For Sale! Apple Driven Technology for $30 or less!

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I've been reading FotR again and was wondering: where did Merry (1) find six ponies for sale, (2) acquire the money for the purchase, (3) buy the six ponies without raising any suspicion and (4) find six ponies for sale in the first place?

I don't see why the purchase of a few ponies would be such a big deal in the Shire. I mean, the country was clearly a rich, well provided part of Middle Earth with a multitude of small businesses we can assume produced items such as umbrellas, bags, cracker- (and regular) paper , tea-pots, pipes, cutlery and even clocks, although I can see the latter being imported Dwarf-made stuff that only the very rich such as Bilbo could afford. I also think it's safe to assume that the Shire would have had a much larger population, and subsequently customer base than Bree.
With this in mind, I don't find unlikely that there would be one or several Pony-dealers in the country who'd have no problem filling an order of six animals, or that it would be remarkable if the Brandybucks or the Tooks made such as order.