'Twas the night before Christmas

From the field master preparing for a busy Boxing Day meet to the child who is desperate for a pony for Christmas, various festive scenarios play out across the country, imagines Catherine Austen

- Catherine Austen

Child who wants a pony for Christmas

EVERY year it's the same. Katie is asked to make a list of the Christmas presents she'd like and, for the past six years, she has carefully written A PONY in capital letters. Nothing else. For her birthday, too. She's dutifully played with the My Little Ponies then the Crafty Ponies, she's got a duvet cover with ponies on it and every pony-related book known to man. But she desperately wants the real thing.

Katie's parents look at each other when Katie gives them this year's list. How did they breed a child who, with absolutely no family connections to horses, has been instinctively obsessed with them since she first saw one in a field in her grandparents' village?

Katie's life revolves around her weekly lesson at the local, luckily very good, riding school, and the kind, highly experienced proprietor, Angela, recognises that her passion is no passing fling. Katie is as keen to watch a lesson as she is to have one herself and loves to help with any minor tasks around the yard. She absorbs knowledge like a sponge.

"Look, she's a great kid, she's 12 now and I'd far rather she was into ponies than TikTok and boys," says her dad. "I've done quite a lot of investigating the costs involved and I think we can afford it now. Shall we talk to Angela?"

Angela, who is very fond of Katie and thinks her parents are sensible, nice people, despite their utter ignorance as to the equine, comes up with a plan. She will find a suitable pony, it will live at her yard and be used in the riding school a couple of times a week. It will, however, be Katie's pony, she will ride it as often as she is able to and she and her parents will learn to look after it under Angela's watchful eye.