I don’t usually do blog hops, but when I do it’s because we’re celebrating Bold Archer’s birthday!

History of the Horse
Before you met, where was your horse? Who bred him/her? What do you know about his sire and his dam? What do you know where he came from? Tell me about the time before he had a trainer.

Simon was bred in the San Marcos area of Texas, which is just a bit south of Austin.  He is registered Williebered, a 2006 model.  His breeder, from best I can figure, bred race horses as a hobby.  Simon’s sire is Earth Colony, who I wrote a lot about in this post from last year

His name is “Derby Diva”, who I’ve never been able to find much info about.

Still, Simon was bred to be a race horse and off to race training he went.  Originally super internet sleuth L. Williams looked up some stats for me.  Simon had two official recorded training times – one fast and one not at all fast.  Then radio silence.  When he was given to me by my former trainer, I was told he had a track injury which is why his hock needed to fuse.  I figured the radio silence after the second training time was that injury.

After moving to my current barn and getting to know Simon’s brother’s owners, I got contact information for his breeder. This is where things get more interesting.

Like his registered name implies, his original barn name was Willy – he was named after the breeder’s relative.  I asked about baby pictures, but was told the computer they were on crashed (I will forever be slightly sad about this).

Instead of having an injury that ended his career, I was told that he never raced due to locking stifles.  I guess he was having some trouble training, so they had the stifles x-rayed (I have never seen these x-rays).  The vet said his conformation was not ideal and was causing the locking-ness, and the owners decided it was not safe to race him because of this.  The information about his physical limitations has been a bit murky from all parties involved in Simon’s background, however I’m very grateful his breeders decided to put his well being first.

After getting off the track, Simon went to sit in a field.  I was told he was a partner horse, and the partner decided to give him away without contacting the breeder (again, foggy).  Until I found the breeder on Facebook, they had no idea where he ended up.

The person he was given to was my former trainer, who picks up a lot of OTTBs as school horses.  Thus, Simon found himself in summer camp.  Literally.

As you can imagine, he was maybe not the world’s best camp horse.

Different teenagers took him on to train him with varying success.  He also would not stay sound.  At one point, he lived in my trainer’s field for almost two years before he came back to the lesson barn.  This is when I first discovered him.

At the time, Simon was ridden pretty consistently by a very mature teenager who I give credit for turning him around.  She was patient and soft handed, and they did really well together.  It’s because of her hard work that I took a shining to this horse.

So for her, I’m thankful because I certainly love my horse now… despite his befuddled background.

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