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In 1767 some of the Simpson's moved on to Kentucky and in 1828, as more land was needed for new family members James M moved to Ill and settled near Springfield where they lived for 10 yrs. In 1838 a friend wrote of the abundant timber and spring fed valleys of Randolph co. and that year they moved south and bought their 1st 40 acres from the US government (we are lucky enough to still have that legal doc. signed by Pres Martin Vanburen). In the next 10 years they bought additional parcels from the government and some patents from neighbors till by the time Mag and I bought it in 1978 there was 297 acres.

Simpson’s Rolling Acres Ranch now consists of 435 acres situated a couple miles behind the east bluffs of the Mississippi River. The ground is ideal for horses being a combination of open fields interspersed with timber, much of it quite rolling and almost every pasture has at least 1 year round spring. It all lays over limestone and is quite productive and produces excellent forage. We feel that this environment helps us produce strong, healthy young horses that know how to handle themselves since they have grown up crossing creeks, logs, maneuvering around obstacles including all types of fences and gates.

We rotational graze, and have about 400 acres under fence, mostly a single strand hot wire. We grow our own alfalfa. The loess soils are very suited to forage and are very well drained. We sow 100 acres of winter wheat each fall and pasture that most of the winter and thru spring, foaling in these pastures is common, and within 2-3 days the foals can be seen running and playing with one another across the fields in front of the house. The county blacktop runs thru the center of the ranch and it is common to see cars pulled over watching the foals and their antics.

The side benefit of all this traffic along the fences is that the foals are used to seeing and hearing tractors, combines, spray trucks, you get the idea. the stallions run with the mares in the pastures and visitors are quite surprised when the stallion walks up and wants the attention, acting more like a pet than anything else. Most times they are surprised when told that this is the sire, they can't believe stallions can be so quiet. We tend to lean toward the Foundation bloodlines, we like their temperament and sensibility along with their athletic talent. We do have a couple appendix mares and several cutting bred mares. We have tried to buy stallions that are bred to look at a cow and can also produce color. We have a dun roan that is a 100% foundation bred stallion that produces all colors of roans and duns. His first foals are 1 yr now and have been very salable. We have a 16H buckskin stud that is Pitzer bred and is packed full of AQHA champions. His foals are very easy to work with and cooperative. We have a Pal/tobiano that is cow bred and is as handsome as they come, with a great temperament and great athletic ability. Most of our 10 paint mares are bred to him. We like to sell foals in the fall, right-off the mares, but several are kept a year or two and then ridden and sold. We enjoy selling here at the ranch so we can meet the buyers and get to know them, and build relationships.

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