"Stretch!"  Photo courtesy of Natalia Zhurbina.

 



"Otrar"
Skak line stallion born in 1977 in Turkmenistan.  Imported to Germany.

A fun little 8 x 10 practice painting.  I haven't done a canvas in what seems like forever!  The last painting that I did was dated in 1999, so I figured it was time to fiddle around with another.  (And boy am I ever rusty....!!!!)  This was a fun piece to get back into the swing of things.  I'll probably do a few more flat pieces in the future, as this one gave me a much-needed break from doing 3D airbrushing. The plastic frame was a yard sale find for $2.  There's some great stuff at yard sales sometimes...

Year of the Aladja

This has been a boon year for making aladjas!  I've done quite a few in the studio lately.  They are fun and challenging projects on the windy and wet autumn days.


Two aladjas for the stallions of Pleasant Grove Akhal Tekes, CA. 


My riding time has been cut a bit shorter with the rainfall, so holing up in the studio with projects has become my main task lately.  I'm getting a lot of painting done, and also making a myriad of aladjas for people.  They are fun to decorate your horses with when you're at shows, expos, or for photo-ops.



Cowrie aladjas for crossbred Akhal Tekes (Arab x Teke) - Currently for Sale

There were five aladjas that I completed on display at the FOTATA table at the conference in September.  I sold three of them before I got any photos (a green aladja and two foal sized ones), but the cowrie ones are still available.  (I'm thinking about keeping one for my own crossbred.... so there might be only one for sale in the future.... I dunno.  We'll see.....)

And I also recently donated a special little project for the ATAA newsletter questionaire.  Cathy came up with a great idea to get more input from members of the registry, so there is a prize as an incentive for member participation.


Russet colored presentation halter with silver studs and blue stones 

The presentation halter will be given to some lucky ATAA member who fills out a questionaire and sends it in for the newsletter.

Keeping busy with even more aladja projects scheduled on the horizon, I've been working off-and-on with my own native costume for the past month.  It's been a long and teadious project so far, but it should make it's finished debut next spring at a public event.  There will be a future full blog posting about the different parts and components, but for now here is a sneak peek photo below of a small portion of the bridle:

   
Stay tuned....

The working quarter horse duo.  A dappled transitional rose grey "Working Girl" resin, and a slate grulla "Little Lonestar" resin - stablemate scale.  Both of these guys have been tweaked in my studio for a more performance friendly position.  They are owned by Corinne Ensor of Shoebox Saddlery.  Photos of the original molds can be seen here: 
http://www.equineresindirectory.com/showhorse.asp?horseid=11118
http://www.equineresindirectory.com/showhorse.asp?horseid=15115 

Photos

The pictures arrived in the mail a few days ago from the last two shows that we attended.  Sibbea Browning of Entirely Equine Marketing is totally awesome!  Fast service and great pictures.  She did the Eddie MacMurdo photos, and I highly recommend her.  She's very professional and lightning fast.  The Pink Ribbon Classic photos were done by Adam Hutson of Hutson Imaging and Photography.  (I scanned the pictures to use them on this site, but the scanner made the photos a little bit blurry....)

Eddie MacMurdo.  Winning the Novice Horse english under saddle class.

Eddie MacMurdo. Waiting in line for judging.

Eddie MacMurdo.  One of my favorite photos, in the Novice Horse western pleasure class.

Pink Ribbon Classic, Green Horse western pleasure. 

Pink Ribbon Classic, Hunter Under Saddle class.

ATAA Conference

Craig and I had a great time Saturday at the Akhal Teke Association of America conference.  It was held at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Bothell, Wa. just outside of Seattle.  On Friday night there was a meet and greet at the hotel and on Saturday there was a general membership meeting in the morning.  We got there just in time on Saturday to sit in on the meeting, and then go with everyone on a farm tour of Cascade Gold Akhal Tekes in Snohomish - just a short drive up the road from the hotel.  On Sunday everybody boarded the ferry at Anacordes to go up to the San Juan islands to visit Sweetwater Farm Akhal Tekes, but Craig and I had to head back home on Saturday night - so we missed out on Sunday's activities.

Part of the group on the farm tour Saturday.  Cathy Leddy (farm owner in the foot cart, she recently had surgery on her ankle), Jas Shearer-McMahon in the black jacket and grey pants, Gary Tipps holding the coffee cup, Erin Wandler in the blue sweater, Betsy Wandler in green shirt, the fellow with the cowboy hat is Catrina Mettam's other half (sorry, I never did get his name....), and if you look very closely you can just barely see Eloise King in her white hat hiding behind Cathy's arm. 

