When I first was thinking about show names for Simon, I kept going back to “Little Lion Man”. I didn’t settle on this because the actual song lyrics didn’t mean anything for him/me, and it had nothing to do with his barn name (I like there to be a correlation). Instead, Simon became Something So Right but I always felt like my little bay horse had a lion heart.

In my world, I’m struggling a bit with Roman right now. It has nothing to do with him – he’s a nice horse. Mostly I forgot how mentally tough it is to have a green horse and go through that process. Double that with me not being at my emotional best lately, and it’s been hard at the barn. It’s not his fault nor mine, but a rough patch right now.

A head cold kept me away from the barn most of last week and this weekend, but I did manage to drag my congested butt out to the showgrounds to watch Simon and his leasee show for the first time. Watching them in the ring together, I felt like the Grinch when his heart grows four sizes.

I’ll never claim full responsibility for Simon’s solid citizenship these days. My first trainer in Austin gave him to me, thus allowing the nerd horse to become part of my family. My current trainer helped us in so many ways, and the creature himself taught me how to be brave and confident.

When I saw him this weekend, I saw a horse that still loves his job. Was he perfect? No, but he was safe and solid. I’m extremely lucky with my lease situation right now with him. The young woman who rides him is talented, considerate and caring. She puts my horse’s needs first and doesn’t get frustrated when he might act a little silly at the end of a long weekend.

Plus she has figured out how to get Simon to land on all his leads which means she’s pretty much a magician in my eyes.

We’ve got rain coming down all week and I have a little mini-vacation planned this weekend, so I am hoping to return to the barn fresh in a week to tackle my green horse blues with a better attitude. Until then, I love these pictures of Simon from the weekend and am so glad I decided to hold onto the nerd horse indefinitely. No matter who rides him, he’s my family and he makes my heart swell.

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