WEST SUNBURY - Even people with no horse sense at all recognize a "paint" when they see one. Horses called paints are the ones with the huge splotches of white mixed in with their coats, the ones artists depict with an American Indian astride, racing across the Western plains.

Rosemary and Bob Simmons have a beautiful paint stallion. Appropriately, his name is Apache.

The Simmons are the owners of the Katie Black farm in West Sunbury. Breeding, training and selling horses are what they have chosen for their retirement project.

So far, the horse breeding has been extremely successful. Rosemary and Bob like that paint look so much they've bred Apache to 11 of their mares.

"He's the artist," Rosemary said. "He puts the color on everything he breeds."

Their breeding project includes Percherons. Bob is especially thrilled with these large draft horses.

"I really love these big horses," he said. "They're so docile."

He added, however, "(You) don't want to let them stand or get on your foot or anything!"

The offspring from the paint/Percheron mix will be a small draft horse the horse community calls a spotted draft.

Another horse project the Simmons are working on is taming the wild American Mustangs they adopted from the government.

"They catch them in Nevada, out in that area," Bob said.

Bob started adopting and taming the wild mustangs in 1994. He introduced them to Rosemary, whom he began to date around the same time.

She had no interest whatsoever in the horses, but three weeks later he married her, and now she's the one who does most of their taming and training.

The Simmons are opening their farm up to the public on Oct. 23 for people to see the variety of horses they have. The rain date is Oct. 24.

As Rosemary put it, she and Bob are doing it to "share what we've learned and what we have with the horses."

They'll have their peacocks, potbellied pig, angora lamb and ducks out for the children to see and pet.

One of the tamed mustangs will be available for free pony rides, and refreshments will be provided. Some crafts will be for sale. Donations will be accepted to benefit the Butler County Special Olympics Equestrian Unit.

For more information, call Bob and Rosemary Simmons at 724-637-2174 or contact them at RS637@aol.com.