Name that pony!

This subject has been in my head a lot lately.  Ever since I watched a YouTube video on how to come up with names for your horses.  When I used to show, you had to have a name for your model and I had more models than names.  I had a LOT of models back then, but not all of them were show horses.  That didn't matter, though, because I had names for most of them anyway.  Then I stopped showing due to personal circumstances so I stopped naming my horses.  I think the last one I named was my palomino Marwari back in 2013...

At the time, my local zoo had recently opened a new exhibit for Komodo Dragons and had a pair of siblings from the same clutch but had been living at separate zoos.  The male was Ivan and the female was Gaia so I combined the two names to create Ivangaia.  It sounded legitimate enough.  I still like it.  Kalahkaari still hasn't been named, but I think I may have just found my Bohemian Rhapsody.  I wanted a flashy model for that name and I wanted it to go to a model I described in a previous blog post about customs and it just hit me that Kalahkaari is very close pattern-wise to Sioux City Warrior.  He's not quite colorful enough because he doesn't have any silver, but I think I can live with that.  So, I think I am giving the name of Bohemian Rhapsody to Kalahkaari.  His barn name is rather boring, though.  Just "Beau".  Not very original, but barn names are supposed to be simple, aren't they?  Now, suddenly, I want tack for him and I want a doll that resembles Freddie Mercury.  hahaha.

Anyway, back to naming.  So, I watched this video on YouTube on how to come up with names for your model horses and suddenly all these name ideas came popping up in my usually empty (not really, but work with me here) head.  I doubt some of them will be used and a couple of them may need to be scrutinized a bit more.  Like, does Obsessive Fascination sound better or My Obsessive Fascination?  That's a name I've been sitting on for awhile.  It's part of a song by Duran Duran called I Don’t Want Your Love:  "My obsessive fascination is in your imagination now pick it up!" and I've always wanted to name a horse that, but I don't know.  If I ever get back into showing, I'll need to name the models I have in my show string.  If I have any left worth showing.  Hahaha.  You know, because rubs and shiny marks happen. 

Also, there some rules about names in the real horse world.  Or, at least, there was when I was more knowledgeable about show horses.  Like, a racing thoroughbred cannot have the name of...how can I put it...no movie titles or pop culture items.   Something like that.  They also can be no longer than 18 characters, with spaces and punctuation counting as a character (I looked it up)  But with Arabians, anything goes.  One National Show Horse at Tom Chauncey Arabians was SH Jim Beam.  They called him the "Whiskey Horse".  Other breeds, warmbloods, have specific naming requirements.  Something like it has to begin with the same letter as the sire, but it also has to do with the year the foal is born and/or gender.  They also restrict the number of characters in the name.  A Lusitano is named based on which hemisphere the foal was born in.  Hmmm.  I wonder if a model horse judge would count off / not place it well if the foal isn't named according to any breed standards its registry or the Jockey Club has.  I might have to ask a judge that.  <makes mental note>

A couple of days ago I took an afternoon off and went driving.  I took two stablemates with me and had wanted to find some nice desert area to take pictures.  There were some cool cloud formations off in the distance, but have you ever tried photographing a stablemate with a cell phone without getting on the ground?  It's not easy.  We won't talk about the scale issues.  hahaha.  I had my good camera with me, but I was taking the photos for Instagram and to get the photos from my big camera to where I post to Instagram is a bit of a hassle so I used my cell phone and the results were predictable.  Oh well.  The clouds sure looked neat, though...

QOTD...so tell me...do you name your models if you don't show?  And where do you draw inspiration for those names?

Expectation vs Reality...

The idea for this blog post started out as one thing and has turned into another with two separate posts that are somewhat on the same subject:  Dolls.  Not just any doll, but a posable doll that is capable of sitting astride a model horse.  A lot of my blog posts require some kind of research and that's where things tend to start taking on a life of their own and this one is no exception.  Hopefully y'all will find it interesting enough to justify the two separate posts.

Okay.  So.  For many years, Breyer put out a fairly respectable-looking doll.

Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but for the most part, it was good enough.  They can't sit astride like an actual person, but that's not their fault.  They're not human and their little bodies just don't bend that way.  It's likely one of the reasons why people who show in performance don't use dolls.   Not using a doll in a performance class won't count against you, unless one is required, but using a poorly dressed or positioned one definitely can cost you a ribbon.  I'm not sure I've ever seen a show where a doll was required.  But anyway, for the most part it's easiest just to leave them out.  Just like your model doesn't *require* a halter in a halter class.

When I was younger, I had the Brenda Breyer shown in the first photo.  Not real sure what happened to her, but I know at some point her hair got shorter and one of her legs stopped bending, which made it even more difficult to use her in performance classes.  Back then anyway.  Nowadays a little creativity and the right class would make it no problem.  Anyway, for many years I went without any dolls.  I just didn't need them.  I rarely showed in performance because I didn't have the nice tack and it often took forever to get it on and off between classes.  I did commission an English saddle and Western saddle for one of my favorite models, but after moving a couple two or three times, the pieces got separated and some of it was damaged.  But tack is a different matter and we're talking about dolls here.  Well, I am.  I'm trying to, at least.  hahaha.  Yeah.  Now you know how my posts end up starting as one thing and end up being something else.

ANYWAY...a few years ago, for whatever reason, Breyer decided to redesign their line of dolls.  Remember those nice, normal-looking ones above?  Gone.  They were replaced with something that looks rather disproportionate (whew!  that's a big word) and kind of cartoonish...

EEEK!  Who wants that?  I certainly didn't.  So how come I now own 4?  Or maybe it's 5?  <hides>  The first one, though, was not my fault.  I was browsing Amazon and saw they had a Let's Go Riding set with a San Domingo model.

 Hmmm.  I could add to my SD conga plus get a normal-looking doll and a pretty neat tack set at the same time.  Sounds like a winning situation, right?  hahahaha.  Silly, Brenda.  You should know by now that what you see isn't always what you get.  I eagerly awaited my package and when it arrived I tore it open to reveal...

Freakishly big head and cartoonish features.  <sigh>  Even the clothing was different from the picture, although not a big difference.  It was very obviously not the same doll as the picture.  I was disappointed, but I suppose I knew it was a possibility.  She isn't a horrible doll.  She sits a pretty decent saddle...

But she looks better riding bareback...

She's pretty talented, I guess.  Not only is she bareback, but bridleless as well.  hahaha.  Look at that hair, though!  So unrealistic!  But her back is straight and she seems to be engaging her core enough to stay put.  Maybe that's why her heels are up rather than parallel to the ground like a proper Western rider.  I still don't know how I ended up with 4 or 5 Breyer dolls after this one, though.  What I really want is a decent-looking one, you know?

And here comes the good part of the post...The eye candy, if you will...

There's some girls out there who can do incredible things with dolls.  Now, I'm not talking Breyer dolls, they're pretty much a lost cause.  But there's a couple (or maybe just one) other doll makers out there that make it easier to customize one and are more flexible in the body.  Ann Fields is a genius with hers.  She makes them for all sorts of disciplines and has even customized an adult doll into a child sized one

Is that cool or what?  And then there's a girl I know from Instagram named Keri Parker (keriannparker on IG) who is also very talented.

She takes one head and with a little work (I'm sure more than a little), makes it look like an almost completely different face! The "After" is so much nicer than the original!  She makes their clothes. She does their hair nicely...

does different ethnicities...

And even tried her hand at a celebrity...I knew who it was the moment I saw him...

Keri does sell her dolls via her Instagram and Facebook pages, but since I don't show performance, I am "stuck" with bad Breyer dolls to play with due to cost.  Not that her dolls are super expensive.  They're worth every penny.

Be sure to look for more creations by Keri in a future blog post.  I'm still gathering stuff for that one, but it'll be soon, and in the meantime, check out her social media pages and if you're in the market for a doll for your performance classes, consider buying one of hers when she has them for sale.

So, question of the day...if you attend live shows, or even photo shows, and you show in performance, do you use dolls in your set-up?

Plastic Pony Project Pt 1...

