The Villages Daily Sun

Miniature horse, owners travel from Wildwood to Big Apple to wow 'Today Show' crowd

WILDWOOD - The Big Apple rolled out the red carpet for Sunny the miniature horse last week.

Sunny competed in the Most Talented Pet Contest on NBC's "The Today Show." He not only competed, he stole the show. Not since Ron Dixon, playing for the New York Giants, ran a kickoff back for a touchdown in the 2001 Super Bowl has someone from Wildwood received so much applause in New York.

Sunny and his owners, Tom and Diane Long, made a quick trip from Wildwood to New York when they received a call from NBC informing them that the little horse was ready for the big time.

"We saw the contest advertised on television, and at first I figured they probably wouldn't want a horse," Diane said. "I saw a big horse entered and decided to enter Sunny."

Entries had to be submitted by March 16 and the Longs only had two days before the deadline.

"We sent it overnight," Tom said. "The top six would come to New York."

The phone rang on the following Monday - it was NBC. From there things moved pretty quickly.

"They told us they needed us there Friday," Diane said. "I told the man we could get there by next Friday and he said no he meant this Friday. We left on Tuesday."

Of course, the weather was substantially different in New York than it was in Wildwood.

"They told me they were expecting 2 to 4 inches of snow," Tom said. "There was snow and sleet, and I had three different cars do U-turns and come back facing me."

Of course, living in Florida, Sunny doesn't grow a full winter coat.

"He was freezing," Diane said of his outdoor performance.

Judging the contest were Jerod Miller, director of Ross Park Zoo in Binghamton, N.Y.; actor Fred Willard and John Provost, who played Timmy on "Lassie." Each judge could give the contestants as many as three stars.

Sunny breezed into the final round of the contest by racking up a perfect score of nine in the semifinals. In the finals, he competed against a dog that did gymnastics with his owner. The dog was given a perfect score. It was then Sunny's turn to give the best performance of his career. His routine included shaking hands with Diane, giving her five, answering questions, counting, taking the mail out of a mailbox and playing golf. Miller and Provost each gave Sunny three stars, but Willard only awarded the Wildwood steed two stars. The crowd reacted unfavorably when he announced his vote. In fact, when Today Show host Matt Lauer went inside to resume the show, he said to the national audience that "the people outside are all hollering the horse was robbed."

"When the third guy gave him two stars, everybody went wild," Diane said.

Before his performance, Sunny had won the crowd over.

"When we were outside, and when they panned the crowd, everybody cheered," Tom said. "He thought the cheering was for him and he started doing tricks."

The staff at NBC also was impressed by Sunny's talent.

"From the time we spent with Sunny and his owners, we can say he is one talented horse," said NBC News Today spokeswoman Lauren Kapp. "We had a bit of a headache trying to get Sunny into a hotel in Manhattan because none would take him. While we were trying to resolve the issue, Sunny took a walk through Central Park and was hounded by kids, adults, tourists and school groups who all wanted to pet him and see his tricks. (He is) a very popular and engaging horse, indeed."

The Longs took Sunny to New York in the back of their van.

"After we bought him, we took him to Pompano Park (a South Florida harness track) in a horse trailer. He reared up and was real nervous," Diane said. "That was his only time in a horse trailer. After that, we would take him with us in our Dodge minivan. When we started getting too many toys for his show, we had to get a bigger van."

Sunny's appearance on "The Today Show" made him an instant star. The van has Sunny's name and Tom's phone number on the side, and this led to a couple of incidents on the way back to Echo Farm Too in Wildwood.

"We went through a toll booth on the New Jersey Turnpike and the lady in the booth said she was lying in bed watching him on the show that morning," Tom said. "She wanted to see the horse. I told her I needed a receipt and she told me she didn't care about my receipt, she wanted to see the horse. There was a lot of traffic everywhere, but she went back and looked at him and said, 'That's the horse I saw on television.' "

There was another acknowledgement of Sunny on the highway.

