It’s what every little girl dreams of on Christmas morning–the pony of her dreams in the barn with a bow on the stall. And that dream came true for 6-year-old Sayla Dougherty!

Sayla’s mother, Theresa, sent us this wonderful video of Sayla discovering that Dude, the pony she’d been riding in lessons and fallen in love with, was actually hers.

“Just being able to do that for her was probably one of the best moments of my life—just seeing the joy on her face,” Theresa said. “I finished grad school in April, and it was a sacrifice for both of us. When I was working and in school, it was time-consuming and hard. I felt like this was the reward at the end of the tunnel for her.”

Theresa is a single mother, and not a horsey person, so when Sayla fell in love with horses at age 3, it was new territory for her. “I don’t have a background in horses. I’ve always had a healthy respect, if not fear, of them. But after Sayla got into it, I took a few lessons to learn how to tack up a horse and ride and the basics so I could help her,” Theresa said. 

And in her message to the Chronicle, sharing her video of Sayla and Dude, Theresa said: “Hello! I love your website and Facebook page and found it so informative as I shopped for my daughter’s pony. Thank you for such a resource!”

For Sayla’s fourth birthday in 2012, she requested a pony birthday party, so Theresa searched out Short Acres Farm in Brush Prairie, Wash., to help make that a reality. At Short Acres, trainer Kathryn Tilkin combines a lesson program with pony parties.

“Sayla really wanted to ride a Shetland Pony there. She’s an extremely shy girl, and I didn’t think she’d ride him because to do that she’d have to let go of me and talk to Kathryn,” Theresa recalled. “She didn’t even talk to her pre-school teacher or her doctor. But she went right up to Kathryn and said, ‘I’m Sayla, can I ride your pony?’ Riding has been so good for her confidence, so I’m glad she’s riding. It seems like horse girls are good girls; I don’t know that I’ve met a bad one.”

Sayla took lessons at Short Acres for a year, then in 2013 Theresa took in a rescue pony with the thought that it could be Sayla’s. “She was a bit of a wild card to begin with, and once she got some weight on her, she decided she was a rodeo pony,” Theresa said. “She was way too forward. So she went to a family who wanted and could work with a pony like that and I kept looking for my bombproof pony.”

Sayla riding Dude.

Theresa didn’t want to have to get Sayla’s hopes up with the wrong pony again, so she took her time and did her research. She found Dude, an aged gentleman with a history of education. “I saved up and saved up and figured that when the right one came along, we’d know. Dude was at a hunter/jumper barn in Oregon, so he’s jumped and shown and was a lesson horse at that barn, too. He’s taught little kids to ride and jump,” Theresa said.

Dude came to Short Acres and Theresa and Kathryn told Sayla he was a new lesson pony in the program. Dude spent a few weeks being a lesson pony as Kathryn put a variety of riders on him to make sure he was suitable. Sayla also rode him in her weekly lessons—and fell in love.

“Sayla kept coming up with scenarios like, ‘Maybe we could lease him from Kathryn,’ and ‘Maybe I could just borrow him.’ She was trying to negotiate her own leases for me, which was very cute. She was so worried Kathryn was going to sell him.  It was so hard to keep the secret that he was actually hers!” Theresa said

By the time Kathryn declared Dude to be a perfect fit for Sayla, it was almost December, and Theresa knew she’d have to keep her secret a while longer to make Dude the best Christmas gift ever. “I’m so bad with secrets that I thought for sure that she’d know!” Theresa said. A morning trip to the barn to feed the horses some treats turned into Sayla’s dream come true as a note on Dude’s door informed her that he was, in fact, her very own pony.

Since then, Sayla has ridden Dude every chance she can get. “We were out the other day and she rode him bareback for a while and I looked over and she was laying on his neck, and it was so sweet,” Theresa said. “She wants to learn to jump. The farm we ride at does have a hunter/jumper program but they also do a lot of western games. She enjoys the games, too. Dude can take Sayla any direction.”

Do you have a “pony on Christmas morning” story from this year or in the past you’d love to share with the Chronicle? Email it to us and we might include it in next year’s Holiday Issue of the print magazine!