The new year is now well underway in its typical flurry of cold, snow, and dreary ambience. What better way to brighten it up a little bit than with a smiling pony face? The pony of the hour (or rather, the month) is our dear January Joy, bringing her pretty garnet-coloured hair and cutie mark to cheer you up in the very very cold pile of snow you see her perched on top of. She enjoyed her time playing in it. Me, not so much. It was a very windy day and did I mention that it was cold?

Of course, more in compliance with the Joy aspect as opposed to the January aspect, I also present to you an adorable picture of the pony herself taking some time to stop and smell the flowers. Of course, this picture isn’t exactly recent. I don’t live in an area known for winter-blooming dahlias (in case you couldn’t tell from the preceding picture), so I had to recall a scene from late summer where things were considerably more colourful, including this Grand Prix dahlia that January Joy is sniffing. It’s almost as big as she is!

January Joy is a particularly special pony for me. I can remember the very first time I discovered the existence of the birthstone and birthflower ponies in my youth. I spent an exorbitant amount of time staring, enraptured, at pictures of the array of colourful ponies. I’m not quite sure it was about these sets in particular that elicited such a response from me, because I certainly didn’t acquire any of them until several years later, but I do know that January Joy absolutely deserves a feature on this blog. 

What also deserves a mention is that her hair is an absolutely spectacular colour and one of those increasingly rare specimens of a G3 with tinsel hair that looks sleek and shiny and not like a tumbleweed.

Now, I’m lucky enough to also have found Joy’s sister June Blossom from the same set as well as July Larkspur from the later Birthflower release. However, the year I got January Joy for my birthday, it was the first time I had ever laid eyes on one of these ponies in person and I was absolutely thrilled. 

And no wonder—look at how cute she is! Don’t you just want to pat her little nose?