This morning, as I was getting ready for work, I heard the sound of a commercial airplane flying over our house.  As we live about 2 miles, as the crow flies, from a major international airport, I see planes flying by the house all the time.  What they don't usually do is fly over the house.  Unless, that is, the weather is bad.  And, after the sound of the plane had receded, I heard it.  The rain.  The weather forecasters had actually been right for a change.  They said there was a chance for a storm last night and while I don't know what time it hit, judging from the amount of water on the drive in this morning, it had been raining for quite awhile.  It had possibly started before midnight, which would technically make it still Sunday and accurate for the weather forecast.

And there was a lot of water.  Driving into work this morning had not been fun.  The rain wasn't coming down very hard, except in a couple of spots, but the accumulation in the roadway is what was the difficult part.  For the most part, the areas I drive through to get to work have good drainage, but when there's a lot of rain in a short amount of time, the gutters get clogged up with debris and so the streets flood.  The street in my neighborhood, I've only seen flood this much once or twice before in the almost 20 years I've lived there, but the area where it got really dicey, I've never seen that much standing water.  I was driving on a road with 3 lanes going in each direction and I was in the middle lane.  I had no idea there was that much water until I was hit by a wall of water that literally blinded me.  I drive a relatively small car and there was a pick-up truck on my right and a slightly larger car to my left so I got hit from both sides.  I couldn't see anything except water.  I slowed down as much as I dared because I couldn't see where the other cars were nor could I see the lane lines in the road.  I'm guessing the truck next to me couldn't either because when we finally came through, he was partly in my lane and stayed there for several hundred feet until hurrying over to make a right turn.  I would like to think he wasn't aware of the situation he'd put us both in, but who knows?  Fortunately, I got to work in one piece and without crashing.

So, onto my Plastic Pony Project.  My collection is a mess.  No two ways about it.  I have horses everywhere.  I have ones on shelves that seems to be buried in dust... (the SM to the far right)

and models not entirely all standing upright because of the dreaded domino effect (affect?  lol)...

Oh yeah.  And there's also a cobra cozying up to some of them.  hahahaha.  I have random Stablemate sets hanging out in random boxes...

and random models just lying around in random places...

"Boba Fett" actually has a place on a shelf, but I can't reach the spot without a grabber thingy and I can't find my grabber thingy to put him back.

Finally, I have a bunch of yellow boxes in a bunch of different places that contain horses still needing to be unboxed and put somewhere...

I have become a baaaaaaad collector.  I used to be one of those types who would unbox a model shortly after getting it and put it on a shelf to admire.  Then I became an "Any Flat Surface" type.  I'd still unbox the model, but I'd put it wherever there was room.  Now, I just try to find room for the box.  I don't know how it happened and I don't like that it happened, but it has.  And not a day goes by where I don't look at the messy shelves and the scattered yellow boxes and say to myself I need to fix things.  Every time I get a few days off from work and most weekends I say I'm going to fix it.  Get my collection back in order, but I never do.  And then I get more models and the cycle just continues.  I need help.  I need to break the cycle, but I don't know how.  Where do I begin?  That's why this post is being titled "Part 1".  I'm hoping to get started on the mess and post progress photos in the future.  I guess we shall see, huh?

Today's question:  What does your collection look like?  Is it nice and neat, all your models on shelves or is a "mess" with models everywhere?

Medieval Times Restaurant...

This is still horse-related, just not model-related...

So, late last year I became aware that a nearby Indian reservation was building a Medieval Times Restaurant.  I'd heard of it, but have never been to one because there are none in Arizona.  I was curious about it since I knew it involved horses, but questioned where they were building it.  Well, a few weeks ago they finally opened and...well...I am torn.  They obviously did a nice job on the building...

And the barn looks like it *might be nice...

Their website says the horses, which include Andalusians, Quarter Horses and Friesans, are very well taken care of.  That they're brought along slowly so as to acclimate them for this sort of life, but I don't like how narrow the arena looks

photo from Google

And during the jousting part of the show, who thought it was a good idea to use wooden lances that splinter when they come into contact with each other?  Or maybe it's the shield that is wooden, but look at the splintering...

photo from Google

That looks so incredibly dangerous.  A couple of the pieces look to be at least a foot long.  And while the horses are wearing those hoods, their eyes are still exposed.  I shudder to think of the damage one of those splinters could do.

