The Pegasus Project Part II

Chop chop! The Breyer Naranda has entered the world of the Mayfield chinese chop-o-rama shop. The industrial strength dremel does wonders for cutting up plastics. She's now a member of the funky herd of disassembled co-horts that roams the vast plains of imagination land. Fun stuff!

As you can see, she now looks very different with just some minor repositioning of her loose floating body parts. She's gone from a high necked saddlebred looking creature, into more of a hacked-up trotting arabian contraption. You can begin to imagine what she will look like when there is anatomy attachment. Oh, but wait! Imagining the final image will not be quite so likely, because the finished product will look nothing like this. She will not be trotting.....nor have her head down.....nor be a mare......nor be that color.....nor have that mane and tail..... The plot thickens.

It turns out that I did not have the only original idea in the world to turn an Akhal Teke into a pegasus. The russian folks at MAAK have held this idea in previous years as well. In some of their advertisments for shows they have incorporated the image of the flying horse. Below is the 2005 silver version.

And then there is the 2007 golden version. It's a nice sculpture that someone has done. But I'm not sure if it's an actual sculpture that was awarded as trophies, or if this was a master bronze sculpture that was on display somewhere, or even if this is just a photoshop image someone has came up with for the ad...? I don't know. Information would be great. All that I know is that this looks like a grand idea!

-Shannon.

The Pegasus Project Part I

After years of battling through studio backlog orders, I'm finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yayhhh!!!! This comes as a tremendous relief, as I hate for my customers to have to wait forever for something to get done. So I'm really glad that I'm finally getting almost caught up with older projects. My books were permanently closed after I buried myself with painting and customizing orders two years ago. At that time I didn't realize how time consuming some of the projects would actually be. But I've grown in leaps and bounds on sculpting equine biomechanics and trying out new painting techniques with those older pieces - so it has been a great learning experience. This brings me to my next exciting new project....

Very rarely, (and I do mean seriously rarely) do I get to work on something for myself. Since the backlog is starting to get cleaned up and out of the way, I thought it would be really great to work on something to go into my own collection for a change. Greek mythology has always been a great inspiration, and the immortal flying horse pegasus is a subject that I've wanted to tackle for a very long time. Of course, this great steed will have my own personal spin and style amended to him.

I love both the new and old versions of the Clash Of The Titans, and I think it's really interesting to see the different breeds of horses that they have cast as a pegasus. I do very much love the black friesian in the new movie! That is very cool. Changing the color and type of the horse is great. Friesians are a very romantic breed. But of course there is only one type of horse that could ever be a true heavenly pegasus in my eyes - and that is an Akhal Teke. Being a self-proclaimed hoarder of Akhal Teke models, I can't help but add a winged one to my stash. This is going to be an especially challenging project, but oh so much fun to try out!
Above is an ancient greek vase depicting Belleraphon astride pegasus slaying the chimera. There is some great literature and different depictions of the story of pegasus on this site: http://www.theoi.com/Ther/HipposPegasos.html


And above is the guinea pig that I've picked for this project - a Breyer Naranda national show horse mold. She will be mostly unrecognizable when completed. The disassembling of this poor girl will be broken down into different step by step parts for viewing. The end product will be a mighty flying Akhal Teke stallion with a golden bridle. I'm totally stoked for this project! Can't wait to begin...

On another note: In the past, a few people have asked me what it is exactly that I do with model horses. This project will be a tutorial look at the customizing process a model goes through in my studio. Maybe then, they will understand a bit more about the luney weird projects that I work on. =:)

Let the funky pegasus games begin!

-Shannon.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a bright and jolly Christmas and a very happy New Year! Looking forward to some new and exciting adventures in 2011. =:)
-Shannon.

Tommy's Toodling Along!

I'm very happy that Tommy has been making great progress in his training in the past few weeks. When the weather cooperates and isn't bombarding us with ice, or snow, or thawed out sloppy mud-bog conditions - we make some great headway on doing stuff! =:) My round pen has sand in it for drainage and thick grippy footing, and so far it is holding out really well. If it doesn't snow, we'll keep on pluggin' away at things!

