Betty Lin-Fisher: Pony Willie Nelson makes first official visit to Akron Children’s Hospital

Willie Nelson, the miniature pony who is following in the big hoof steps of the late Petie the Pony, made his first official visit to Akron Children’s Hospital on Tuesday.

He was a hit.

For 20 years, Petie the Pony visited patients at Akron Children’s Hospital weekly. For about eight years, he also made weekly visits to Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland. Petie gained national attention as the first horse to be allowed access to visit patients in a U.S. hospital.

On Tuesday, as patients and families stopped to look out the windows of the hospital, Victory Gallop co-directors Sue Miller and Kim Gustely and Willie’s handler Toril Simon led Willie out of his trailer outside the hospital.

He had been bathed in surgical soap. His hooves and tail were wrapped in surgical tape until he was ready to go into the hospital.

In preparation for the first official visit, Willie has been training at Victory Gallop since his arrival in October shortly after Petie’s death. Miller had bought Willie from a farm in Colorado after she saw a video on the internet. As the song On the Road Again played on her computer, Miller watched a video of the 7-year-old pony trotting down a country road, pulling a wagon.

More: Betty Lin-Fisher: Willie Nelson is pony in training to take big shoes of late Petie the Pony

On Tuesday, as Willie was walked along the sidewalk ramps in the garden outside the hospital, he was first greeted by Nolan Wickland, 7, of Akron, who was riding a bicycle outside with a staffer.

“You’re the very first one to visit,” Simon told Nolan.

“That’s going down in the record books,” said Gustely as Miller handed Nolan a stuffed animal pony. The stuffed animals used to have a tag with Petie the Pony’s name on it, but Miller said the likeness between the two ponies is similar; Willie has a darker mane.

Once he arrived at the Bath Township farm, Miller, Gustely and Simon put Willie through extensive training, including walking him through Miller’s kitchen while banging doors and dropping pots and pans, taking him to a small and sometimes noisy pet store and to a nursing home to make sure no distractions would spook him.

He took one quick visit to Children’s Hospital in the winter and rode up and down the elevator nervously.

As Willie walked in through a side door of the hospital, Clara Adams, 7, of Canton, her mom and grandma happened upon him.

“I’m not sure she’s ever been that close to a pony,” said Diana Smith, Clara’s grandma.

On a patient floor, Kara Haynes, 11, of Massillon, was the first child who Willie visited in a patient room.

“It’s pretty cool. I love animals,” she said after Willie’s visit.

Jacob Prosser, 9, of Stow, said he was expecting to see a dog during his hospital stay, but not a pony.

Said his mom, Christina Prosser: “It’s amazing. It lifts our spirits up. He’s a good little pony.”

When Patricianne Logston, 7, of Akron, saw Willie come into her room, it wasn’t the first time she’d seen a pony. Patricianne, who has scoliosis, met Petie the Pony twice during visits when she was in a wheelchair, said her mother, Daisy Shoff.

As Patricianne played with the little stuffed animal pony that Miller had given her, she touched it to Willie’s nose, which was right at her bedside. Willie lifted his nose up and down to touch the stuffed animal in Patricianne’s hand.

During the roughly hourlong visit Tuesday, Kim Jacobsen walked along with the Victory Gallop ladies.

Jacobsen’s daughter, Ciara, was the first child to ever be visited by Petie the Pony at the hospital more than 20 years ago.

Jacobsen had not been back to the hospital since Ciara died in 2001 at age 6 from congenital heart defect complications.

But she wanted to be there for Willie Nelson’s first visit. After Ciara met Petie the Pony, she rode at Victory Gallop’s therapeutic horse farm and the family volunteered there.

“It was so heartbreaking when Petie died,” said Jacobsen as she watched Willie visiting with children.

“I was very impressed,” she said of Willie’s demeanor and first visit.

Miller was nervous about Willie’s first visit, but said he couldn’t have done any better. She purposely kept the visit quick in case he got overwhelmed.

“He was awesome. He did a really good job. I’m very pleased,” Miller said. “He’s ready.”

The team will go back to Children’s Hospital next week and then Rainbow the following week before starting their weekly visits.

Medical writer Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.tinyurl.com/bettylinfisher

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Betty Lin-Fisher: Pony Willie Nelson makes first official visit to Akron Children’s Hospital