Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Sunday, January 07, 2007
Wish comes true for Sparta girl
 Four-year-old Olivia Wray rides her new pony, Rain, as Joe Krantz, of the Circle K ranch in Sparta, leads them. Olivia received the pony from the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Erik Daily |
SPARTA, Wis. — Olivia Wray cannot see very well, but she had no trouble seeing the pony awaiting her in the barn of the Circle K Ranch in Sparta.
She ran up to him and stood proudly at his side, patting him gently.
And when Bridgette Krantz, who owns the ranch with her husband, Joe, asked whether she should put the new saddle on the pony, Olivia exclaimed, “Yeah!” The minute the pony was ready, she hopped up and smiled for the cameras.
Olivia, the daughter of David and Jennifer Wray of Sparta, was born with a cancer called retinal blastoma. She had her right eye removed and received a prosthetic eye in its place when she was six months old, her mother said. After chemotherapy and laser treatments, her mother said, she has some sight in her left eye.
At the suggestion of her doctor at Gundersen Lutheran, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin contacted the family. When Olivia’s parents asked her what she wanted from the foundation, she said she’d like a horse.
“But we don’t have a place,” her mother recalls replying.
“But that’s what I really want,” Olivia persisted.
She has always been interested in horses, her mother said. “She has books and loads of pony figurines and necklaces with ponies on them. This was definitely her wish.”
On Saturday, volunteers from the foundation granted her wish, presenting her with a pony, along with boxes and boxes containing gear and pony treats and a helmet for Olivia, plus a year of training, housing and veterinary services.
Dan and Vicky Goodman of Chicago donated the pony, which their daughter had outgrown, said Kathy Bartel of Onalaska, who volunteers along with her husband, Joe, to present the foundation’s gifts in this area.
“When Mr. Goodman called and said he had a pony to donate, they said, ‘That’s great because we have a girl who wants a pony,’” she said.
The Goodmans became interested in the foundation when a friend had a wish granted, she said.
When the pony, whose name was Jesse, arrived a week before the formal gifting, Olivia promptly renamed her Rain, based on a horse she saw in the movie Spirit.
Every day of the week, after preschool, she has wanted to come to ride him, her mother said.
“I like feeding them and riding them and petting them. That’s why I like ponies a lot,” she said, as she rode Rain around the indoor training track at Circle K. “I’ve wanted one since I was 3.”
“I like her because she’s like a painted horse,” she said, though her mother explained that she could not paint Rain.
The Wrays plan to move to the country outside Sparta soon, partly so Olivia will have a place for her pony after the year of boarding is up.
“Rain is beautiful,” Olivia said, announcing plans to braid her pony’s mane. “When I get bigger, I’ll still keep her.”
Joan Kent can be reached at (608) 791-8221 or jkent@lacrossetribune.com.
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