Kamikazis!

Scenes from "Mongol" the movie.  An interesting video of tribal battling on the steppes.  The central asians (and especially Ghengis Khan), had some fairly crafty war strategies.

Theatrical trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BfPgF4DF-Q
Final battle scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Eq1z4GX0H_M&feature=endscreen
Set to music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPsUxLLeV1E&feature=plcp

May CREC Schooling Show

The May CREC show was held last sunday on the 20th, and Tommy did great.  He preformed the best that he's ever done at a show yet!  Wahoo!  Both of us showed great improvement - (yes, me too - I know, it's hard to believe...)  But it was nice.  =:)

Lined up in one of the english classes.  Our judge was Shasta Grimes from the Tri-Cities.  She was very nice, cheerful, and helpful.  Louise is on the palomino foxtrotter mare beside of us in line.  (Remember the Halloween show post from a few years ago when I showed Nettie sidesaddle?  Louise is the other sidesaddler that lives in Pendleton.)  The girl on the bay mare at the end of the line did really well.  Her horse was nice and consistant.  Something that I need to work further on....  

At this show, I made a conscious effort to avoid leaning forward at the "go" and to stay the hell out of my horses way.  Every time that I thought I was rocking too far forward and hunching my shoulders, I'd over-exaggerate and lean back into the saddle even farther.  It helped greatly, because Tommy is starting to develop an OUTSTANDING strike off into the canter.  My bad habit of leaning forward isn't helping him very much in that department, so I tried very hard to curb it to a minimum this time. 

He did the best in the western classes that he's ever done before.  I put the martingale on him and he managed to keep his headset and collection for most of the time.  Tommy has a bad habit of popping his head up and hollowing his back out sometimes in the transitions - but for the most part he kept it fairly level and rounded-up this time, which was an improvement.  The judge said that she liked him better in the western than in the english!  That was a totally awesome comment to hear!

"Ribbon boy".  These are just a few of the ribbons that we won at the show.  Tommy got 3 first places and several more second places in the western events, but Julie ran out of ribbons halfway through the show.  So, we didn't get to decorate his tail after all..... =:)  We entered a bunch of classes, and he did really well.

Which gave me an idea.....

The CREC facility is on a tight operating budget, and since they hold several schooling shows per year - sometimes the extra funds aren't there for a few things.  I REALLY appreciate the schooling shows in this area, and I don't want to see them go away.  (These shows have helped my horse and myself immensely!) 
So, in a small effort to pitch in and help out, I donated some "thrift store" ribbons that I made.  There are around 30 first place flower ribbons that I put together from materials that I purchased at the dollar store for under $10 bucks.  The little leather circles have "CREC" stamped on them, and the backs of the ribbons read "donated by the FOTATA".  These ribbons aren't much, but the competitors (and especially the little kids), will be happy to win something and not go home empty handed. 

Transitional Grey

This guy was a bit of fun!  A Breyer Smarty Jones as a transitional "bay-going-grey" owned by Betty Hook.  This model is a simple repaint with a custom base that I recently completed in the studio.  The owner was nice enough to give me free choice on whatever shade of grey that I wished to do on this guy, and I wanted to try my hand at a dark gened transitional.  I've painted a dilute transitional (grulla) going grey before, but not a bay or a black.  It was a good learning experience.  He has some interesting subtle silver and rosey tones throughout his body.

This is our own real transitional grey on the farm, Suzette.  It's a terrible impromptu pasture picture of our girl, but it does illustrate the transitional greying process quite well.  (If she was brushed and scrubbed, it would probably be a lot better...)  Suzette is an arab x akhal teke cross that I raised from a baby, and a very sweet little gal.  She was born a very dark golden buckskin, but is rapidly progressing in her greying out process.  About the only areas that don't show any signs of greying yet is her knees and hocks - everything else on her body is peppered with little grey hairs.  She's been a very good reference for me for painting rose greys and transitionals. 

(It's interesting to note that when this filly was younger her hind socks had sharp pointy streaks that looked like jagged little spears going up her legs, like a sabino.  But the points are almost completely greyed out now and unrecognizable.  It was a really neat effect, and if I had painted it on a model - people probably would've thought that I was totally crazy.  But sometimes reality can be stranger than our own painting imaginations.)

Something else noteworthy is that most transitional greying horses are not dappled.  A lot of painters in our hobby want to dapple the holy living daylights out of just about every model that they do, but in reality dappling isn't quite as common on horses as we'd like for it to be.  (I'm as guilty of dappling the crap out of my models as the next person... and they DO look soooooo pretty that way!)  But, the truth of it is, it's hard to find a good reference photos of real transitional greying horses with dapples - because it just doesn't happen very often.  When I start getting too "dapple-happy" with my painting, there's a sharp slap back to reality waiting out in the pasture for me.

Prineville 2012

"The best laid plans of mice and men...."

We were at the Prineville ride for a "short" while this weekend.  This was to be Octopelle's first comeback ride in 2012.  For a number of reasons he took the year off in 2011.  I've been steadily conditioning him for the past 3 months in all kinds of terrain, so we were looking forward to getting back into the swing of things at this ride.