As you can see from the first two photos, there's really no place for the horses to just hang out.  There's a very small paddock to the right of the barn, but it has sand in it, same as the arena.  The area of the reservation where this restaurant has been built is growing exponentially.  To the south, is a spring training facility for two MLB teams, which means lots of traffic from February to April.  A senior living facility is being built to the north...

To the east is a very busy freeway and just about a half mile to the west is even more urbanization...

It is far from being a healthy or ideal environment for these horses and I wish they had put the restaurant on the other side of the freeway where there's at least more open space, you know?  Of course, by putting it where they did, they can claim (sorta) that the restaurant is in Scottsdale, even though it isn't.  <sigh>

So, I looked on Google at the location where the restaurant is and made a screen cap of it so I can share it here.  I guess if someone wanted to take a horse out to do some trail riding, they can head east as the road goes under the freeway, but there really isn't a place on the side of the road that is safe for them to ride along...

Okay, so I lied.  I am going to add some hobby stuff here, too.  hahaha.

Yesterday I was reading my blog roll and saw on one that she had made a show stable accessory set for Breyer and would be available until the end of 2019.... Nichelle at Desktop Stables designed it... photo from Amazon...

She did a fabulous job on it and I would really like to have a set, but Breyer is sold out.  I went to Amazon and my eyes nearly bugged out.  $39.95!!!!!  It comes with the curtains, curtain rods, bench, two plants in planters, a tack trunk cover (but not the tack trunk) and some ribbons printed on cardboard.  I'm sure it's probably worth the money, but not when all you want to do is "play".  So I got to thinking, maybe I can make my own set.  I can sew a little and I have a bunch of miniature stuff, so why not make those work for me?  Not that I need another project.  hahahaha.  But you know what happens when I start roaming around the internet looking for things...

braymere custom saddlrey

braymere

braymere

  Now I want to do all sorts of little things.  Like I said, I have miniatures so why not put them to use?  Now I just need to dig them up and see what kind of purpose I can put them to.  Stay tuned to see what I might come up with...

And because you know I usually end my blog with a question...what is your opinion of Medieval Times?  Have you ever been to one?  What do you think of the location where they put it?                                   

Paint Me A Pony...

I don't mean literally, you silly goose!  ;-)

I don't have any custom painted models anymore.  I had a couple in the 1990s, but they were also haired and I don't have them anymore.  I think good customizing was still in its infant stages back then.  Yes, there were some really nice customs, but people were using make-up sponges to "dab" acrylic paint onto the models, which often resulted in a rather rough and bumpy texture to the model.  Air Brush was just starting to be used, but mostly it was a regular paint brush or the make-up sponge.  I tried painting a couple of times, but I could never figure out how to get an even layer without the brush strokes being painfully obvious.  I didn't know about gesso or priming a model or sanding seams or any of that.  I just wanted to repaint a rubbed model, you know?

So why don't I just BUY an already repainted model, you might ask...because.  Yup.  Just because.  hahaha.  No, not really.  I'm very picky.  I've seen a lot of models that look like they've been painted.  It's a better job than I ever did, but it's still very obvious the paint job isn't original and I don't like that.  I HAVE seen models where the paint job looks very close to being original finish, but you know what?  Those are out of my price range.  Well, they're more than I want to spend anyway.  I can hear you now.  She has an excuse for everything, doesn't she?  hahaha.  You wouldn't be the first person who has thought that or said that.  And I suppose, to some degree, that's true.  I prefer to thing of them as "reasons".  But this isn't about that.

Now before you tell me about Peter Stone's Design A Horse program, let me show you...

These are only 2 of my 6 or 7 Stone DAH horses.  So yes, I know I can get a good-looking, somewhat custom painted horse for a decent price if I don't want too many extras.  Heck, I even tried for a really customized custom and managed to keep it at a reasonable price, but he didn't turn out exactly like I would've liked and I'm not even sure you can tell who he's a portrait of...

