This big loveable boy turned 20 on June 30, 2024. It’s a big milestone because a little over 11 years ago his life almost came to an abrupt end. As fate would have it though, he ended up with me and has been living a happy horsey life at The Franch ever since. Happy Birthday Frisco aka Cinnamons Conclusive!
Chanel is a cute character with an attitude in, Timmy the Lonely Pony. Real life Chanel is a sweet Arabian horse owned by my good friend, Stephanie Young, who runs The Franch. It’s an over 200-acre horse paradise where all three characters in the story live very happy horsey lives. Chanel’s real name is, Spirits Chanel No V. Number V (five) because she’s the fifth offspring of the resident stallion, AV Olympic Spirit aka Spirit.
Baby Chanel with her mom, NH Hungary Eyes aka Sera:
“First Kiss”
More Baby Chanel Pics:
Stephanie with her love, Chanel:
AV Olympic Spirit aka Spirit (resident black stallion at The Franch and father of Chanel and Fyrestorm):
Lastly, Fyrestorm aka Honey, half-sister to Chanel and the third character in, Timmy the Lonely Pony (she’ll be featured in my next post):
Don’t forget to check out these social media links for Veronica Stanley-Hooper, the wonderful illustrator who is making my dream a reality!
Timmy the Lonely Pony is the first book in a series that features my rescue pony, Timmy. The real Timmy came into my life in 2014. It turns out that this cute little guy, who I thought I rescued, actually rescued me. He’s never been ridden and is just my little loveable pet. He lives on a 200-acre ranch affectionately known as, The Franch (Frances’s Ranch), along with many other happy horses, including my other rescue horse, Frisco. He has met the other stars of this little tale, but the fillies featured within its pages, Chanel and Fyrestorm, reside in the paddock with the pond which appears in the story.
I wrote this manuscript about two years ago and had pretty much given up on ever getting it published because it seems illustrators are difficult to come by. But then the extremely talented, Veronica Stanley-Hooper, came into my life and now my dream of publishing a picture book is about to become a reality!
Check out Veronica on social media:
Timmy is also featured in some middle grade stories I’ve written which can be found on the Timmy Tales page of this website. It’s so easy to come up with story ideas for this cute, little, golden pony!
The real Timmy:
Timmy and Frisco:
Timmy and me:
Timmy is my muse and his ability to inspire me has helped me begin to realize my dream of becoming a published writer. A dream that I first vocalized many years ago when I was in seventh grade. Click on the links below for more about Timmy and more about my writing journey.
Timmy the Rescue Pony-Star of Timmy Tales and Timmy the Lonely Pony
The picture above was my Facebook memory today. Nine years ago today, this sweet boy came into my life. He isn’t just a cute little pony that blossomed into his best self at the horse paradise that is, The Franch, but he is also my little muse. Even though he’s not an Arabian, it’s this little halfbreed pony that fired up my dream to be a writer.
Timmy is loved by all at The Franch because he’s the smallest and cutest little guy on the ranch, and oh so loveable. He’s a tough little dude, though. He lets the bigger horses know he’s not a pushover!
I realized I wanted to be a writer way back in seventh grade, but life got in the way for many years, as it often does. Another dream I had was owning an Arabian horse. In my late forties, I acquired two rescue horses: Frisco first and then Timmy. I managed to board them at a ranch that bred Arabians, but that was as close as I got to Arabian horse ownership at first. My circumstances improved and first I acquired, Flame and later his full sister, Honey aka Fyrestorm.
My friend, Stephanie Young, suggested that I write something like The Black Stallion, so I started writing, The Red Filly, which stars, Fyrestorm. My previous writing had been more geared toward adults, but I gained access to my inner child, when I started writing the story of a girl who wanted desperately to ride a beautiful red filly. I then realized that cute little Timmy would be an awesome star in children’s short stories and later I came up with a picture book story which stars the cute pony.
Once I started writing Timmy Tales, my writing juices really started flowing! Timmy is the cutest little muse!
Joey is the biography of a horse, but not a famous horse like Man O’ War or Seabiscuit, just a regular horse that was saved from bad circumstances and in return rescued his rescuers. Everyone who ever meets Joey can’t help but fall in love. Joey had been a show horse early on, but after an injury ended his show career he was passed from owner to owner and eventually ended up in a neglectful situation, which often happens to horses who are considered no longer “useful”. At some point during this time he went completely blind, which was probably due to malnutrition.
Along comes Kim Tschirret who has a dream to unite troubled horses with troubled kids and Hope Reins is born. Joey along with another Appaloosa, named Speckles, arrive together at the fledgling therapy horse ranch to be among the first group of horses to help troubled kids. The volunteers at the ranch, along with Kim, learn as they go and have to face special challenges brought on by a blind horse like Joey. The book is inspiring because they learn and adapt to Joey’s needs as well as the needs of the children entrusted to their care.
There is a strong Christian theme to this book, which I thought might be off-putting for me because I am not particularly religious; although I do believe in a higher power. But, it’s actually heartwarming following the main players and how each of them addresses their individual faiths and hope in God and the miracle that is Hope Reins.
Warning; tears will be shed in the reading of this book. Sometimes the tears will be because of sadness, but mostly because the book is heartwarming. Reading this book strengthened my belief in the something more that all of us can have faith in and the ability of some people to truly access the goodness with themselves. I highly recommend this book for horse lovers and anyone who wants further evidence that there is true kindness to be found amongst the humans.
This book was a gift from my beloved Franch horses:
Pretty sure my dear friend, Julz, helped them pick it out! 😉
Timmy is one of my two rescue horses who now calls The Franch home. He is a sweet loveable pocket pony who loves everyone. He has never been ridden and I estimate his age to be around nine at the time of this writing. He was rescued from a severe neglect situation along with 63 other horses in Lewisville, Texas in 2009 by Anastasia Keyser of Hope for Horses Equine Rescue Inc.
Here is a before photo of a small group of the rescues back in October 2009:
Timmy was less than a year old at the time, so he may have been too young to remember much of what happened, considering how much he trusts people. Most of the rescues were Pony of the Americas, Haflingers and a few other breeds. He has the coloring of a Haflinger, so I just like to say he’s half-Haflinger and half Pony of the Americas, but he’s just really my sweet, cute, funny little boy!
Timmy in the pasture:
Timmy and his best friend, Frisco (my other rescue horse):
Timmy and me:
Dreaming of Arabians 