Painted Horse

A couple of weeks ago, I was welcomed, as I came down to make breakfast by Sofia and Marcelo enthusiastically declaring that there were wild horses in our backyard. I'm not a morning person so I felt the need to immediately put a stop to such nonsense, "No, of course there aren't any horses in our backyard. What are you talking about!". They insisted and insisted, and when Sofia stammered through her excitement and clarified that they really were on the other side of the fence. I thought I better go look.

Yup, there were two horses in the previously empty field behind our back yard. Needless to say, Sofia was very excited about this development. At least a few times a week, she'll report where they are and what they're doing. A few days ago, she declared there was another wild horse, a painted horse just like "Pony", one of her beloved stuffed animals, that had joined the other two.

Last night, she couldn't go to sleep, I went in to check on her and asked her what she was writing in her little notebook. She told me, quite seriously as she looked out in the distance through her bedroom window, that she had been considering hopping over the fence and riding the painted horse.

[Ensue visions of The Black Stallion] I didn't know what to say. My jerk reaction was to squash her spirit and inform her of the dangers of trying to climb over a six foot fence which is followed by another chain link, six foot fence and then attempting to ride a "wild" horse, especially with no saddle!!! But I just said nothing. Let sleeping dogs lie.  Hopefully, she doesn't actually try to do it.