Timmy the Lonely Pony is the first book in the Timmy Tales picture book series which follow the adventures of Timmy the rescue pony!
Timmy is rescued from a ranch that couldn’t care for him. He really likes his new owner and the kind way she takes care of him, but the other horses on the ranch notice Timmy looks and behaves differently. When Chanel, an Arabian horse who isn’t kind to Timmy, finds herself in trouble by the pond, Timmy is the only one that can help. Can the horses work together to save Chanel?
This exciting story of Timmy the Lonely Pony was inspired by a real pony who now lives on a 200-acre ranch in Texas.
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.
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!
Just a quick post about my favorite pure Polish Arabian stallion, so everyone will now I’m alive and well! I love this horse and will post something more elaborate about him at a later date.
One of his offspring, the beautiful filly, TA Melania, resides at The Franch along with my horsey loves!
TA Melania (*TA Arapaho x *TA Mariette by *Kordelas)
TA Arapaho currently resides in Dunkirk, New York at Mystic Side Arabians. For more info on this gorgeous stallion, click on the following links:
Picked up this little beauty at Half Price Books! It’s a little beat up, but being the 1968 edition, it really brings back memories. I first read this glorious story about a young boy and wild black stallion when I was in elementary school in the 1970s, so pretty sure this is the edition I first read. You can read about my introduction to this wonderful book series, here.
I’m re-reading this story for about the 50th time and love it as much as the first time! When I finish it this time, I’ll post a review, but spoiler alert…it will be a 5-star review for sure!
I hope all of you are well and staying safe. My plan is to re-read the entire series, so, many reviews will be forthcoming. Also continuing to work on The Red Filly and hoping to have the first draft finished by the end of winter. I hope 2022 will be a good year for all of us!
Doreen Atkinson having fun with her horse, JC Jedidiah, competing in WE
I’m a little late with this post, since this working equitation competition took place in Ft. Worth on November 11th, but I managed to get such awesome pictures and I just wanted to post them. I’ll later be doing a post that’s more detailed about working equitation (WE), because it is featured prominently in my work in progress, The Red Filly. Doreen Atkinson (pictured above), is an S judge and the current At-Large Director of USA Working Equitation the national organization for working equitation in the USA, and an awesome ambassador for the sport!
Thanksgiving with Eddie Arcaro up after winning the 1936 Travers Stakes (photo-BloodHorse Library)
So I came across this article from Bloodhorse today while perusing Facebook about the first woman to train a Travers Stakes winner, and in the 1930s no less!
The article features the horse because he was appropriately named for an article posted on Thanksgiving. This horse was even struck by lightning, but went on to win the Travers after fully recovering from that injury.
Mary Hirsch was his trainer and she opened the door for women trainers to start being taken seriously in the male dominated horse racing industry.
George Bull presents Mary Hirsch with the 1936 Diana Stakes trophy at Saratoga Race Course. (The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame)
I haven’t posted in a while, but thought this was an interesting read. For the full article click here:
This post is just for fun because I received these beautiful books from Much Ado About Horses today! I haven’t read them yet of course, but wanted to post a few pictures because I love them so much! Much Ado About Horses is a website that sells hard to find and out of print Arabian horse books. They mailed these to me within a couple of days of ordering them and in excellent condition so I highly recommend them! Check out, muchadoabouthorses.com.
So as I said in an earlier post, I acquired this book along with the sequel, Thunderhead, from my granny, Frances Grimes, many years ago. I loved them as child and decided to read them again during the Covid lockdown last year. They rekindled my love of horse stories, so I became more serious about writing my own. I’m currently plugging away at The Red Filly, one chapter at a time. I actually created a rough outline/beat sheet, so I do know where I’m going with it at least. I joined an awesome writing group during all this Covid mess and they are helping me with edits along the way. This pandemic has been rough on all of us, but I’ve managed to achieve a few positives after I figured out how to restructure my life. I often wonder, if I am forever changed by the last year and a half…but I digress…on to the review!
This is a story of true love between a boy and horse. It’s the kind of bond a young horse loving, apartment dwelling girl like I was growing up, dreamed of. The main character, Ken McLaughlin, unlike me and probably a great many of the kids who have read this book over the years, is growing up on a ranch in Wyoming in the late 1930s surrounded by horses. But, he longs for one of them to be his very own. He’s a day dreamer and because of this causes many mishaps around the ranch and can’t focus on his school work, so his father doesn’t want to reward him with a yearling to raise as his own like his older brother has done.
Mom comes to the rescue though, as she often does in this book and the sequel, Thunderhead. She insists that Ken needs a yearling to raise to help him focus. After a horrific incident during the gelding of the yearling colts, Ken decides he doesn’t want the gruesome procedure carried out on his yearling. He decides he wants a filly to avoid the barbaric practice. But in his father’s eyes he picks the worst filly on the ranch. She’s been running wild with her dam her entire short life and won’t allow anyone near her.
I don’t want to give away the whole story, but you get the idea. Ken is determined, his dad is not happy with him as usual, his mom loves him unconditionally and supports his decision, while a wild filly awaits…
My copy of the book has had a rough life, but it’s managed to survive countless moves over the years.
Dreaming of Arabians 