Sisters and Snowball

Can't believe I haven't used this photo yet. It's just one of my all time favorites…ever! It shows me and my little sister Donna with our pony Snowball on my Grandma's farm. And there's the snowball bush behind! What a blessed, happy childhood I had in the West Virginia mountains.

Mostly I rode Snowball because my sisters were too young to ride alone. We got him because he went lame in one of his back feet and the owner didn't want to have to care or feed him (expensive). But my grandparents had 50 acres of grass and hay and it wasn't a problem, apparently. Or else they made the sacrifice for us.

I used to roam the hills on him bareback and featured him in my first book Mountain Girl. What a sweetheart he was. I'm sad for kids that only get to see farm animals in museums now and ride a burned-out pony in a circle at a fair.