Jolene’s Adventure

Our Welsh pony Jolene had a grand adventure this week. I’m glad somebody was having fun, because we sure weren’t. The first day she was missing, we thought she’d find her way back home. But by day two we were very concerned.

Jolene came to us from a local rescue organization seeking to rehome several animals. We already had two donkeys, so we knew she’d have other herd animals to hang out with. What we didn’t know is that she would become fast friends with our miniature donkey colt Ollie.

Houston had promised our granddaughter Mia that he would get her a pony. And even though she was too young to understand, he was still on the lookout.

Then one day in January Jolene arrived in a trailer and trotted off and onto her new farm. Samson, Daphne and Ollie were all there to greet her. She very quickly began to take advantage of the 21 acre property, running and grazing with the others.

When we received Jolene’s records from the previous owner we learned that she was a Welsh Pony. She’s approximately four years old and has had one colt. The breed has been in Wales since the Middle Ages, according to Wikipedia and other online sources. “They developed into a hardy breed due to the harsh climate, limited shelter, and sparse food sources of their native country.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Pony_and_Cob)

Jolene is unique in that she has one blue eye and one brown eye. She also has dark brown/black hair with an auburn colored mane which often hangs over her blue eye like a teenage boy’s long bangs.

We know we’re quite a ways from the goal of our granddaughters (Mia has a new baby sister - Sofie) being able to ride her. She will eat out of a bucket or bowl that we are holding, but doesn’t want to be touched. She’s very skittish. And this is what made getting her back to our farm even trickier.

Our Facebook post about her escape was seen by several thousand people, thanks to the almost 100 people who shared the post. I got a call from Lisa, who lives less than two miles from our farm, early Monday morning. “I found your pony,” she said. We could hardly believe Jolene was so close, especially considering we’d driven those roads looking for her multiple times.

Lisa’s husband Brent, a former jockey, spent a couple of hours with us trying to get close enough to get a lead around her neck. No luck. She’d get close enough to eat, but as soon as she spied the rope, off she’d go.

Later her former owner came out with his trailer, and after a few hours of work, he and Houston were able to get her into a pen and then onto the trailer.

We’re so grateful to Lisa and Brent, as well as Bobby for their help Monday morning, and to all the Facebook followers who helped get the word out that Jolene was missing. Without their help, who knows how long it would have been before she returned home.

This piece first appeared in Sherry’s column, Finding Myself in a Small Town, in the May 21, 2022 edition of the Corsicana Daily Sun.