eyes should appear, Santa and a cart, pulled by a paint pony! Santa asked if there was anybody named Caton? Not one to be shy, I stepped right up and got my new pony! I still remember Santa telling me the pony was mine. It was a fun moment.” Unfortunately, May points out that the pony wasn’t “up to the reality of the image” as he was a teaser pony. Since they lived on a breeding farm, “He couldn’t deal with all the ‘outside influences,’ which made him unruly, and he had to be given away.” Luckily, there were other horses on the farm around Catie!

Helen Graham is retired from the U.S. Forest Service. “We got a horse for Christmas in 1977. He was a retired, chestnut barrel racer named Chevis. It was as much my mom’s wish as ours as she had been raised with horses. He was a great horse and, retired or not, loved the challenge of racing.” After their gifts were opened, her mom walked Helen and her brother behind the house to see Chevis. “It was very exciting and unexpected! When we moved to Santa Ynez, there was an undeveloped straw field down the road. We could stand the straw bales up on end and give Chevis a heel and his head and we were on a ride that rivaled Disneyland. We also got the responsibility of caring for him. What a thing though, to get a horse for Christmas, chores and all.”

Sommer Smith's Christmas horse, P.T. (Courtesy of Sommer Smith)

The responsibility of caring for a horse seemed to be a critical issue with parents. Former bloodstock agent Sommer Smith says that she got a horse (named P. T.) for Christmas, but there was a “deal” involved. She bought P. T. for a dollar but “it was my parents saying yes to support him that was the biggest Christmas present ever. At 12 years old, I had no way to financially support a horse.” She learned a great deal of horsemanship caring for him. Smith’s days with her noble gray Thoroughbred were some of the happiest days of her life.

Thoroughbred owner Sally Lehnhardt had a loving grandmother who gave her a horse for Christmas when she was 13. They took her to the barn after the Christmas Eve service. There was a stunning Arabian horse waiting for her with the grand name of “MaRoSh Sun Amir.”  She decided to call him Buddy. The deal was that grandma made the down payment while she would clean stalls for a portion of the cost. Buddy opened the door and was the first of many horses for Lehnhardt. The stall cleaning was worth it!

When Kelly Woodham was 8 years old, she found a saddle under the Christmas tree. Her family told her to load up in the car “to see what went with the saddle.” Standing in the pasture next to her dad’s funeral home was a little, paint Shetland pony with a colt by her side. She named them “Sugar” and “Spice.” She rode them on the roads through the graveyard. She remembers that her dad built a “little run in shed onto the garage that kept the hearses!” Today, the retired school teacher has four horses in partnership with Pocket Aces Racing. 

Award winning turf writer Margaret Ransom has a great memory of the “Best. Christmas. Present. Ever. By a country mile!” Her father was paying board on an empty stall while he and their trainer looked for a horse. Her previous horse had been retired. Ransom remembers, “That day I saw this horse’s head sticking out of the stall and was mad someone else had taken my stall. I marched down there, my 10-year-old self, saying they should have asked first. My dad was right behind me and I remember him clearly saying, “Why don’t you take a look?” So, I opened the stall door and there he was! Standing there with a big bow around his belly. I knew instantly, and I think I hugged my dad first and cried. Then, I went in and hugged “Many Colors” and cried on his neck as he nuzzled me and grabbed my shirt.” Colors was her “good show horse” and made many of her riding dreams come true. “He was my best friend until I got older, and then he made another little girl’s dreams come true.” There were other gifts that Christmas - a new bridle, halter, and a tack trunk. But Ransom remembers that the real present was permission from her dad to transition to bigger horse shows. 

Crickett Hoffman and her Christmas pony, Bluegirl. (Courtesy of Crickett Hoffman.)

When Crickett Hoffman got up as a little girl one Christmas morning there was a note in her stocking to look outside. As she peered out the window, there was a registered, black American Shetland pony named “Bluegirl” saddled up and ready to go. Hoffman remembers that she got too excited! As she rushed up to her, Bluegirl promptly kicked her. Hoffman remembers that “her next present was a trip to the ER.”  She was OK but learned her first lesson about life with a cantankerous Shetland pony.   

