by Trey Nosrac

The Mortenson family has a Christmas tradition like no other.

Oscar Mortenson, the family patriarch who resembles the actor Paul Giamatti, heads to the Harrisburg Yearling Sale held in November to do some early Christmas shopping. Before leaving for Harrisburg, Oscar carefully made a list of yearlings headed to the auction ring and checked it twice. At the standardbred sale, he always buys one yearling as a gift for his immediate family.

A yearling racehorse is a bit pricey, difficult to wrap, and impossible to fit under the tree. To solve these problems, Oscar arranges for the young horse, a trotting filly this year, to be in a stall at a stable 25 minutes from the family home. The night before Christmas, around 5 o’clock, his wife Annie and their three children, teenage daughter Flo and pre-teen twins Mike and Rex, pile into the Chevy Silverado. Like shepherds who went to the stable long ago, the family meets and visits with the new family member.

The excitement grows as they enter the barn and look for the large red and green wreath in front of a stall. All five Mortensons enter the stall and take turns petting and admiring the young horse. This year, it is a skittish bay filly with white on her nose and rear left foot. They spend about 30 minutes in the barn, take selfies with the young filly, and then drive home through the snow.

The Mortenson home is as festive as a Hallmark card sprung to life.

Over mugs of hot chocolate in front of a crackling fireplace, Oscar shows the sales video of the new filly on his iPad. Then he distributes sheets of paper with copies of the pedigree page. After four seasons, the entire family is learning the secrets behind the names and the numbers.

Next, the “changing of the name” game begins. The name in the sales catalog, R C Winder, does not make sense to them, so Annie grabs a steno pad to jot down suggestions. This name-changing has morphed into a Christmas parlor game.

Whatever name makes the final cut, the young horse will be loaded into a trailer after the Christmas holidays and head south for winter training. Another horse adventure will begin. Tonight, Oscar waves an envelope in the air. Inside are plane tickets to Florida and hotel reservations for Feb. 22–29. The new family filly will have company when the family visits.

Friends of the Mortenson family find the horse a strange gift. At first, the family timidly explained the gift to friends and extended family members, but as time passed, even the children realized that a living, breathing dream is much more tangible and lasting than – stuff.

The family, including the kids, realize watching a filly in the early morning mist is much more rewarding than playing an X-Box in the basement. A trotter qualifying for the first time, beats scrolling through social media. Feeding your trotter apples in the barn with your family is more fun than a zip through a drive-thru. Also, the family always makes new friends in the barns, fairgrounds, tack shops, and on the racetrack apron cheering for their horse.

Financially? There have not been any real profits yet, but the opportunity to make money in harness racing is a gift, not a requirement. A hobby or sport the entire family can share is worth more than money. This Christmas gifting of a yearling may sound silly to many of you, but it makes perfect sense to them.

Oscar Mortenson and his family will forever have memories of their adventures with these Christmas horses. That may be the greatest gift of all.

Peace, Trey.