Tommy has learned to be pretty stable and have good balance with the added weight he has to carry. We started out with doing a slow walk on Monday, and by today (Saturday), we did our first day of slow loping in both directions. I was thrilled!
"Are you sure you really want me to Go..?" "Yes Tommy...Go." It is really interesting to watch the myriad of feet positions that a young horse goes into when they are sticky and not sure what to do. It usually feels as weird as it looks. Bless his heart, he's getting the hang of moving out more freely and easily as we progress.

Motoring along at a nice relaxed jog.

This is my absolute FAVORITE picture that Craig has taken of the two of us! Both of us look like we should be in a pleasure class at a show somewhere.... =:) Nice and quiet and relaxed. Uber cool!

And the wee-bit faster endurance trot. Something I look forward to riding quite a bit in the future!

All done, good boy Tommy. I have a big "perma-grin" stuck to my face! He's such a nice kind-hearted fellow. We'll have more blog posts in the future as he progresses along under saddle.

-Shannon.

"Maestros Bardic Compadre" a classic champagne sport pony stallion painted in December 2010. He is Stacey Tumlinsons Bardigiano resin "Fabio". I painted this guy a unique color based off of Maestros Bardic Gold - a real silver champagne sport pony stallion, and Sweet Apples a stock horse mare, in the ICH registry.

Winter Barn Blues Revisited

It's that time of year again. It never fails.... Around the last week of November the weather gets nasty and the ground turns into mud. THICK STICKY MUD.... ugh. It's one of those things that makes farm life much more challenging than it should be. Cleaning rounds go on double time - (as if there weren't enough things to keep up with around here.) And the horse stalls require twice as much mucking when moisture fills the air and instantly turns normally dry materials into slippery slop.

It's around this time of the year I start "dreaming" - fantasizing really.... of a new barn. Our little farm here as a shedrow of three Noble panel stalls and four outdoor matted pens. With only four acres of pasture land, the animals have to go into pens and stalls most of the time. They get daily turnout in the outdoor arena to tear around in - but even the arena has turned into a giant sloppy mess with all of the rain that has been pouring down lately.

On the upside, Craig and I are getting closer to paying our mortgage off, so we have been having small micro discussions of future barn plans. It might happen within another year or two......possibly. Yayyyhhhh!!!!

This is where my overactive imagination and day-dreaming comes into play. If money grew on trees and we became miraculously independently wealthy, our barn would look something like the one pictured below:
Woot! Raise the roof! That wistful thinking is such fun. Another somewhat less elaborate barn is pictured below, and I could settle for it too....
Of course, these bucko huge barns aren't complete without an appropriately sized indoor riding arena..... one of sheer engineering genius:

Stunning pieces of architecture. I'm sure they're somewhere around a cool million or so to build. No problem. Gotta go find those money tree seedlings and start planting.....

But seriously, some things are doable and affordable. I found these Dutch Masters stall door plans on the internet and thought that it was a really nice design. They are modest and attractive without being too over-the-top elaborate like some of the high dollar european designed ones. I liked them a lot.

Then there is the traditional wood framed rough cut rustic interiors like in the photo above. It's a warm and inviting look that I could easily fall in love with - but my ever leering fear and paranoia of a barn fire would cause great hesitation. I do love that old style look though....

And to make things even more interesting, how about a round barn? These are quirky and fascinating architectural wonders to behold. I stumbled upon a couple of them when looking at different barn plans on the internet. The timbers that constitute the ceilings on these things are unbelievable! Some are in a star shaped pattern to the top, and some are similar to a funnel effect. It's an amazing construction feat!

In a way, they somewhat remind me of a dairy barn.... especially the one with the bell shaped doorway.

