Room for a Pony

Jeffrey and I like British comedies: dry humor and witty lines. Lately, it is Hyacinth from Keeping Up Appearances, the socially-aspiring, condescendingly snobbish, constantly looking to impress with her powerful and wealthy connections character whose voice keeps running through my head.

Hyacinth’s sisters are a disgrace to her. Uncultured, uncivilized, unassuming, poor, they are the opposite of all that Hyacinth longs to be. Except for her sister, Violet, who is never mentioned without Hyacinth bragging that she’s “the one with the Mercedes, the sauna, and room for a pony.”

So, last week when the girls sat down together, consulted, and then presented Jeffrey and I with a list of their requests for a new house, I couldn’t shake the impression that I was being charged to find a home worthy of Hyacinth’s social prowess, complete with a “pool,” “playground,” “separate bedrooms,” “large yard,” and “room for a pony.”

In fact, it is “room for a pony” that now tops Mia’s wish list. She has taken to anxiously begging me at every possible opportunity to guarantee her that our new home in Idaho will be able to accommodate the horse that she is planning to buy.

Apparently, she dreamt of the horse several nights ago. In her dream, we surprised her with a miniature white horse for her birthday, which she named Snow White. She has been assuring me that that based on her reading a miniature horse would be a good idea since they eat much less and require less space than their fully-grown counterparts. Besides, she has figured out how to save the $500 (which is a sum she knows is adequate to purchase a miniature horse since last summer she and her buddy, Garrett Jones, hatched a plan to pool their money together and secure joint ownership of a miniature horse which was for sale at the county fair – after being devastated when she arrived with $30 and discovered she was $470 short, she has not forgotten how much she needs to turn her dream into a reality) over the next two years by saving allowance money and asking her grandparents for cash for her birthdays and Christmas.

However, in an effort to redirect her interests, I fear Jeffrey may have made it worse. He convinced her that a miniature horse was a rather useless creature, and if she was going to actually have a horse it ought to at least be able to be ridden. Makes sense to me. But, in the process, Mia has sensed permission to go ahead and work on getting a horse. Which, apparently, Jeffrey also told her if she saved half the money to purchase it, he would supply the other half.

I have told her that I know nothing about horses. They are very expensive. They require a lot of work. And, I am not sure I even want one.

All my concerns have fallen on deaf ears.

Mia has spent the last week devouring books secured from three different trips to the library with titles such as, Buying Your First Horse and The Encyclopedia of Horses.

She is learning a lot.

Every day she has a list of additional items I am going to need to purchase: a trailer to haul her horse in, for example. But, not to worry, she is asking Santa for riding gear for Christmas this year (so I won’t have to buy that!).

Yesterday, she came out of school and promptly declared, “I’m in love!” with a tone and inflection that had me a bit worried, until she told me that her crush was on a certain breed of horse, the Appaloosa, which apparently is native to Idaho. Once we move in, we can drive north to Moscow and even visit the Appaloosa Museum. (Mia is already planning a trip.)

I am trying to not -- in my practical, rational approach to life -- crush her dreams. I am striving to just let her be.

I have absolutely committed to arrange horse back riding lessons for her when we move in and have researched several stables in the Boise area.

But, I fear what will happen when we finally select a house, and there is not room for a pony.

Perhaps, she will adopt the attitude of general disdain for her family that Hyacinth embodies when she confides in her husband, “You know I love my family, but that's no reason why I should have to acknowledge them in broad daylight!”