But much to my dismay, he showed signs of lameness at the vet check.  We did our initial check-in on Friday night, and he was slightly off in the right front.  It wasn't very bad, but he had a subtle shortness to his stride.  When I trotted him out at the check area there was a patch of gravel that we trotted over, so I asked Dr. Jen if she could wait until we got our boots on to try it again.  I usually always present my horses barefoot at the initial check ins, so the vets can see their hooves in full view.  Most of the vets like to pick up the horses feet and check their soles and frogs, so it makes sense to leave the boots off until after the initial check is over with.   

We went back to the trailer and I picked his feet out really well and got the boots on, and proceeded to trot him up and down the road in front of our campsite.  Much to my shagrin, the prognosis still wasn't looking too good.  The boots weren't helping very much.  So, my first thought was that he might be gimpy on his sole or frog of the hoof, and the boot might be too hard of a surface and not enough cushioning.  So I placed an easyboot foam pad in the right boot.  Still didn't help, so we waited.  I thought that maybe the trailer ride on the curvey road down to Prineville might've stressed him out a bit - or if I waited and let him relax awhile - by some sheer stroke of luck he might appear to be okay.  So I let him sit for about an hour, and he ate his hay and bucket of mash.  Afterwards, we trotted up and down the road again.  Still no luck.  With no visible signs of improvement, we made our way back up to the vet check to talk about the situation with Dr. Jen and the other vets. 

At the vet check, there was a convergence of 3 veterinarians who inspected his movement up and down the check area.  We had the boots on, and everyone had hoped that would do the trick.  But, it was evident when he was trotting uphill that something was still not quite right.  (Downhill was great, but the uphill was when he showed the signs of lameness.)  One of the vets pulled out the hoof angler contraption to check his hoof angles and see if that might be the problem.  There didn't appear to be anything wrong with the hoof itself.  Octopelle doesn't have the greatest hoof walls in the world, but it isn't anything to get overly concerned about.  The boots protect him on long rides, and I was reassured by the veterinarians that his feet are in good enough shape to handle a shoe quite well if I was compelled to put them on him.  So his hoof wasn't the issue.

So that left us with one area to check.  The legs.  And sure enough, it was the targeted problem area.  A different veterinarian ran her hands down both of his front legs and squeezed and poked and prodded in certain areas.  Ox twitched a few times below the right knee.  After pinching the tendon and ligaments on that leg, it was diagnosed between all 3 of the vets as being hyper-extended.  They said that it was really lucky that he had showns signs of it before the start of the ride, or else we could've done some serious damage by stressing it out even more during the ride.  (Possibly permanent damage.) 

I hadn't noticed the lameness at our house, because our ground is flat and he didn't show any signs of being gimpy over the flat surface, but the Skull Hollow campsite area has a definite incline - so the signs did show going up hill.  We have been conditioning on all sorts of terrain with some boggy areas up in the mountains from the snowpack melting off, so I chaulked it up to being too much "sinky" slippery footing for him to handle.  I'm going to start therapy treatments immediately on his right leg and hopefully get him back into good shape by the time the Klikitat ride rolls around in 3 weeks.

I was bummed out about not being able to ride, but I guess that this is what the veteran endurance riders would call a "temperance" situation.  Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad, and this ride just wasn't in the cards for us.  I'm really glad that the issue showed up right away, and we didn't start out and get stuck halfway in the middle of nowhere with a seriously lame horse.  I'm not the first endurance rider to experience this problem, and definitely won't be the last.  We'll always have the next ride to look forward to.

But the trip wasn't a total loss.  =:)  We did get to camp out for awhile and eat a nice barbecue steak dinner that Craig cooked.
                                    

And we drove a few miles further to Bend and tried out a new piece of equipment that Craig is thinking about purchasing.  We also visited a few of the small ghost town types of places on the way back home, which was kind-of fun.

BMPHC Pre-Mothers Day Show

Tommy and I attended the Blue Mountain Paint Horse Club's open show in Pendleton yesterday.  It was at the Flying X arena, which isn't too far down the road from our house.  This was a Pre-Mother's Day show, and there were a lot of ladies that showed up to get roses.  =:)  There was a floral shop in Hermiston that was gracious enough to donate flowers to the women that competed in the "Mother's Only" classes.

     It was a nice sunny day, with several entrants in attendance.

The mini's were cute.  They did halter, in-hand trail, and driving classes.  Tommy had never seen such small horses before, but he liked them.  I fully expected him to be a big goofy chicken liver with them near, but he kept wanting to nicker at them and follow them around everywhere. 

June Moreland and "Mr. T".  I enjoyed talking to June throughout the show, she's a really nice lady.  The photo above is of the judge evaluating her horse in showmanship.  June rode Mr. T in the western classes too.  (I forgot to ask what the judges name was...dang.)

There were a lot of nicely dressed, (or fully turned-out) entrants at this show in the english classes, so I brought "the little saddle from hell" out of the dungeon.  The huntseat tack makes Tommy look very sharp and appropriate for the show arena, but it's not very much fun for either one of us.  We both hate that damned saddle with a livid passion.  At the next tack swap I'll sell it, and start looking for a better saddle to compete with.

