Bath's own Willie Nelson (the miniature horse, not the singer) making national TV debut
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Willie Nelson will be making his national TV debut Wednesday on "The Kelly Clarkson Show."
But it's not the country singer appearing on the pop singer’s daytime talk show — this Willie Nelson is the miniature therapeutic horse from Bath who visits Akron Children’s Hospital patients.
Betty Lin-Fisher: Willie Nelson is pony in training to take big shoes of late Petie the Pony
More: Betty Lin-Fisher: Pony Willie Nelson makes first official visit to Akron Children’s Hospital
The road to Willie Nelson’s appearance on the show was a long and winding one, Victory Gallop co-director Sue Miller said.
"It’s kind of a strange story,” she said.
Miller frequently walks her dogs at the nearby Bath Nature Preserve near Victory Gallop. She often sees the same people. Over time in mid-2020, she started chatting with Derek Duda, a Bath resident who often walked past with his dogs.
The next time she saw Duda, he said he looked up Victory Gallop and thought it looked like a cool place. He asked her if he could come for a visit.
Miller assumed she must been wearing a Victory Gallop sweatshirt during one of her walks and piqued his curiosity.
“He came out and he visited the place and we got talking and I told him all about Willie Nelson,” Miler recalled.
Duda said he should tell his sister about Willie Nelson, to which Miler replied, “Why?”
It turns out his sister is the producer of the "The Kelly Clarkson Show."
“I started laughing and I'm like, ‘Get out...are you going to get us on "The Kelly Clarkson Show?"' and he said, ‘I’m going to try.’ ”
Time passed and the therapeutic and recreational horseback riding farm celebrated its 25th anniversary in October 2020.
One day, the fellow dog walker texted Miller and said his sister was in town and he wanted to show her Willie Nelson.
The producer told Miller that Clarkson would love Willie Nelson. Miller sent her back to California with a bunch of miniature ponies that hospital patients get during a visit.
More time passed and Miller got a text asking her to shoot a quick 30-second audition video.
“We quickly grabbed Willie Nelson and had some kids at the farm so we did a little, ‘Hey Kelly, you know this is us from Victory Gallop. And this is Willie Nelson and we'd love to be on your show,' and then I told a really stupid joke at the end,” Miller said.
Why would the pony not sing? Because he’s a little horse.
“I figured she would appreciate that,” laughed Miller.
Late this fall, the show started trying to figure out logistics to get Willie Nelson to California. They looked into flying the miniature horse on a special plane, but costs exceeded $10,000, said Miller. She also considered driving him, but logistics again got too crazy for the cross-country trek.
“And then we didn't hear anything for a while and I thought, ‘Oh, well, you know, it's probably just one of those things not going to happen now.’ ”
Last week, the show contacted Miller and asked if she could do a Skype session with Clarkson from the stables.
Miller used her phone on a tripod in the barn with Willie Nelson to chat with Clarkson on Thursday. Miller also provided photos of Willie Nelson visiting the hospital for a short intro video.
Willie Nelson and Victory Gallop will be featured at the end of Wednesday’s show, which airs at 11 a.m. on WKYC (Channel 3).
At the end of each show, Clarkson features things she “likes."
In the intro video, Clarkson describes Victory Gallop and its mission helping the children of the community, Miller said. The music star also said she’d heard of therapy animals visiting hospitals, but not a horse.
“She was just really cute and bubbly,” said Miller of Clarkson, whose show partner sponsor also made a $1,000 donation to the nonprofit.
“We were just excited that Little Willie Nelson from Bath, Ohio, got to be on 'The Kelly Clarkson Show.' "
And what did Willie Nelson think?
“He was perfect. He stood there the whole time. He couldn't care less,” Miller said.
Eventually, he fell asleep on her lap, she said.
Following in Petie's steps
Willie Nelson made his debut at Akron Children’s Hospital in May 2018 after training. He replaced longtime Petie the Pony, who gained national attention as the first horse to get access to visit patients in a U.S. hospital. He visited patients at Akron Children’s for 20 years and about eight years at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland.
He developed cancer and had to be euthanized in September 2017. More than 150 people came to a memorial service for him at the farm.
Willie Nelson returned to Children’s last August for visits after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the hospital to restrict volunteers, Miller said.
Willie Nelson and other friends at the farm continued to do virtual visits with hospitalized children when they couldn’t be there, Miller said. She tailored each virtual visit to the patient’s interest and show the patient different animals.
Willie Nelson usually takes the winter off from going to the hospital for weekly visits because he needs a bath before going and it is too cold to transport him, Miller said. But Victory Gallop was recently awarded a heated van from a grant, which will allow him to travel during the colder weather.
Miller hopes to be back at the hospitals by February, if COVID protocols allow.
Beacon Journal staff reporter Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ To see her most recent stories and columns, go to www.tinyurl.com/bettylinfisher
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Willie Nelson, the miniature horse from Bath, to be on national TV
