The Ghost Of Tyke The Pony

I was adopted at the age of 3 days. And an only child. It was always just Mom, Dad and me. But, we lived on what I now call the “Old Homestead”. My Great Grandmother lived right next door to us, and then on the other side of Great Grandma, were my Grandparents.

And can you say spoiled? It’s not that I got everything I wanted, but I really didn’t lack for much.

Which is why at the age of 6 years old, my father asked if I wanted a pony-a real live pony! Of course I said yes. Dad started looking around for one and found one right over on Rich’s Dugway off Blossom Rd. So we went over there-now this pony had really only ever been used for children at parties and picnics. It only knew to go around in a circle and rein trained!

So here we are, Mom and I drove back home and Daddy and the pony walked all the way home-about 2 miles in all.

We named him Tyke(eeee) and put him in his new home-a small red building in the back yard-it was just big enough to give him a place to lay if he wanted to, or stand and he had a bin for feed.

We had also built a fenced in area for him to run around in-at that time the family owned 22 acres.

So, here is Tyke-he’s got shelter, food, and place to run around in and a 6 year old who couldn’t wait to saddle him up. Dad said wait for a couple of weeks till he gets used to being here and being the good kid I am, I waited.

At that time, we did not have an electric fence. But shortly after this incident we put one in. One of our neighbors had called us. They asked if we knew that the pony had gotten out. We said no, looked up and sure enough No Tyke! Instead, he had gone running down Atlantic Ave, during 5 pm traffic. Never got hit and actually a man in a VW had looked in his rear view mirror, saw this pony running after him, and had swerved on to someone’s front lawn-you’ve heard about dogs running after cars, but I bet you never heard of a pony doing it!!!

Needless to say, after that, we got the electric fence. I would get to ride the pony almost whenever I wanted-but he really didn’t like to have me on his back so what he would do would be to run along side the nails that kept the pieces of electric fence in and by the time I was done, I’d have a quite a gouge on my knee! Needless to say it was a battle of wills, and one neither of us really won.

My Mom always had a treat for Tyke-a sugar cube, carrot, an apple-and as she loved to feed him, we found that the saddle didn’t quite fit the way it had when we had first gotten him. It finally was so small on him, he couldn’t even fit it! That’s when he really became just a pet and didn’t get ridden anymore.

We had Tyke till I was about 16-about 10 years. He was getting old and a friend of my Dad’s offered to take him to his farm with other horses and ponies.

When Joe had taken this photo and had mentioned it looked like a horse, I knew exactly who it was, it was my Tyke, coming back home finally to move freely around Atlantic Ave again.

So next time you’re driving down Atlantic Ave and see a ghost pony flying like the wind, chasing your car, say hello to Tyke.