Eloise was a real hoot!  I loved meeting that spunky lady.  There's a nice video of her on youtube riding her stallion Pegas sidesaddle.  (Yes, he's a stallion!  When I was talking to her, I thought that she owned a gelding - but was rather surprised to find out that he's a stallion.  Most people her age don't want anything to do with a stud horse, but Eloise isn't just anybody.  If you ever meet her, you'll know what I'm talking about....)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjo9thmoM8I&list=FLXKQVXS-puyUh2P0N92QQgg&feature=mh_lolz

Astra and little Sparky.  He will be heading to a new home in Florida soon.

Tommy's mother Annastasia.  He's a carbon copy of her, just inherited his father's lighter bay color.

A duo of volunteers.  Craig (my husband) carrying the pink flowers, and Larry (Cathy's husband) carrying the red flowers to decorate the pasture jumps.

The youngsters.  Scooter (Miras) up front, and Reggie (Sazanda) near the fence, made a new friend.  Scooter is currently for sale and is looking for a new home.

Jack Saare petting Mahri, one of the fillies for sale at CGAT.

Asalari, Tommy's little sister.  She's currently for sale as well.  (If I only had more room and more money, I wouldn't mind adding her to our herd....)

Astrachan, still looking good at 22 years young.  Tommy's sire.

Jas Shearer-McMahon and Khan (Astrachan).  Yes, this is the stallion that was the model for the infamous resin Akhal Teke "Khan" that Sarah Rose sculpted.  He was at Jas' place in Colorado for a few years being a breeding and competition stallion, and Sarah sculpted him after visiting Magic Valley Akhal Tekes.  For a full article, visit her site:  http://www.rosehorse.com/khan.php .  Khan's a grand old gentleman, and a pleasure to visit.

I managed to snap a quick picture of the awards that I hurriedly finished up just before we left early on Saturday morning for the conference.  (Our living room floor wasn't quite as grand of a display area as the banquet room in the hotel... but it worked for a quick snapshot.)  There was a good turnout of participants for this year, and I was glad to do the awards for several people.  It was nice to see that more people are getting interested in riding competitively.  Fun stuff!

For more pictures and info. on the conference, visit:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Akhal-Teke-Association-of-America/348256698548515

Eddie MacMurdo Show

The bay bumbershooter strikes again!
 http://proofs.sibbea.com/p873702267/h43914162#h43914db8

Tommy's winnings!

Tommy did pretty well at the show this past weekend.  He made Craig and I very proud.  =:)  Amidst a large crowd of competitors of all different sizes and breeds, he managed to bring home some nice prizes and hold his own against the competition.  The show was a lot of fun, and I'm planning on doing it again next year.  Nice people, great facility, awesome judges and staff, and an all-around professionally organized event.  Loved it!



An outside photo after getting a second place ribbon and an award glass in the green horse english class.

There were a lot of very nice horses at this show, and I thought that amidst the variety Tommy did really well.  There were some TOTALLY AWESOME eye popping national quality morgans and saddlebreds that came to compete.  My eyes were bugging out!  They were soooooo stunning to watch!!!!  I loved seeing the park saddleseat and the western pleasure morgans go around the arena.  What a show they put on!  And the grey saddlebred from the Tri-Cities was quite a sight to behold as well.  A very nice horse.  (And the riders tophat with shadbelly coat really looked spiffy too!)
http://proofs.sibbea.com/p437434843/h4363f3c0#h4364ab2e
http://proofs.sibbea.com/p258172520/h43650680#h43650680
http://proofs.sibbea.com/p36634117/h436553f2#h436507e2

And we made another new friend.  There was a gentleman watching us warm-up in the outdoor arena and walked over to ask me what breed my horse was.  I said Akhal Teke, and I was kind-of surprised to hear him say, "I thought so..."  (We're slowly but surely gaining inches in popularity around this area...)  Lots of people near the show railing when we were in the classes made comments like, "That horse is so coppery!"   
Later on in the barn aisle when we were finished for the day, one junior exhibitor asked me what I did to get my horse so shiney like that.  I kind-of chuckled a little bit, and said that I just gave him a bath.  She looked somewhat disappointed with that answer - as I think that she was expecting me to say that there is a new miracle product on the market that will give your horse an ultra-shiney metallic glow.  =:)  I was sorry to tell her that I didn't have any insider information on any bottled stuff that would do it....

Craig managed to take some videos on his phone, and we uploaded our in-hand halter class on youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYpaQ2wquR0 
MaryAnne Morrison, (the judge in the darker clothes) had said that she had seen a couple of Akhal Tekes before, so I was happy to hear that.  She seemed to like Tommy, and placed him well in the classes that we entered.

And we won the novice horse english class!!!!  That was really cool.  Wahoo!  =:)