Sometimes “Santa” brings a Christmas horse to adults. Raffaele Faugno gave his father a Thoroughbred racehorse (Ditch Plains) in the 1990s. “Seeing his appreciation and love for the horse was pure joy.  Standing at 17.3 hands, he was a gentle giant and he went on to win six races for us. Both have left us now, but the memories last forever.” Katie Peery received her Christmas horse early this year! He is a 2-year-old gelding by First Samurai out of a Hansel mare. He will be racing in January at Portland Meadows then will come home to be Peery’s future event horse. “He truly is the pony that I have been dreaming of!” Likewise, Washington, D.C. attorney Isabela Reis took matters into her own hands and bought her own Christmas mare. Gigi was an ex-racehorse previously named Dieu Donne. She was a large, 17 hands bay mare with a fabulous white blaze. Reis remembers that the Gigi “was the toughest, most ornery horse I have ever known. She taught me at ton and I loved her to bits!”

Santa Anita simulcast host Michelle Yu is featuring her own Christmas horse with her 3-year-old daughter, Olivia, for this year’s family Christmas card. She has loved “Its Our Secret” from the first time she saw him. He is a tall and flashy Quarter Horse with a large blaze and white stockings. Her husband, trainer Ryan Hanson, claimed him and ran him for a year. He was her barn favorite. On Christmas morning, her in-laws gave her a box. Inside were Its Our Secret’s papers and she was thrilled and nicknamed him “ISO.” Yu says he is a real jewel. “He is very sweet and amazing!” He ponies, barrel races, and has been ridden by both Olivia and her 9-year-old niece.

Future Christmas pony Cracker Jack for Eliska Kubinova's daughter Emilie. (Courtesy of Eliska Kubinova)

This is going to be an exciting Christmas for jockey Eliska Kubinova’s daughter Emilie. She will be 3 years old in February and is getting a pony for Christmas. Originally trained by her husband, Jorge Rosales, Cracker Jack is a stylish palomino pony that would stop anyone’s heart on Christmas morning with a luscious flaxen mane and Hollywood movie looks. Kubinova said that she can’t wait to see Emile’s reactions.  

My friend Margaux Jordan got her own Christmas horse when she was 12 years old and named him Ladigo. “He was a dark bay 2-year-old and my dad had brushed him until he was shining. He had a big bow around his neck. The first thing he did was put his head on my shoulder. I fell in love with him then.” Jordan said that he was the best barrel horse and that he was spirited, loyal, and very smart. “The first thing in the morning, I checked on him and the last thing at night, I went and said good night. When my heart was broken for one reason or another he was always there to listen to me and let me cry.”

The Christmas horse is not a myth. It actually happens and these stories make me smile. I never received a Christmas pony, but my mom made sure that every year there were Marguerite Henry books to fuel my imagination. For those of us without a real horse, there was always the exciting moment of finding a Breyer horse under the tree. Paula Marie of Kentucky said that she still remembers the Breyer horse she got when she was 7 years old. “I was ‘high’ on Secretariat and Santa (aka dad) fashioned a jockey saddle from scrap leather.” Her Malibu Barbie was a “jockey in heels, even though she rode that horse rather awkwardly. Dad was an amazing craftsman who could make literally anything. He was MacGyver before MacGyver.”

Parents know how much a horse-crazy kid wants a horse. Looking back at Reade Baker’s family in 1955 as they stood proudly around his Christmas wrapped pony, it’s amazing to think of the journey he was going to embark on with Lady. Christmas horses give the present of responsibilities, chores, and much love. Christmas will always be a is a magical time full of memories of horses and ponies named Lady, P.T., Cracker Jack, Chevis, Buddy, Iso, Pet, and Many Colors, as well as Sugar and Spice. There will be red bows and tears of happiness, along with squeals of laughter. A Christmas horse brings much joy into this world. As I think about it, I know that Sugar Plum would be a fabulous name for a Christmas horse. Perhaps on this Christmas Eve, I will sleep with visions of bays and gray Sugar Plums dancing in my head.  And I will smile knowing that somewhere on Christmas morning, there will be Christmas ponies and horses waiting under the tree or in the barn ready to give someone the merriest Christmas of all. Ever!  

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