Summary Short Story: The Red Pony

Title     : The Red Pony

Author : John Steinbeck

          Jody was ten years old. He was the son of Carl Tiflin, the owner of the ranch that was stern. His father gave him a red pony, Gabilan. He was very love to this pony. Every morning, he brushes and feeds it. He also learned to train it from Billy Buck, an expert in horses and a working hand on the ranch.

One day in the heavy rain, Jody forgot that he had placed the pony in the corral. So, the pony got a bad cold and sick. The illness of the horse became worse, he could not breathe well. Therefore, Bill did something to save the horse through cutting a sack of puss. Unfortunately, one night, the horse was dead. It made Jody was very sad.

          After the death of the red pony, Billy Buck and Carl Tiflin plan to give Jody a colt, from birth. Jody names it Nellie, mare which would give the breed. He didn’t want to let something wrong happened with Nellie and its unborn colt as happened with Gabilan. So, he worked extra hard keeping Nellie until the birth came.

Finally, the time of the birth came. Billy, Carl and Jody found something wrong in the birth. It was complicated that Nellie became very ill. Even though Billy had killed Nellie through his pocketknife to make the colt was safe.