Chloe is the closest thing we have to a wild thing in my mind. It isn’t that she is difficult or troublesome, she is none of those things. She has a powerful free and independent spirit about her, as ponies are said to do, and we love her for that. Ponies are not generally those cute little things we sometimes think of. They were bred as war horses, Genghis Khan rode them across Asia and Europe.

They are proud, strong-willed and intense spirits. Maria sometimes thinks Chloe does not get the works she deserves, she has considered giving to someone who had more time to spend. One person contacted us a few months ago and said she was moving to a farm in the area and would love to have Chloe, but we have not heard from her in some months and the idea seems somehow remote.

Ponies are notoriously willful, but Chloe gives us no trouble at all. She loves to walk with us, we took her out into the woods behind the farm the other day, she walked happily along.

I am not among those people who think it’s cruel to re-home a domesticated animal or pet. That’s a selfish idea for me. If you can better the life, or someone else can give them more, it’s a noble thing to do, in my mind.

We’ll see.

We are still open to her having a fuller life, but we are also very happy to have her with us. Maria feels somewhat badly that she doesn’t ride her, but I never thought she liked being ridden much.

I think she loves it here, it’s a tough notion to apply to animals, content would be a better word. She has  room to roam, she gets lots of attentions. If she is meant to leave, she will go, and if she is meant to say, she will stay.

I went out in the cold – she pays no mind to the weather – and she stood with me on the hill, and I could see her riding across the plains, out West. She has a strong spirit.