PEANUT

As you know, I grew up in a famous family of carousel carvers. I always wanted my own pony; however was advised that ponies were unpredictable, costly and a big responsibility - as a matter of fact, why couldn't I just be content with the 120 life-size wooden horses on my grandparent's carousel at Santa Monica's Pacific Ocean Park Amusement Park ?!?!
Well, growing up and watching Roy Rogers and beautiful Trigger - their relationship....my dream never died.
In the early '90's, I was reading Sunset Magazine and there was a wonderful article on a unique plant nursery called "Heard's Gardens".

located in Westminster near the Mall. Well, my boyfriend and I enjoy visiting nurseries, so one Saturday we drove to Heard's. We had a terrific time, and afterwards drove through the neighborhood on our way back to our Huntington Beach house. As we passed a children's pre-school nursery, my boyfriend said "Oh my - look at that." Behind a large fenced area and standing under a very large tree was a very little, dirty pony with a shock of white mane covering his eyes.

And that's when I fell in love with the pony that was destined to be my little boy.

For 2 years, unauthorized; everyday before and after work I slipped carrots through the fence - rain or shine, weekends, holidays, it didn't matter. Many times I stood out there in the pouring rain with him - no shelter for either of us - but it didn't matter to me - I was with him and he was with me for whatever time there was.

After several months, during one of my weekend visits to him, one of the neighbors approached me and said "we're concerned about Peanut and we'd like a vet to see him - would you be interested in paying for it?" I didn't know which excited me more - that I finally found out his name or that I was being asked to help! Anyway, the vet appointment was made for a Saturday, 9:00am and I was so excited I didn't sleep at all!

That Saturday was my first lesson - vets don't necessarily arrive as scheduled - and the 9:00am appointment became 4:00pm. The vet arrived and walked into the fenced area with the neighbor while I stayed, as always, on the other side of the fence. The neighbor asked wouldn't you like to come in?" Come in?!?!?! Could it be?!?!? I couldn't believe it - so I walked in and touched him and began crying.

Who knows what the neighbor or vet thought - I didn't care, I was 41 yrs. old and petting a pony that I deeply loved.
Peanut checked out OK and I continued my daily visits.

One day, an elderly man came out of the nursery school office with a cute pony saddle and tried to saddle Peanut. After all, it was summer and I guess Peanut had a job to do - giving pony rides to the preschool children. The man stood in front of Peanut with the saddle and Peanut reared up and the man fell down.

The next day during my visit - a woman came out of the office and said in a very strong, loud voice "we don't want the pony anymore and we've seen you feeding him - so if you want him, you can have him!" Needless to say, I was thrilled and said
"Certainly, however I'm going to Alaska for 2 weeks, may I please give you my answer/arrangements then?" She said "OK - but as I said - we absolutely don't want the pony anymore!". Well, I certainly ruined that vacation for my boyfriend - I found the only bookstore in Anchorage with horse books and read as much as I could.

When we returned from vacation to Huntington Beach, I made an appointment at the Huntington Beach Equestrian Center to reserve a stall. My boyfriend went with me. As we entered a darling red house at the end of a long entry road to the Center, a gorgeous redhead with a Rottweiler and a German Shepard said "Hello - English or Western?" And I said "Pony". She asked again "English or Western?" and I again said "Pony". She looked at my boyfriend who doesn't say much, however he responded "No - she really means pony - Shetland pony". Very James Bond........so, the 3 of us got into a golf cart and drove around. I saw people saddling horses, picking up horses feet, people in turnouts with their horses, then horses in crossties being bathed; and at the end of the tour, I got into our car and began sobbing saying "I don't know the first thing about taking care of a horse or pony - what am I going to do - either he's going to hurt me or I'm going to cause something to happen and hurt Peanut"
So - I wrote a letter to Peanut's Nursury School owner telling her as much as I'd dreamed of finally having my own pony - I didn't know the first thing about taking care of him....however - I'd met a lady that had ponies and maybe she'd be interested in Peanut. I left the letter in the nursery school's mailbox.

The next day I went to visit Peanut - but he was gone. I looked everywhere for him at the school and couldn't believe he wasn't there.

I spent 3 days at home sobbing - until finally my boyfriend said "Look - I can't stand this anymore; either call the nursery school lady or the lady with the ponies." I said "but what if he's disappeared or hurt, or abandoned or at some auction to become dog food - I can't live with myself!" Neal said "please - make the call, I can't stand this!"
So - the first call I made was to the pony lady - who picked up the phone and said "Sidekick farms - may I help you, please?" and I said, sobbing "did you just get a palomino pony named Peanut"....and what seemed forever, she replied with a smile in her voice "Why yes I did - would you like to come and visit him?"

For the next 2 years, I drove every Saturday from Huntington Beach up the 605 to El Monte to visit Peanut.
And I learned how to put a halter on him, clean his feet, feed type and amounts, giving him a bath, and learning that he doesn't see, hear or assess situations like I do - and many other basics to keep Peanut and myself safe and be able mutually enjoy one another as much as possible. I also learned you don't walk with a 5lb bag of carrots into a group of ponies....................STAMPEDE

I said "I lost Peanut once - I'll never lose him again - so if you ever decide to liquidate 'the herd' please tell me" - and that call came in October 1997 - and that's when I formally became Peanut's mom! Ironically, Peanut moved and has lived at HCPEC (2 minutes from my home) since August 1998 - and the vet that visited him so many years ago, Dr. Paul Wan - is his vet along with Dr. Janice Posnikoff. I didn't want to share Peanut with anyone - especially all of the visitors that wanted to see the smallest of the 400 horses - but that's when I found the true fun and joy - of sharing Peanut with all the little children and their parents! As long as I'm in Peanut's stall I enjoy inviting the children and their parents in to brush him, show them the contents of this tack box (they're always interested in all of the brushes and fly masks) and explain the costs/emotional attachment involved in keeping an animal happy and safe. I enjoy telling the children: ." never stand behind a horse... "never run or make loud sounds around a horse

In addition to the children, Peanut and I also enjoy becoming involved in the community and explaining to the various visitors the benefits of HCPEC - that it's open from 6am-10pm daily, and provides lessons, trail rides as well as pony birthday parties!
Through our efforts, we've expanded community knowledge of HCPEC as a wonderful, positive commuinity family resource and it's very gratifying to see families leave our stall and go directly to either the service trailer, one of the many training barns or to Horseplay rentals for additional information.

Peanut and I also enjoy participating in the TTherapeutic Riding organization - he's really wonderful with the special children and those in wheelchairs - and as a result of this; I've even had my employer, Panasonic, donate a variety of product for the Therepeutic fund raising events.

And, we get terrific crayon thank you notes pinned to his stall...............does life get any better than this?