My neighbor's daughter is 4. Her mom grew up with horses, and the child (we'll call her P) has too.

P has never had a horse of her own. They've always been her mom's horses that she gets to ride and help train. But they were always "my mommy's horse" to her.

Months ago, my neighbor decided to add four more hooves to the family. They went out and found this awesome horse Bubba.

They bought him, telling P that "this horse is for somebody else, he's just living with us until we train him." So P wouldn't get too attached. The horse was never going to go to the friend. It was just a cover story for the 'trial run' to see if she and the horse clicked.

They did.

She loves this horse. She trained him on her own (with a little help from her mom).

Last week, her mom said "You did a good job training Bubba. He's ready to go home. Sean is going to pick him up today."

And then she took her daughter shopping. She was sad, because she loved the horse, but coping, because she knew this was the plan all along. Little did she know, that was never the plan. My dad went over to her house, and brought the horse to ours, where he has been living until Christmas Morning to surprise her.

She's about to get the best gift.

Here's Bubba getting all dressed up to surprise her. More pictures to come after the big reveal!