08/03/06 Simon part one

Simon Today I'll tell you about a ranch horse that didn't start out to be one. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back in one minute to tell you about him. Ranches all over the country have horses that are just considered ranch horses, but they can be called on to do just about any job. Simon was a horse like that, but his early years didn't prepare him to be a ranch horse. He was bred and raised by a neighbor who had a stallion that was used for calf roping and siring colts from some nice Quarter horse mares he had. This neighbor's great joy was seeing local kids who rode in the drill team well mounted on eye catching sorrel horses so the easy-going colt named Simon became a drill team horse. The young horse's early training was basically performing in the drill team for about two years as they traveled all over the Pacific Northwest and Canada. Eventually, the young girl who owned him redirected her attention from horses and drill teams to boys and cars. Simon was turned in a pasture where he became somewhat of a nuisance bordering on becoming an equine juvenile delinquent. Bored, with nothing to do he decided to form his own drill team, but the owner of the resident milk cow didn't appreciate Simon trying to teach her thread the needle or being the outside of the wagon-spoke maneuver while using his teeth on her tail as a training technique. Simon's owner decided she would sell him and since my mother had always like the horse, she sold Simon to Mom. Tomorrow, I'll tell you how Simon adjusted to ranch life. I'm Jeff Keane.