Simon: My first 3 year-old

Simon and me circa, 2003?

From my last blog post, someone pointed out that I have never mentioned Simon, a horse I owned for a few years. How can it be that I have never mentioned this big, lovely boy? Here's the scoop...

I thought I needed an up-and-comer...
When Harvey was sixteen years old, I looked into my faulty crystal ball and worried that Harv's riding days were nearing an end. Harv actually remained a riding horse till he was 24, and even then he could have gone longer. Anyhoo -- in preparation for Harv's retirement, I bought a three-year-old Danish warmblood cross, Simon. Simon was by a stallion named Aleutian. I gave Simon the show name Adirondack.  At three years, he was 16.3 hands.  When I sold him at about age five he was 17.1 hands or so, and last I heard from his owner, he was 17.3.

Big and beautiful, and curious
I found Simon in Sunbury, PA. When I first went to look at him, he distinguished himself  by

1.  twisting himself around in loosely hung cross ties till the ties were tightly wound around his neck, and 
2. carting me calmly around the indoor during a hard-driving, deafening rain. 

Big horse, good mind, nice gaits, and he was easy and fun even at age three, even for amateur with no young horse experience. I learned a lot riding him, and he took care of me -- really, he never took a wrong step. If he was oblivious to my most stern corrections, he was also kind and  unflappable.

So why'd I sell him?
In the end, I liked riding my sensitive-boy Harv more than Simon, and Simon seemed to want to be a hunter.  I sold him to a woman who pretty much made an offer on him over the phone, based on my equine.com ad with the photo below. She still has him, loves him, and she named him Always, Always because she swears she will never sell him. She put him in training with a big name hunter rider, put him in aluminum shoes, and she sometimes takes  him to Devon to do local hunters. Simon's owner has a riding facility, and some friends of mine show at their small shows. They report that Simon is HUGE, built like a war horse, fat happy, and doing well. I think his owner rides him, but they may lease him to advanced riders too. I'm so glad that he has a great home and is thriving. He deserves it.