And then there are always some funky barns floating around out there in the nooks of the big wide world. I liked this one pictured below, because it reminded me of an old cobblers building. Can't you imagine a blacksmith pounding on some iron horseshoes outside where those garbage cans are located? Kind of takes a person back to the middle ages a bit. This is an actual functioning barn (Rubel Pharms) and if you look closely there are some horses off to the left in the picture. I'm guessing this stable is probably located in europe or spain somewhere....

But amidst the daydreaming and trips into "la-la barn-o-land".... reality sets in, and I have to think reasonably about what is both feasible for our pocketbook and functionable for our location. I've perused the plans on this website quite frequently recently: http://applevalleybarns.com/
They have some good simple designs, depending on what size a person would like. I'm leaning towards the Monterrey 6 stall or the Hickock 8 stall plans. The barn pictured below would be more of our speed as well.

We will see what happens in the future. But for right now, we're stuck with dreaming our way out of the winter mud and slop. Sigh...... =:)

-Shannon.

Halloween Fun Show

On Saturday the 30th, the Richland Riders club held their second annual Halloween fun show in Richland, Wa. It was an open show for everybody to get dressed up in costumes and have a blast at! The club also featured some special classes for the "strides" challenged riders, which I thought was a really great idea. Not many horse shows around our area have classes for everybody to participate in, so it was good to see everyone being included. There were around 30 entries for this fun little show, and it was great experience to practice at without a lot of excess pressure.

The Richland Riders club has some great grounds with a big outdoor arena, two round corrals, warm-up ring, trail course, barn rentals, lots of boarding runs, and plenty of trailer parking for competitors and boarders alike. If I lived in the Tri-Cities area, I would definitely want to ride here everyday! The show was really fun, and the clouds only spinkled a few tiny rain drops here and there. Nettie and I went as the wicked witch of the west and her big trusty yellow broomstick. =:)

I had ordered a black knit witches cape, but it didn't arrive in the mail in time before for the show. So, a red knit blanket had to fill in to keep me warm. It worked out pretty good on a chilly day.
We participated in the costume parade and costumed open showmanship. We came in second for our age category in the costume judge off. There was a lady with some REAL traditional mongolian trappings and garb that won the class. She had a very impressive gorgeous outfit.

Here we are getting ready for the english classes. I rode my old 1800's victorian english sidesaddle for the english pleasure, english equitation, and creepy command. I had to get rid of the knit blanket in order to ride, and put on a jacket because it was getting very cold. Also, the witches nose kept fogging up my glasses, so those had to get put away as well. =:)

A week before the show, I had called up Louise Beach to come and ride with me here. Louise is an ISSO certified sidesaddle instructor who lives in Pendleton. I had never met her before, and had hoped that it wasn't too forward of me to call her up and ask her to come. It was a really great day to meet her, and she helped me with some posture positioning in both of my sidesaddles for the english and western classes. I got to meet her gaited walking horse Bo, and she even let me borrow one of her handmade western riding habits that she had brought. (Ironically, we are about the same size, so her habit fit me great. What are the odds of that happening with someone you've never even met before?)

The show hostess was thrilled to have sidesaddlers participate at this show, and both Louise and I had a lot of fun riding alongside the normal astride competitors.

Nettie does great with the sidesaddle and is as honest and trustworthy as the day is long, but I am going to have to work harder on her headset. She is so used to getting ridden in a bosal everywhere that she forgets to collect up and tuck her nose in. This is something that we are going to work on for the future. Lots more practice...

But, we ended up doing great with the western pleasure, western equitation, and pumpkin patterns. And, we WON the rotten egg on a spoon race - sidesaddle no less! We managed to pick up a lope and hold onto the egg for a half a lap before we dropped it. Nettie and I won a bridle rack for being the last ones to bumble our egg into the dirt. We were really close to winning the ride a buck, but lost our dollar when the judge asked us to do a hand gallop! What a hoot. Imagine a bunch of 4-H kids and Nettie and I tearing around the arena bareback at a wild gallop madly clinging to the dollar bills clinched under our butts.... It was great!!!!
-Shannon.