Western and comfy.  Training devices were allowed at this show, so I put the martingale on to work on his headset.  It made a huge difference, and he showed some great improvement.

                     He's spectacular when he gets it right. 

All throughout the day I kept hearing people in the bleachers making comments "an Akhal-what?"....  But Craig was there and was able to give them a condensed version of the breed history.  We were in good company, as there was a group of four local Peruvian Paso's and two Missouri Foxtrotter's in attendance as well.  (It's kind-of nice to not be the only different oddball out there, sometimes...)

We entered about a dozen classes and came away with 3 first place prizes.  Half dollar coins were awarded, which was really neat.  We're improving, slowly but surely.

Schooling Show

Yesterday was the second schooling show at the Umatilla Sage Riders arena.  I didn't go to the first show, because it was held the same day as Home On The Range.  But I went to this one and it was a lot of fun.  I think that they are planning on having one or two more of these schooling shows as the year progresses along.  And what a nice day!  Sunny and in the high 70's.  I even got a sunburn.

Tommy experienced a few more new "firsts" for him at this show, and that was good.  Since my photographer husband had to work and I was there by myself, I took photos of everybody else. =:)

A pretty light isabella palomino and white paint mare doing the showmanship pattern.

There were a lot of halter classes at this show, and Tommy and I spent more time doing halter than we ever have before.  We got a lot of practice in setting up and standing square!  Most of my ticket stubs got used doing halter - And oh, speaking of which.....

This show has the most unique way of entering classes.  Instead of circling which classes that you want to do on a classlist sheet, you just count up how many classes that you would like to do that day.  Then you can buy that number tickets.  When your class comes along, you deposit your ticket into a bucket at the arena gate.  If for some reason, you decide not to do that certain class and you choose to do another, your ticket can be used for a different class that you'd like to do instead.  A good example is that Tommy and I decided to skip most of the equitation classes, (the western pattern was too complicated for my green horse, and my brain couldn't handle it either....) so we used our extra tickets to enter more english classes.  This show has a nice ticket system that is uncomplicated and works for everybody, (for competitors and office staff alike).

The open western pleasure.  Notice how they are moving at a decent rate at the jog and their heads aren't buried in the sand like peanut rollers? Very cool.  The judge appreciated it too.  He thanked them for moving, instead of being stuck in low gear.  (If you've ever seen video's of the QH Congress western pleasure classes...you'll know what low gear looks like.)  So far, Tommy and I have been very fortunate to show under judges that want to see faster traveling horses. 

Colette Carson hard at work.  She was the ticket taker and score keeper at the gate.  She's a very nice lady from Pendleton.

Our judge Tony Jackson.  He was a good judge and gave me a lot of help in the english classes.  I rode in  my endurance tack once again, and he made a joke that I was a "faux english" rider.  It was a hoot.  (My aussie endurance saddle looks like a cross between a dressage/western saddle.)  But this what schooling shows are all about.  You show up to work on your horse, and it doesn't matter what the rider and the tack looks like.  There was a very nice older gentleman in the western classes that had his team roping tack on and he looked like he was about to go to a rodeo somewhere.  But, he did very well because he spent time collecting his roping horse up and practicing his riding.  It was awesome to see that.  It doesn't matter what you look like, just how hard you want to work to improve your horse.

  

Tommy getting ready for the western classes.  The only photo that I got of him all day.  He had his first experience with the loud speaker system at this show.  It was good for him to get used to it. 

The judge asked a few questions about Tommy, like what I did with him, if he had been imported, and what part of the middle east his breed was from.  After answering some questions, I handed him a Breeders Co-Op pamphlet before I left the show. He appreciated the info.  The judge had recently been in Bahrain and recognized some of the middle eastern breeds, but not all of them. 

Being a model horse artist, there were a couple of really pretty horses at the show that were some great inspiration.  I couldn't help myself - I had to take pictures of them.  This weanling frame overo paint filly was lovely, and she competed in halter and longe line.  She had black pigment mascara markings around her blue eyes.  I think that she'll be a really stunning horse when she's mature.

This mare was awesome.  She's a painters dream and nightmare, all in one.  She was a maximum sabino paint that competed in the western classes.  I joked with Colette that it would probably take me a whole year just to paint a pattern like this.  She was such a stunning colored mare, and what a difficult and intricate pattern to attempt!

Our next show will be really local - in Pendleton, next weekend!  Tommy and I will try and squeeze in some more practice before next Saturday.

Heave-Ho!

The older that I get, the more that I start looking for stumps, rocks, ledges, panels, or whatever else that happens to be laying around to help me get aboard my horses. I never used to give mounting up much of a thought, but now it's getting to be one of those things that's becoming more of a "consideration" as the years continue. (My slowly-expanding pant size doesn't help much in that department as well....ugh.) To add a bit of insult, none of my horses are considered to be huge skyscrapers in height either.

So all that I can think of when I see photos of these giant guys is: "Holy S***! How in the hell do they get up on those things...?"