What About Babe?

Don't we all look sweet standing out in the field with our little pony? On first glance, maybe. We loved that little pony, but we were also very scared of her. Notice her ears? Are they laid back? Yep. She was preparing to reach out and nip one of us. She had a lot of tricks that kept us on our toes!

Now, before I go farther into my story, I need to explain this thing about the dresses. As in, I seem to be wearing them a lot. Back then (and clear up till the 70's) girls had to wear dresses to school. That's just the way it was. It wasn't until I was half way through High School that we were allowed to wear pants...and after that I never wore a dress to school again! So about some of these photos. When we got home from school Mom would want to take pictures (which were rare to begin with) while we still looked “nice”. So now you know that if I'm wearing a dress in the pictures, it was a school day.

Let me introduce you to Babe. She was a caramel colored Shetland Pony that Dad purchased from a farm a few miles down the road from us in Melrose. Not having any way to transport her, he simply used a halter and rope to walk her back to our place. My brothers and I were thrilled! I fully expected that when she tamed down, she would be a sweet, devoted pet, who wanted nothing other than to please us. Right?

Babe didn't see it that way at all. Dad spent some time “taming” her, but maybe not enough. Babe was very ornery! I already mentioned that she would innocently reach out and bite any of us randomly. Sometimes she “accidentally” stepped on our toes. Eventually Babe was introduced to, and got somewhat accustomed to having a child ride her. She allowed us to mount, (sometimes with a saddle, and sometimes not), and would respond nicely to the bridle and we enjoyed “leisurely” (Ha!) strolls around the yard. But we never did relax completely, because Babe had a few tricks to apply when she was ready to get rid of us.


1. If we got brave enough and coaxed her to move a little faster, she would suddenly stop or turn. We weren't steady enough to hang on, so down we went.

2. She would get close to a fence and try to scrape us off.

3. Barn walls worked the same way.

4. Her teeth could reach our legs quite easily while we were astride. We learned to watch and dodge any sudden movements on her part. (We also watched for the first warning sign: her ears would go down!)

5. When we got a little more savvy, and the first tricks didn't work, then there was always a flat out run, which might not throw us, but certainly made us want to dismount as soon as possible!


One time Donny was riding her when she took off on a wild gallop through the back pasture. I was amazed at how well he was hanging on! Babe tried a new trick that day...she ran straight under the branch of a tree, which caught Donny in the chest and he went down hard. Later on, when he had recovered, he marched determinedly out into the field with a saw and cut down the offending branch.

Babe finally did get to the point where she liked to hang around us. When we went outside, we would hear her snicker gently in the field, then she'd trot over to follow us in whatever adventure we had planned for the day. My parents gave Donny and I (being the oldest) the responsibility to feed her every day, and brush her when needed, and I remember feeling quite “mature” about the work we were required to do. I was quite fond of our pony, but never perfectly at ease with her. I always kept a close watch on her ears, just so I'd be ready to move quickly if necessary.