Since models aren't living, I am not sure what constitues "alive" and "dead" as far as model horses go. No matter what, I am seriously looking for an Eberl Tara resin.
I think this warmblood mare would be an excellet portrait model for LaBelle! I have only seen three of her though, so I have no idea how many were made or how hard it is going to be to find one. I am willing to take painted/unpainted and in any coniditon. So please let me know if you know of one that I could get my hands on. There will be a reward if found ;).
I had a few requests for videos, so I will start with what I have found so far. This is LaBelle and me at the 2005 Kentucky Horse Park Parade of Breeds, three years after my first year there with Chauncey. I can't seem to find the two in-between years, but I will keep looking!
This was LaBelle's first year at the KY Horse Park, and it was our first year showing together (2005). I have a lot more pictures to share, but the video quality is way worse. My godfather (instead of my dad) taped it with his ancient, big as my horse, have to hold it on your shoulder, camcorder. I will continue to hunt to see if my dad taped any, but I think he took all the still photos.
Now that I have more pictures, I can better explain how the Parade of Breeds works. First of all, it's all about the public. Therefore, LaBelle (and Chauncey's) stall was open for viewing all day. When we weren't riding, we were hanging out at the stall. Sometimes I would pull my horse out or just leave the door open so people could ask questions or feed them carrots.
Then came the actual riding like you saw in the last video. Again, it is the breed being represented. Since LaBelle was a warmblood, it was fitting that we did dressage.
There were also many other horses that represented their breed:
This horse was in the movie Seabiscuit
After all the breeds have shown, then they all come back in the end and line up on the rail. Then the public is free to talk to the riders, ask questions, and of course pet the horses!
The Parade of Breeds was such a great experience; I really enjoyed it. I hope you guys do too! If you get a chance (like at Breyerfest!) make sure you check it out!
Considering I am up to my eyeballs in homework, I have absolutely no time to even think about doing anything fun like tack-making or going to see Sonny. Since I don't have any cool new tack stuff to show you (yet), I figured I would find something at least semi-fun to entertain you with.
I have been very lucky when it comes to real horses. I have had great opportunities that I will never forget. One of them is being able to participate in the Kentucky Horse Park Parade of Breeds. If you are unfamiliar with the horse park, twice a day they hold an event exhibiting different breeds. The horse and rider dress up according to breed history and ride around the ring while the announcer teaches you about the breed. For example, a paint horse was dressed up like a native american. When I was invited to ride at the parade of breeds, it was only fitting that I dressed my Thoroughbred up as a race horse!
This is the first of four years that I rode at the KHP. Obviously, it was like eight or nine years ago! It is neat to look back and see how far you have come. Hopefully you guys like this...if you do I will upload the other videos from my horse park experiences. Or maybe other horse shows? Let me know what you would and wouldn't like to see! Enjoy!
Moving my sister didn't go as smoothly as planned. Her lease didn't arrive on time so she couldn't move in until Tuesday instead of Monday. Therefore, my dad just drove with her and I had to stay home because of the farrier coming and the dog.
But, I did get one of my Spring Break goals accomplished: to relax! I didn't do much the last two days, but I enjoyed it :). Last night I spent a few hours with Sonny. We just hung out; it was so nice to not have to have to hurry to be somewhere. So, I grabbed my book, cozied up next to his hay, and enjoyed the night listening to him munch away. It doesn't get any better than that.
That was definitely the longest I have gone without posting anything. School has really caught up with me this last week. And on top of that, I have a live show this weekend! AND still have to work! I don't think my life could get any more hectic. I am so stressed about getting things done, I am not remotely excited for my live show.
My last final is next Tuesday night, then I have a week and a half off before spring quarter. I have a LOT of tack making to do then, so I should have a lot of updates.
When I had my show horses, I dreaded winter. I don’t like riding in a bunch of layers, my horses were always a muddy mess, and I never had motivation to ride every day like I had to. But, like everything else, things are so different with Sonny.
I still don’t like the cold and the mud, but this winter was my best “horsie winter” yet. Although I didn’t get to ride much, (I only got on him enough times to fit on one hand) I feel like Sonny and I made huge improvements. As always, we played a lot on the ground; Boring stuff like improving our phases and getting more responsive.
More than anything I am really excited on how much our relationship improved over the winter. It always feels so…wrong to me, but the best way to improve our relationship is to do nothing. Sounds funny, right? How can doing nothing get anything accomplished? The more undemanding time I spend with Sonny the more our relationship improves. Because the weather was so nasty this winter and I was so unmotivated, for the first time ever, being lazy actually benefited me :). Not that we didn’t have a great relationship before, but there is a huge difference from the fall to now.
Sonny's pasture pal, Max.
This may sound boring, but I couldn’t be happier with our winter accomplishments. So now that it is warm and sunny (probably not for long), now we can work on other things. It was 62 degrees yesterday so I busted out my saddle and got on. Sonny was so great! We didn’t do much since he hasn’t been ridden in forever, but he was very responsive and had a great attitude. Hopefully our better relationship status will continue to benefit us this year with riding! AND... he didn't look to bad either! I was expecting him to gain a bunch of weight and lose a bunch of muscle and be hairy and gross once winter was over. But, he looks pretty good to me!
Here are my goals for Sonny and I this yearL
1) Ride more (but still put our relationship first!).
2) Work on riding with a bridle.
3) AND work on riding without a bridle haha!
4) Work on stretching better (more for him, not be…we could both do better)
Now that the weather is nice, hopefully we can get a lot more accomplished!
If you asked me to describe Sonny in just one word, the first thing that would probably come to mind would be “mischievous”. He loves to play and is a big prankster. He loves to take off one of my gloves or my hat and throw it as far as he can. Then he proceeds to look at it with the expression “Wow! How did that get all the way over there?”
He enjoys turning bags over and spilling all of the contents all over the place. He must think I don’t have enough to do.
His favorite thing is to undo any zippers or any Velcro.
People always think that he must be hyper and crazy because he is so silly and playful. Wrong. Sonny is the king of lazy. If he ever encountered a serious predator, he would eat it, or be eaten, before he would ever exert the energy to run. I don’t like to force him to do anything; I try to make my ideas his ideas. Which usually means I don’t ride because that requires too much work for him, but we still have as much fun with groundwork.
Well, yesterday was a rare occasion. I mean RARE. He has been inside since Tuesday because of this horrible ice storm we have had. I had midterms this week so I went down last night for the first time. He was crazy; completely wild! Bucking and tossing his head and running around like a mad man. I have never seen that side of him before and it was so funny! To see him be playful while moving his feet was totally new! He was really enjoying himself.
I decided to take advantage of his energy and jump him a bit. I don’t like jumping him when he is lazy because I don’t want him to learn to not like it. Last night ended up being perfect! My boyfriend came down, I had my camera, and Sonny was hyper and ready to jump! AND he even jumped 2’3” for the first time without any problems!
This is what I got out of it:
By the end of the night he had calmed down a bit, but was still full of himself ;).
