Chapter 1
The Great Halter Experiment
I now understand why there are brow bands on bridles. I had meant to ride only around the barn, but another boarder was looking to ride out and so I took a bit of a ride on trail as well. While it in general worked just fine, I had difficulty getting him to check his pace on downhills. It was frustrating and I know that I am not able to communicate and trust him in just the halter yet. There really wasn't any big issue, to be honest, and we passed a fellow boarder out on trail who commented that she wished she could ride her horse in just a halter.
Most troubling was the fact that the headstall kept travelling down his neck - I had to keep reaching forward and flicking it back behind his ears. If I decide to go forward with it, I will have to figure out how to put on a brow band. The halter itself can't adjust smaller, instead it just angles differently at the joint on the cheeks and, instead of standing up behind the ears, it leans back to go down the neck.
Also, he still seemed to find it itchy. I don't know if it was itchier than the bridle, but it wasn't a complete lack of itch like his soft, wide, regular halter which, I know, he would ignore me in and just graze.
Chapter 2
The Old Man Lets Loose
Last weekend, one of the boarders took her first ride on Gene. She's been completely smitten with him for over a year now, she's a good rider, so this has been a long time coming.
Her impression is that he does not feel like an old horse at all. At first he tested her, she answered, and then they settled in and Gene had a blast. She has often wondered if there is anything that he doesn't know, and when he tossed a few automatic lead changes at her she wondered aloud, at a canter, "is there anything this horse can't do?!"
I put a wee jump out, probably an insult to Gene as he had competed at 4'2" before, but a jump is a jump. No one has jumped Gene in years, and as she was circling him near the jump she had to keep telling him, no, it was coming, as he kept asking to go for it. When she finally aimed him for it at an easy trot, right at the end he decided to transition into a canter and took it at speed. That surprised his rider, but at least she was prepared after complimenting him on his smooth jump. She took him over twice more, last time intentionally at a canter after asking my permission, and he was one happy appy.
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| He's 27 years old next month, folks! |
Chapter 3
Five Down, One to Go
The swans are done! I've also settled on the framing for both this one (a rustic frame in white and gray) and the sidesaddle one of Princess Charlotte (circular frame in aged silver with a black mat). I also picked up Athena and Jason, who are now framed.
Chapter 4
In Which Sara Freaks Out in the Gallery
While talking framing, the gallery owner/framer told me he filled the 5th slot in the show. So, he started running through who else would be there and what they do. Good, we are all different from each other, apples and oranges, and everyone's happy. Then he told me the 5th name.
A good while back, when I still had my jewelry in the shop and was there for First Friday (aka Art Loop in Delaware), I was told I had to wander to the galleries next door to see the work of the artist who was featured in both galleries. I did, and my goodness! It was mainly equestrian art, executed exquisitely. I realized this is the kind of artist I want to be when I grow up. Soon I located the artist himself, and we chatted a bit. I even asked him if he would ever consider giving lessons because I would love to learn his methods.
Above my kitchen table is one of his prints on canvas. I bought it to use as inspiration and to contemplate his handling of a sunset.
Yeah, guess who is the 5th artist?
I freaked out. It was not my finest moment. All I could think is now we have apples and apples, and my apples are wormy. Lucky me, my crippling sense of inadequacy hit me like a tidal wave.
The owner told me that he had shown my Athena and Jason to this artist to explain the show. Supposedly this artist, my 2D art crush at the moment (but still luv ya, Rembrandt Peale, no one could replace you, snookums), said that they were good, that he had never done anything just in black and white, and he was willing to give it a shot.
I may just have to get a prescription for Xanax.
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