The model...

And the inspiration...

Maybe if I'd been able to customize the socks a little more and continued with the face decoration down to his lip, they might look a little more alike.  Plus, Stone gave him darker points than he really has, striped his front hooves and made all 4 pink when the real horse has "white" hooves in back.  I think one person on Blab said they could actually see a resemblance, but she was probably just being nice.  Obviously, I can't get a model to be identical to *Muscat unless I find someone to paint me one because he's a "known" horse and Stone won't do those unless you have permission from the owner, or something like that.  Don't get me wrong, I like my *Muscat sorta look-alike, I just wish it looked more like him.

Back in the latter part of the 1980s, I became aware of the large number of Arabian ranches in my city.  It was back when horses still had the right-of-way on city streets and the Arabian industry was still going strong.  In the Sunday newspaper I kept seeing an advertisement for an open house at Tom Chauncey Arabians and one day I decided to go.  And I was hooked.  I would go at least once a month, but often more.  TCA had a pretty much open door policy.  There were no electric gates to keep people out so it was easy to drive up the long driveway to look at the horses in the fields that fronted the main buildings and barns.  I'm surprised.  I've tried looking for pictures of the ranch and haven't been able to find a single one and I know I didn't take any of it because it was on a busy road and not really conducive for pictures of the entrance.  During the Spring, the fields had quite a few babies and those were always fun to see.  The public showings were held in a small ring next to the sales office and about 6 or so horses were brought out, one at a time, to show off.  It was where I learned about horses being born a solid color and if they carried the grey gene, would eventually turn "white".  It was interesting to see a chestnut foal with a circle of grey hairs around its eyes.  One Easter, they brought out a grey mare and her grey gene-carrying foal and that's where I saw it for the first time.  I believe the mare belonged to their vet.  They had put bunny ears on the her and led her around with an Easter basket with candy for the kids.  The showing always ended with Tom Chauncey coming out to say hi.  If the weather was bad, they still did the public showings, but they were held inside the auction room.  I still remember the smell (and look) of it.  Dark wood walls.  Wood shavings on the ground.  It was where I was introduced to a daughter of *Muscat named Amber Rage.  She was a beautiful, coppery chestnut with 3 white socks.  They had nicknamed her "Lost My Sock" because she only had 3.  She was very type-y, too.  Just a gorgeous young mare.  During that time frame, everyone raved about Khemosabi and while he was a great horse, I was all about the Russian import *Muscat.  Tom Chauncey was responsible for bringing the great stallion *Bask to the United States from Poland and most of his foals were by *Bask.  At the end of the showing, you were encouraged to tour the barns and see the horses, which I always did, of course.

But this post isn't about Tom Chauncey and his Sunday showings and Arabian horses.  Well, not directly, but it is somewhat related. This post is about customizing...sort of.  Hahaha.  I know.  I'm not making much sense.  What else is new?  During my time spent at TCA, I came to "know" a part-Arabian gelding named Sioux City Warrior and Oh My Goodness, he was a stunner.  They said he initially competed as a Pinto, but because he'd won so many awards, they "invited" him to not come back so they started showing him in Part-Arab, where he also cleaned up.  Like photos of the ranch itself, I have been unable to find any photos of Sioux City Warrior, which is a little odd if he was as prolific in the show ring and they said he was.  Anyway, they called him a "Chestnut Bay Tobiano Overo"  Yeah.  Confusing, I know.  He was brown, black, "silver" and white.  He had gorgeous mapping and was just super flashy.  I can't even find a picture of a horse that looks even similar to him and any photos I have taken are long gone.  I don't have any of the pictures I took while going to all of those public showings at the ranch, which is very disappointing.

Maybe kind of like these 2, but Sioux City Warrior had very black mapping...I hope I'm using the right word for that...the edges of the white were black...