"On the 495 Beltway, we were stuck in traffic for about two hours. My phone rang and it was a Pompano exchange, but I didn't recognize the number. I answered the phone and the lady asked if I had Sunny the miniature horse in the van," Tom said. "She said, 'You guys got robbed. We were at the show in New York and saw you get robbed.' I asked where she was calling from and she said, 'We are on our way back to Florida and we are stuck in traffic right behind you.' "

The Longs have heard through the grapevine that Sunny may be invited to appear on "The David Letterman Show" in the near future.

"If they asked us, we would do it. We are available," Tom said.

Sunny is not the only trick horse living on the 17-acre farm. Joe, another horse, can do all of the commands of the song, "If You're Happy and You Know It," and more than 30 other tricks. Fireball, a third steed, will lie down and pull a blanket over himself. Even Columbia Lu, a 28-year-old former harness racer, gets into the act.

"He won his last race when he was 14 and started learning tricks when he was 18. You better watch out when he gives you five, because he has a bigger foot than the minis," Tom said with a laugh.

Once during a trip home to Florida, the Longs had three harness horses in a trailer and the three minis in the van.

"We had to stop at the border coming into Florida and they had to check the horses' papers," Tom said. "He checked the horses in the trailer and wanted to know where the other three were. I told him they were in the back of the truck. He was not in a very good mood and said to me, 'For the last time, where are the other horses?' He looked in the van and asked, 'Are you Joe?' and Joe shook his head yes. He said, 'Are you Fireball?' and Fireball shook his head yes. He asked Sunny, 'Are you Sunny?' and Sunny wouldn't answer. Diane said we taught him not to talk to strangers. He walked away laughing."

The Longs purchased Sunny, who is 16 years old, in Fort Myers when he was 7. It was a case of love at first sight for both Sunny and Diane.

"When we went to get him, there were 25 or 30 other horses in the field. The guy whistled and they ran over," Diane said. "He came right over and stood next to me. The man told us that Sunny was the one he was trying to get us to buy. He was a furry thing, not flashy."

The Longs took him to Pompano Park, where Diane trains and drives harness horses.

"When I got him, we took him to the racetrack. I taught him two tricks in one day and seven in a week," Diane said. "He learned 35 tricks in two months. After that, it snowballed and now he does 70 tricks."

Sunny is very adept at answering questions. He can even go as far as predicting the weather. There was talk of him doing the weather with NBC's Al Roker, but the popular weatherman was out of town when Sunny was in New York.

"I opened some Life Savers one day, and I asked him if he wanted one and he shook his head yes," Tom said. "Then I asked him if he thought they could save his life and he shook his head no."

The miniature horse even amazes Diane.

"I think there is a little person inside of him," she said.

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Diane is a very accomplished horsewoman. She got her first pony when she was 8 years old.

"His name was Topper. Pepsi sponsored a contest at the Barnstable County Fair where the kid that brought in the most bottle tops would win a pony, saddle and bridle," Diane said. "My brother bought him from the kid who won it. His father was in the service and he had to go overseas."

Diane began racing ponies and graduated to harness horses.

"I've raced every year for 38 or 39 years," Diane said. "We bought our first standardbred for $500 and her name was Molly the Great. She wasn't very great; in fact, she was horrible."

As a driver at recognized harness tracks, Diane has won 138 races.

"I need 12 more to get to 150, but Tom doesn't like me driving much anymore because it's so dangerous," said Diane, who has been married to Tom since 1969. "I was in a fall at Foxboro where only two of the nine horses finished. I was trying to avoid it and the guy in front of me moved out enough to catch my wheel."

In fact, the Longs will load up Berkley Seelster, a standardbred trained by Diane, into the horse trailer and take him to Pompano Park to run in a race on Saturday.

Diane also held the world record for the fastest time ever driven by a woman on a recognized standardbred track.

"It was 20 years ago at Pompano Park, and she was driving Don't Bug Me," Tom said. "They went in 1:55.3. She held the record for about 2 1/2 years."

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Sunny, who has a strong liking for Pepsi, thinks he should be able to go anywhere.

"He tried getting into a golf cart," Diane said. "I took him in the house the other day and he got up on my futon. I asked him if he wanted to get on the double bed and he climbed into the bed. He will go anywhere and do anything for me. He trusts me and knows I'm not going to hurt him."

Tom said Diane and Sunny are a remarkable team.

"He listens to Diane and wants to please her," Tom said. "They bond so well together."