TRABUCO CANYON : Pony Makes It Through Rough Ride

Tony the Pony may be small, but he’s got the biggest heart around, his fans say.

The resident Shetland pony at Trabuco Elementary School, saved from near-death last week by surgeons who donated their services, returned from the hospital Tuesday and was met by adoring students and elated adults.

At a Trabuco Canyon ranch where he will recuperate for a few months, Tony stepped out of a red trailer and into the arms of several excited children who immediately surrounded him.

“When I heard he got sick, I was sad because I heard he might die,” said Chris Cox, 10, a student at Trabuco Elementary. “He’s my favorite pony (and) the first horse I got to ride.”

Tony fell ill on Dec. 20 and was examined by Dr. Mark Secor, a veterinarian and the parent of a 10-year-old student at the school. Secor determined that the 12-year-old brown-and-black pony had a life-threatening form of colic and would not survive without emergency medical treatment, which the financially strapped Saddleback Valley Unified School District could not afford.

Secor persuaded surgeons at San Luis Rey Equine Hospital in Bonsall, near Oceanside, to do the surgery, which would normally cost about $6,000, for nothing. Although the doctors were able to free an obstruction from the animal’s colon, Tony’s appetite is still below normal and must improve before he is out of the woods, Secor said.

While the surgeons were able to provide their services at no costs, a bill for about $2,000 in medical supplies needed for the operation remains outstanding. Parents and school officials plan to hold fund-raisers to cover the costs.

Trabuco Elementary School Principal Sondra Morrow said she was “absolutely dumbfounded” by the overwhelming support that Tony has received, including donations of time, food and medical help.

“I think it’s really going to be a lesson to the kids about community involvement,” she said. She added that it made all their efforts worthwhile to see Tony step out of the trailer.

The crowd “was so touched. There was a lot of fondness there. It’s a pretty good Christmas present and a wonderful start for the New Year,” Morrow said.

Hugging Tony’s neck and stroking his back, Nicole Presley, 7, said she was happy that Tony was better, because “he’s good, he’s nice.”

Tony is one of five ponies and three horses at the school, which also has rabbits, a goat, peacocks, roosters, ducks and doves in its animal program.

Nancy Schicht, who helps run the animal program at the school, said: “Obviously he’s got a real will to live. Otherwise he wouldn’t have made it through that operation. He really shouldn’t have made it.”

She added that Tony has always been a favorite of the children.

“They absolutely love him,” Schicht said. “He’s like a little baby. He just nuzzles them and loves them.”

Dianne Presley, 31, a former teacher at the school, said: “He’s real little and the kids really like him. He’s really sweet, mellow, calm, (but) kids always were attached to him because he can count. Kids tell him to count to four and he’ll stomp the ground four times. He definitely would have been missed, that’s for sure.”