How One Little Pony Changed My Life

We’ve heard many stories about how Painted Ponies have added something special to people’s lives. You may have read some of these touching tales on the Guestbook page or My First Pony page. “How One Little Pony Changed My Life” came about as a result of a December visit to Las Vegas, when I attended the Cowboy Marketplace event held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in conjunction with the 2008 National Finals Rodeo. 

I had spoken on the phone with Linda Lucas, a former Dental Office Manager, who informed me she was going to set up a booth to sell Painted Pony merchandise and intended to invite several Painted Ponies artists to attend to sign their Ponies and books. But this was going to be our first face-to-face meeting.

The place was jammed with people who apparently didn’t know there was a recession going on. Aisle after aisle was lined with booths offering the latest western fashions and horse accessories. I was wandering down one aisle when I came upon a large sign that read “Blazin’ Trails” above a brilliant presentation of Painted Ponies. New and past releases were attractively arranged in well-lit glass cases. Retired Ponies were lined up in a case of their own. Custom Painted Ponies – one-of-a-kinds painted from our kit Pony by Official Trail of Painted Ponies Artists – were prominently displayed. And a gathering of customers surrounded Vickie Knepper, the artist who created the wonderful “Wounded Knee” and just-released “Tribal Paint.”

I was standing there admiring the scene when a tall woman in blue jeans sauntered over and said she recognized me from my picture on this blog. Then Linda Lucas and I shook hands.

All in all it was an exhilarating afternoon – a chance to witness first-hand how meaningful Painted Ponies are to “the public.” It stirred genuinely warm feelings that helped relieve a chill I still carry with me from those depressing early days in New Mexico, back in 2001, when I’d wondered at times if The Trail of Painted Ponies was going to be my destiny or my downfall. Meeting collectors, posing for pictures, hearing the stories, put all that even farther in the past.

Several weeks after the show, I found myself wondering if it had been successful. So I called Linda. I could tell by her voice she was ecstatic and she told me of her plans to do more shows. Curious now, I asked her how this enterprise started. She hadn’t gotten very far into her answer when I stopped her and asked her if she would write it down. Several days later I received the story that appears below.

HOW ONE LITTLE PONY CHANGED MY LIFE

Two years ago the only thing I knew about Painted Ponies was that they had made a great gift for my Dad… and that I’d had a really hard time finding them where I live in Southern California. About this same time I decided that I was going to become an eBay seller. eBay suggests that before you price anything you should look up some of the things you have around your house that you might want to sell, to see what they have recently sold for. That’s how I found that I had a South Carolina State quarter spoon that we paid $7.95 for that had recently sold on eBay for $595.00!

I was hooked. I started checking everything I owned. It so happened that in my curio cabinet was a lone Painted Pony named “Unity,” which my Dad had given me after I had given him a “Unity.” When I saw that the sticker on the bottom said $18 and on eBay one had just sold for $125, I thought to myself hmmm, this deserves investigation.

Every day after that I would check to see which Painted Ponies had sold on eBay, and for how much. I started an Excel spread sheet that I carried with me every place I went. And this is how the hunt began. I made a list from The Trail of Painted Ponies website of all the stores that sold Ponies, and every weekend my husband and I would go Pony hunting.

No place was too far. We even went to Las Vegas to hit all the Dillard’s, Boot Barns and Sheplers… and came home with a car full of Painted Ponies. Once, I stumbled onto the fact that there was a little collectible store in my own town that had been shut down for also selling guns, so I paid a visit and discovered they had just re-opened. I went in and asked if they still had any Ponies left. The owner said she thought so, to come back in an hour. When I returned she had a box that contained 24 Black Box Ponies, many that I had only seen pictures of. Mosaic Pony. Navajo Blanket Pony. Sequential. Karuna. Each one I opened was better than the last. And best of all, she was willing to sell them for $11 each. Well, I left there feeling like I had robbed a bank.

As time went on, I thought why not buy them wholesale, so I went down to the LA Mart and placed my first order. Then I decided to take the Ponies on the road. That’s how BLAZIN’ TRAILS was born.

I started out doing a local street fair. Then I did a small Arabian show. Then a Professional Bronco Rider event. And eventually the 2007 Cowboy Marketplace, where I found there was a real niche market for the Ponies.

It’s been quite a whirlwind these last two years. Painted Ponies have taken over the family room and the garage, and we have grown from our original 6X10 trailer to an 8X20 trailer that we pull with a diesel truck. We’ve made lots of new friends and the business continues to grow… all because of one little “Unity” Painted Pony, who will never leave this home.

Linda’s next show will be the Equine Affair in Pomona, California, January 29 through February 1. 

If anyone else out there has a story about how a Painted Pony changed your life, we’d love to hear it.