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Alexander Gonzalez, 11, would like to bring his miniature horse, Bailey, home for Christmas.

It doesn't seem like a tiny pet horse would be much of a problem high up in the rugged foothills of the Santa Catalinas, with all the rustic Caminos de this and Calles de that.

There are, his mother says, dogs in the neighborhood bigger than Bailey, a 1-year-old, 30-inch tall, 180-pound roan mare.

But a miniature horse is still a horse, of course, according to Skyline Bel Air Estates Community Association regulations, and is prohibited from being kept in the neighborhood. And Alexander's mother, Mercedes Gonzalez, ought to know — she's its president.

Who knows what the founders were thinking decades ago when they wrote the rules, though it probably wasn't pygmy ponies. It's more likely that big horses — and, specifically, the flies attracted to their byproducts — were on their minds.

Whatever they were thinking, it apparently wasn't animal size. Gonzalez said the neighborhood's rules don't prohibit livestock, but do specifically preclude horses.

"You can have a llama, a pig or a goat, but you can't have a horse," says Gonzalez.

Still, it would seem Alexander has an inside track to a favorable interpretation of the neighborhood rule book's inconsistency. But Gonzalez says she felt it would be a conflict of interest for her to get too involved in her son's beef with the neighborhood association's rules.

So Alexander did what any modern Catalina Foothills would-be vaquero would do: He lawyered up and put a change in the rules to a vote of the residents of Skyline Bel Air, near East Skyline Drive and North Swan Road.

He worked a summer job running the cash register at his grandfather's service station and does household chores for a neighbor to pay for Bailey's upkeep and, mostly, the costs of his attempt to change the rules.

Gonzalez estimates that Alexander's attempt to change the rules has cost him more than $1,000, so far.

The ballots went out three weeks ago and are due back no later than Dec. 20.

The fifth-grader at Sunrise Drive Elementary School isn't particularly optimistic.

"I have to get 288 votes," Alexander said gloomily Monday afternoon as he fed and watered Bailey at the stable where he's boarding her.

Just a fraction of the ballots have come back, and the noes are outnumbering the yeses about 80 to 50, Gonzalez said.

If this were a government election, Alexander might be able to overwhelm the process with a little campaigning for a few friendly votes. But his mother says the association's rules say that unreturned votes count as "no" votes.

A phone call to one sympathetic neighbor pointed up a couple of problems.

"We are animal people. It wouldn't bother me. But I have to admit I've been pretty bad about this; I haven't sent in my ballot," said Louise Stone, who lives across the street and down the block from the Gonzalez home.

"I thought everybody would feel sorry for the kid and just say yes," Stone said.

"We have stuffy people in this neighborhood — old and cantankerous."

Still, Stone said she was planning to dig through a backlog of mail, find the ballot, vote yes and mail it in.

"He wanted to be a rancher before he had a ranch," said Alexander's dad, Max Gonzalez, watching as Alexander fed and watered Bailey in the rain Monday.

He said Alexander has been good about feeding Bailey twice a day and working to cover expenses since Alexander bought her in March.

Alexander says it doesn't cost much to feed a miniature horse, about $15 for pellets and another $12 for Bermuda grass hay every couple of months.

Alexander and Bailey have been doing some weekend politicking, walking the neighborhood and trying to get residents to fall in love with the little horse.

"He's had people turn him away when he's gone walking: 'I don't have time for you today.' I think that's just rude," Mercedes Gonzalez said.

"It's been a learning experience for him," she says.

Asked if she thought the experience would cause Alexander to become a politician or lawyer, his mother said no.

Even so, it could eventually go badly for the neighbors.

"He wants to be a writer," said his mother.