When you raise children, you go through "phases" with them. We had a "cat phase" which was a short one, a "dog phase" (almost permanent ) and a "horse phase" which was only a middle sized one.

      The first horse was a Shetland pony bought by son Mike. At this time he was thoroughly into horses and Indians, and saved his allowance like a miser until, with some help from parents, he had enough for the pony.

      Husband worked in Green Bay where there were several fields of ponys, and one day he called to say he was bringing one home. How? Good question, the only space available being the back seat of the car. When he stopped for gas the pony whinnied and tried to climb into the front seat. The station attendant thought he was hearing things until he was told it was OK, there was just a horse back there.

      My vision of a Shetland pony was of an animal so tiny we would be able to keep him in a huge cardboard container that housed Corn Flakes boxes. What a surprise when he turned out to be at least twice as big as pictured in my mind and at least 3 times as ornery. We stabled him for the night in the shed on the back of the house where he spent the night whinnying and chewing up the steps into the kitchen.

      A Disney movie of that period was about a pony named "Tonka" , so there was no doubt of this pony's name. We hurriedly built a small barn and corral, and were in business. In the summer we pastured Tonka in a field a few blocks away, where he had a lot of running space.

      For a long time we couldn't figure out how he would often turn up at our house, until we found that Mike was training him to jump things, and he decided that jumping the fence was the thing he liked to do best. Two of the neighbors made it clear that they didn't appreciate Tonka scratching his back in their gardens, and one night when my husband got off the 3 A.M. train, Tonka was waiting at the depot to greet him.

      I thought all Shetlands were gentle creatures, but Tonka would lay his head on Mikes shoulder, then bite him and run away. Once when I went into his little barn he got me into the corner and I supposed I would be there for the rest of my life as he wasn't giving an inch, and not caring to be kicked with his hind feet, I snaked my way around his head and scrambled out the door before he did any serious harm.

      Allen was the second one to acquire a horse, a huge Morgan. Star was stabled in a barn about 4 blocks away, but he also liked to come visiting sometimes. One day he wasn't in his barn and while the men went looking for him, he showed up at our house. Never having been close to an animal that big, I was praying hard that the guys would get home to catch him and return him to where he was supposed to be.

      In the meantime Tonka was putting up a fuss in the back yard and Star went out there to see what it was all about. I knew I had to catch him and get him away from that fence, because Tonka had already kicked out the top board and was going after the lower ones.

      When I did get hold of him I hurried him out of the area and out of sight of Tonka and started walking him back to his own house. He stopped pretty often to nibble the grass at the side of the road, but I didn't argue about this with him.

      There was still another horse, "Missy" who was so well behaved she put Tonka and Star to real shame.

      Eventually we grew out of the "horse phase", thank goodness, and went back to dogs.