Simon on the left. This is one of his for sale ad photos. Pistol is on the right.

Today is Simon’s birthday.  He is six years old now.  All grown up with no excuses to be a twit ever again.  I have never had a pony that I knew an actual age or birth date for.  Unless you are dealing with a registered horse, or a farm breed, it’s not likely.

Simon is basically a farm breed pony though.  The nice lady, Linda, I purchased him from in Ohio, had Simon’s grandmother.  She was a Dartmoor pony Linda picked up at a slaughter auction who was pregnant by a Percheron, who was also being sold at the auction.  Her daughter, who was a Dartmoor Percheron cross, was Simon’s mom.  Linda still had his dad when I got Simon.  He is a dark brown paint, leaner built Chincoteague pony.

Another of his for sale ad photos

Simon’s original owner, Linda, is into driving and wagon trains and has a love for ponies.  So she breed the two in hopes of getting a draft pony and came out with a colt she named Pistol.  She breed them again in hopes of coming out with a matched pair and got another colt she named Trigger.  So she had Pistol and Trigger.

a photo from his for sale ad. Simon is the one closest to us.

Pistol and Trigger were pretty close, both palomino paints but Simon got more of the draft body and was a half a hand taller.  She raised and trained the two and spent a year driving the pair on wagon trains.

One of our first rides at home.
February 7, 2011

At the end of the season she decided they were just not a good match, with their strides being too far off and she began working more with her mule pair.  She also decided that she was getting older and keeping her health in mind, she decided to thin her herd one at a time.

I saw an ad for a draft cross pony named Trigger.  He was listed as a coming five year old that rides and drives.  I spoke to Linda on the phone and explained what I was looking for.  I told her I was recovering from a pretty nasty riding injury and had just gotten the ok to start riding again.  I needed a safe pony, that I could bond with, but that would still give me enough challenge to be enjoyable and fun.  She was a little hesitant to sell Simon but really thought him and I would be a good match.  And finding a good home for him was very important to her.  It sounded so good to me that I took my trailer with me to try him out.

It was a six hour drive, through the mountains, across West Virginia, and eventually over one lane bridges and down narrow dirt, ice edged roads. We parked at the bottom of their ice sheet of a driveway and around the bend in the road came this big eyed, fuzzy pony.

One of our first rides at home.
February 7, 2011

Linda rode over and said hello, and then trotted and cantered him around in a small muddy area on the shoulder of the road.  Then she hopped off and I laboriously climbed on (at the time, because of my injury, I was having a lot of trouble mounting).  Simon stood perfectly still as she helped give my bottom a push up.  Then I trotted around and fell immediately in love.

My husband made the drive out with me and said I had a huge grin on my face.  I admit I was near tears knowing I had found my pony.  Twisted between not wanting to get off and leave the free feeling of being on the perfect pony, that my soul so badly needed.  While also wanting to get this dream pony in my trailer and back to my home before this lady could change her mind, I looked at her and said, ‘Thank you.”

Sporting a modified clip job and on one of our first solo trail rides
February 13, 2011

I climbed off, reached in my pocket and pulled out the $800 asking price in cash, and handed it to her.  A usual thrifty shopper, I never thought for a moment to dicker about Simon’s price.  To me, this pony was worth considerably more that I could possible pay.

And that’s where it started.