My Favourite Christmas Animal Memories
Dec 22, 2023
One of the things I love about Christmas are the special times spent with the animals in my life. I’ve been very fortunate and have so many wonderful memories to look back on.
As a teenager, my life revolved around horses and I couldn’t wait to visit my horse Amy on Christmas day and celebrate with her.
One of my favourite memories of Christmas with Amy, was preparing her a special Christmas Day dinner. I would plan what things to get for her, weeks in advance, to make her dinner extra special.
In those days there was a shop in my town that had bins of different horse feed, where you could buy food by the scoop and I would go there and get her the horse equivalent of pick and mix! She loved having a special blend of pony nuts, split peas, oats, bran and “cool mix” which looked a bit like muesli! I always added loads of extra carrots and apples.
I would bake biscuits for Amy too, so that she had some extra treats at Christmas. One year I made her apple cakes and I was a little disappointed when after her first bite she spat the cake out! One of the few food items she ever rejected! She much preferred fig rolls and ginger biscuits.
Every year we looked forward to the “Boxing Day ride” which was organised by the riding stables where Amy lived. After all the treats of Christmas Day, Amy was raring to go! All of our friends would gather and we would have the fun of decorating bridles, manes and tails with tinsel, which the ponies seemed to love. I can still hear the 80’s pop music blaring out while we got ready! Amy and I would make sure our outfits matched and everyone would wear red, green or Christmas costumes. The biggest challenge was getting Christmas decorations to stay on our riding hats.
Some years we had a fancy dress contest at the riding stables. Amy and I won first prize one year, dressed as Worzel Gummidge and Aunt Sally! I was Worzel and had a jacket made of black crepe paper with straw attached around the cuffs and sticking out of the back of the jacket, as if my scarecrow stuffing was coming out. Amy wore a straw hat decorated with flowers, making a very convincing Aunt Sally. All went well until the pony behind us in the procession realised that I was a delicious snack and ate my stuffing!
I have been so lucky to have so many special animals in my life to share Christmas with. Here’s to many more happy memories to create and look back on!
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