Life is a funny thing.  One of my favorite quotes (and often mentioned here) is “Man plans.  God laughs.” And sometimes God takes his own time in showing why things happen as they do.

So, let’s go back to the fall of last year.  My neighbor had recently lost his wife to heart disease and as time wore on, his ability to care for her horses (and ponies) went downhill.  It was never a surprise to see the horses had broken through their fence and were grazing along the road.  And nine times out of ten, the best escape artist was the black pony they called Flicka.  The other horses were not quite so crafty and were losing weight on the diminished grass in their pasture as our dry summer had continued.

As I drove home from work one day, I saw the sheriff’s horse trailer at this property loading the horses.  But my Texas neighbors being what they are, swooped in and immediately took over the care of four of the very worst of the horses.  That left the pony Flicka and a Mustang to go to the sheriff’s quarantine and eventual sale at auction.  But again, my determined neighbors, tried to help those two ponies find life long homes as well.

I had not met my neighbor Pauline before, when she showed up to beseech me to take one of the ponies.  Before she left, I had agreed to take Flicka and Isabel (one of our boarders) agreed to take the Mustang.  They still had to wait out the quarantine and then outbid the kill buyers. 

Some stories I wrote about the two ponies as they came to live at my barn are chronicled here:

https://exechorseluver.com/2015/09/04/rescue-initiated-rescue-complete/

https://exechorseluver.com/2015/09/14/mustang-love/

https://exechorseluver.com/2015/10/02/a-week-in-the-life/

There are three blogs from that time around the ponies. You might enjoy reading them all.

We found Flicka, who we re-named Jete’,  to be a beautiful and sweet girl but she was too much of a ride for my granddaughter Jordyn and we did not have much use for her.  Lauren and I talked it over and decided to offer her to our friend Dianne who had more riders and more need for the black pony.  Dianne loved her from the first moment, re-named her Baby J, and the pony has gone on to win numerous blue ribbons and several championships.  I found it to be a very successful re-homing.

I am not sure that my neighbors agreed with my plan when they failed to see the shiny black pony in my pasture.  Pauline came back to property to inquire as to where the pony had gone.  This was a very fair question in light of the time and money they had spent to get the pony from the auction. I told her my friend had the pony and maybe I read more disappointment in her face than there actually was, but I felt bad that we had sent the pony away.

Throughout this year, I had checked in with Dianne to see how Baby J was doing.  I heard she was a favorite of many of kids, they liked riding her and caring for her.  Over Christmas break, Jordyn spent three days at a “mini-camp” at Dianne’s barn.  I had lots of opportunities to see Baby J and talk with Dianne.  In the time we have been in our new place (almost three years now) Dianne had not been over to visit.  We set a time for me to “kid-nap” her on the Thursday before Christmas.

Our two places are only miles apart as the crow flies but due to the river between us, it is a little complicated to get to my place and many long-time residents have no idea these horse properties exist up on the bank of the Brazos River.  As we got close to turning on my road, Dianne sat up and said, “I have been here before!”

“Was it to go to Nancy Lindsey’s place?  She has been here for years.” I said.

“No”, Dianne replied, “I bought ponies from this lady in the first house on the right”.

As we drove by the house, now broken down and uninhabitable, she pointed it out. Dianne told me she had bought two ponies that I knew well, Bubblegum and Sophie (Jordyn once even showed Sophie), from the lady that had lived there. I knew immediately who she was talking about, none other than my now deceased neighbor’s wife, who had once owned the very pony I had given her.

I told Dianne gently that the women was now deceased.  Her husband had built a new house for them where he lives now, right next door to the place Dianne had bought ponies from years ago.

For those of you that believe in divine intervention, or the universe having an order to it or even Karma, for me this was a beautiful example.  Dianne had known my neighbor for many years and purchased two ponies that went on to have much love, wonderful homes and lots of children to ride them.  How wonderful is it that her pony through the sheriff’s confiscation, my neighbor’s intervention, and through my desire to give the pony the best home she could have, ended up right back at the place that her other ponies had gone so many years ago?

A fitting story for the holiday I would say!

I hope you all are approaching the New Year with hope and inspiration!

As always, thanks for riding along!