Smokie and Joker

My parents owned a boarding ranch for horses when I was growing up. My sister and I loved helping on the ranch. We couldn’t wait to get out of school to go ride the horses, feed the horses, or just brush them down. On their backs, we would fly across the land with the wind in our hair.

My dad told us we could ride any horse on the ranch except the two new paint ponies that had just arrived. He told us their owners were very strict about who was allowed to ride them. Since Teri and I were 8 and 11, he explained we were way too young. This made us so frustrated because we were allowed to ride the other horses that were bigger and stronger than these two adorable ponies. Ponies that were just our size!

A few weeks later, Dad told us that we could ride the ponies since they did need exercise. He warned us to keep an eye out down the long driveway for a dark blue truck. That was the ponies' owners, and if we saw them coming we were supposed to jump down and pretend like we were just brushing out their coats. Of course, this just made it a greater adventure! So we rode those painted ponies and fell in love. Dad told us the owners had not shared the horses' names so we could call them whatever we wanted. Teri called hers Joker since he was high spirited, and I called mine Smokey.

When the Christmas season came around we told my parents all we wanted for Christmas was a pony of our own, so we could ride and take care of it without worrying about the owners getting angry. My mom told us we should be thankful for getting to be around the boarded horses and that money was just too tight for us to get horses of our own this year.

Christmas morning came, and we were excited to see two shiny new saddles under the Christmas tree. We just knew this must mean we were getting horses. Mom shook her head and said a saddle this year and maybe horses next year. Disappointed, we went on to open a few other gifts, forgetting our dream of ponies of our own. Later, Dad asked us to come help feed the boarded horses. All four of us went out chatting distractedly about the gifts we had given and received.

Standing out back was our neighbor, Chuck. He had Smokey and Joker on tethers beside him with great big red bows around their necks. Teri and I didn’t even get what was going on. Smokey and Joker were our very own horses! Wait. What?

What we weren't aware of was Smokey and Joker were ours all along. Mom and Dad bought them months before but didn’t want us to know. What a Christmas surprise! We both got exactly what we wanted, and Mom and Dad had them hidden right under our noses. Not only had we ridden and cared for them for months, we had also fallen in love with them. That was definitely my best childhood Christmas!

In Him,
Joyful
1-29-2010
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