Now, maybe, if you combined the two and added some silver, you'd have Sioux City Warrior.  He is the only portrait model I would ever consider having done, but it would be based off my memory of him.  And let's face it, my memory isn't perfect and he may not have been as flashy as I remember him to be, but I do remember him to be very colorful.  The more I look at the two above pictures, the more I think his color and pattern resembled the bottom photo more.  If you edge the pattern in black and put some grey in his tail and mane...but I don't remember any markings on his face.  UGH!  Yeah.  I think the 2nd picture looks most like him.  If I could draw then maybe I could make a pencil sketch then fill in the colors that I remember, you know?  But I don't know what mold to have it painted on.  He did possess some Arabian features, but mostly it was stock horse.  Yeah.  I am definitely liking the pattern of the 2nd horse more and more.  Anyway, it's not likely I'd ever be able to get a model made to look like him so I don't know why I'm even thinking about it.  But I'd like to get one and call him Bohemian Rhapsody.  I think a horse of that many colors would perfectly fit a song of many meanings.

I'm sorry.  I know this post has been all over the place and probably not making a whole lot of sense.  Maybe I should just end this now.  But not before I ask...

What about you?  How do you feel about custom painted horses?  And if you could have a model painted of any color on any model, what would you have done?  Is there a horse you'd want a portrait done of?

New 2019 Models...

This wasn't the post I had originally planned to make, but that's okay.  The other one will "keep" another couple of days.  Heh heh heh.  In case you haven't noticed, I don't have a regular schedule for blogging.  It just happens whenever things come together or something happens...like the release of some new Breyers.  This is going to be a short post, though, because there's only three photos to share, all of them from Chelseasmodelhorses dot com.

Up first is a decorator.  This photo would've gone better with my post about decorators...

Opals are unique gemstones that can be found in many colors.  Each opal contains an infinite number of iridescent colors and patterns.  Some are bold while others are more subtle, only showing their brilliance with movement or changes in lighting.  Perhaps the most unique of the opal family, the black opal, has a darker base hue that highlights its other colors with red being the most valued.  Some of the most coveted black opals hail from mines in Lightning Ridge, a town in New South Whales, Australia.  Our decorator model, Lightning Ridge, was inspired by the Black Lightning Ridge Opal.  He features a turquoise undercoat with layers of maroon, red and gold metallic.  With a high gloss finish, Lightning Ridge's coat mimics the look of a black opal and is gorgeous from every angle.

Hm.  Something with turquoise in it...again...I kind of conga this mold, but I'm not sure if I like Lightning Ridge.  I will have to think on it some before I decide if I want to buy one.  It's limited to 3,000 pieces so it would have to be a fairly quick decision, I guess.

The next model is one that I will most likely get.  It's also the most obtainable.  It's National Velvet.  I don't have many Classic sized models, but this is one mold that I do like.  Not crazy that it comes with a book, but that's okay.  I can always donate that.  I preferred International Velvet myself.  Didn't they make a traditional sized National Velvet?  In a jumping horse, right?  Or was that Arizona Velvet from the second movie?  I don't remember.  But at least this new horse is more accurate than they had him depicted in the movie International Velvet.  Right?  Wasn't Pie supposed to be a paint?  Pie was short for Piebald.  I don't know.  Regardless, I like paints and I like this model and it's one I'll probably be able to get from Amazon.

Finally, there's the Piece de Resistance...the whole reason why I changed what my next post was going to be about...Khalid...

He will most likely be the most difficult to get.  I don't have access to a brick and mortar store that carries current Breyers.  Not since my dealer closed a couple of years ago after 42 years in the business.  I don't know how I'm going to be able to get my hands on this gorgeous boy at a decent price.  Hopefully someone will take pity on me and do a pick-up.  Just look at him.  I wish his ears were curled inward, like they're supposed to be on Marwari horses, but I guess I can overlook that.  A little.  Hahaha.  It's not something that will cause me extreme stress...maybe just a little.  <wink>  The 2 traditional models are "supposed" to be out sometime in September.  We shall wait and see. 

There's also a couple of models that will be available at Tractor Supply Company but neither of them really appeal to me, which is a shame since there's a bunch of TSCs around so they should be fairly easy to get.

How about you?  What do you think of these 3 models?