Snow horse sculpture delights Ohio community

There’s a special kind of joy that comes with making a snowman, a joy that starts the moment a person steps outside into the quiet, freshly fallen snow, a snow that blankets sound to create a glorious aura.

Your breath escapes your lungs and comes out into the cold so dense that as it hangs in the air, you feel like you could almost reach out and hold onto it.

But what happens when the snowman isn’t just a snowman, but rather a work of art that almost leaps to life? Then it becomes something that makes people take notice, which is exactly what happened when Aden Miller ventured outside Saturday, Jan. 31.

Miller’s idea became reality when he crafted a beautiful horse in front of his house. Yes, the sheer joy of creativity was in play, but his end game had something much closer to his heart than just art.

“He really did this for the kids,” his wife Miriam Miller said. “He had five little boys running around outside with him while he worked, but he basically did the work himself. He wanted to do something fun for them because he has told them stories about how he would make these horses when he was little.”

She said Miller used to create snow horses when he was a young boy. Apparently, that young boy never fully left him, because when the massive snowstorm hit and eventually gave way to a little brighter day, he went to work recreating his boyhood passion for making snow horses.

“He initially put out two pieces of plywood, and the snow wouldn’t pack really tightly so he eventually poured water over it and let it stand overnight,” Miriam Miller said. “The next day he took away the plywood and went to work.”

That work included scraping, modeling and eventually the use of a chainsaw as the snow and water mixture had created a sturdy base.

“He basically carved it out of the ice,” Miriam Miller said.

Eventually, the horse took on a personality of its own, right down to its raised right front hoof, and thanks to the extended cold weather pattern that settled in after the big snowfall, the horse has been around to entertain both his family and those who pass by the house to take a gander at this equine treasure.

“We have had a lot of people who have commented on it and driven past to take a look because they heard about it,” Miriam Miller said. “We’re kind of happy it has stayed this cold so we can enjoy it for a good length of time.”

Like all snow creations, this gallant white steed will be gone all too soon as the sun comes out, temperatures rise and the heat takes its toll.

However, for those who pass by and, most importantly, for the family, it will always remain — at least in their memories.

Who knows? Perhaps this effort may have started a new family tradition.

That is the joy of creating in the snow, where a moment in time allows adults to become kids again and kids can delight in something that wasn’t and then suddenly was there, seemingly blossoming out of nowhere in the snow.

Even knowing the snow creation will eventually melt makes the moment sweeter because its beauty lies not in how long it lasts, but in the joy and memories that are packed into every perfectly placed handful of snow.