Merry Christmas

Here's hoping there was something horse shaped under your tree.

Happy, horsey holiday wishes to friends and family everywhere!

Christmas wishes

My tech savvy children included lots of clickable links in their Christmas lists this year.  Although not explicitly stated, their rationale for doing this was easy to discern--the easier you make it for mom, the more likely you are to get exactly what you want.

I didn't have a computer when I was their age, so most of my Christmas wish lists looked like this:

Or this:

The closest we ever got to internet shopping was the Sears Christmas Wish Book.  

Oh, how I loved the Wish Book's toy pages.  So many great items, and best of all--there were Breyers!  Every year I'd circle the ones I wanted most, taking great pains to make sure my mom was aware of my actions.  Even after the institution of the Breyer Ban, I continued to be optimistic about the possibility of Breyers under the tree.  After all, the Wish Book made purchasing so easy.  How could my mom possibly resist?

Alas, my mom was unrelenting.  No new Breyers meant no exceptions--not even for those listed in the Christmas Wish Book.  If I wanted Christmas horses, I had to buy them myself.  

Will Ryan and James' clickable links strategy meet the same fate as my Wish Book Strategy?    Only time will tell!

GLC No Frills custom halter

Christmas Eve's eve may not be a real holiday, but it's special enough to merit a bonus post.  These photos were taken during the custom halter classes at the GLC No Frills December show which was held in Huntley, Illinois earlier this month.  I've identified the models to the best of my abilities, but as always, more information is appreciated.  Enjoy!

custom Weather Girl by D'Arry Jone Frank

custom Weather Girl by Tiffany Purdy and owned by Brenda Metcalf

custom Weather Girl by D'Arry Jone Frank

two custom Peter Stone Arabs, the bay has a KLF resin head and was created by Tiffany Purdy

custom Lady Phase by D'Arry Jone Frank

Custom Peter Stone ISH by Tiffany Purdy

Sand and Surf, customized byKarenetta Smith & Tiffany Purdy and owned by Jenna Nejman

Breeds of the World Stock Horse by D'Arry Jone Frank

Rat Poison, owned and customized by Tiffany Purdy

Lonesome Glory customized by D'Arry Jone Frank

Breeds of the World Totilas by Tiffany Purdy

Lady Liberty, owned and customized by Tiffany Purdy

Custom Breeds of the World Saddlebred by D'arry Jone Frank

Altivario II, owned and customized by Tiffany Purdy

Breyer Haflinger customized by D'Arry Jone Frank

Princess Trillium, custom Stage Mom by Tiffany Purdy and owned by Jennifer Buxton

Breeds of the World Draft customized by Tiffany Purdy

Custom Draft and Pony callback table

Christmas Eve's eve

Finally--It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  The tree is decorated,

the dogs are decorated, 

 the stockings are hung,

and the presents are purchased and (mostly) wrapped. 

I still have a few last minute things to do, but for all practical purposes, I'm done.  Hurray!  Can I please go back to making tack now?

Birth of a Brio

Have you ever wondered how resins are made?  

Last weekend, the Paloose-Arts team of Sheila and Charlie were kind enough to open their home to a bunch of local hobbyists and share some of their resin making secrets.  Today's photo sequence shows Charlie de-molding a Brio Sambra resin.

After the resin has hardened, the mold is taken off the rotocaster, and the hardware holding the hard outer shell is removed.

The two pieces of the outer shell are separated,

exposing the rubber, inner mold.

Charlie carefully pries the two halves of this mold apart...

slowly exposing...

a brand new Brio! 

Welcome to the world, little man.  You're going to make some model horse collector very, very happy.

Thanks again, Sheila and Charlie!

My snake story

Numbers don't lie, and yesterday's blog stats make one thing crystal clear: a lot of people really like snakes.  

Not being a snake fan myself, I find this kind of surprising. However, it does give me the perfect excuse to tell my best snake story.

When I was twenty, I spent a summer working as a wrangler at guest ranch in the Rocky Mountains in central Colorado.  

Although the Don K was located just twenty five miles west of Pueblo, it was surrounded on all sides by a quarter million acres of National Forest land and truly felt like a world unto itself.  

Of all the places I've ever ridden, this was probably the most beautiful.  

Rugged trails...

led to gentle meadows...

and every ride included at least one amazing view.

As I saw it, there were only two problems with riding at the Don K. The first was that the trails were not marked, and it was awfully easy to get lost.  

The second was the snakes. Hardly a week went by without someone encountering a rattler on the trail.

Western Diamondback Rattler, Photo by Bates Littlehales

I'm not afraid of pet snakes, but rattlesnakes terrify me. I spent the entire Don K summer trying to avoid them, and for a while it looked as though I was going to be successful. In fact, I made it all the way to August before my luck ran out.

By that time, my main mount was a little bay gelding named Jose.

Despite being very young and very green, Jose was a good wrangler horse. He was sensible, sure footed and independent enough to pick his own way across a rocky trail while I kept my focus on the riders behind me.  

Ironically, it was Jose's excellent navigation skills that almost proved to be my undoing. If I had been on another horse, I probably would have seen the snake. Certainly I wouldn't have been all twisted around talking to the person behind me while we negotiated such a rough piece of trail...

But I wasn't on another horse. I was on Jose and I trusted him completely. I was literally blindsided when he suddenly dropped a shoulder and spun hard to the left. I lost my seat, lost my stirrups and was preparing to hit the ground when I looked down and saw something that looked a lot like this:

Prairie Rattlesnake,Photograph by Chris Johns

Holy crap!  It was a huge rattler all coiled up and ready to strike! I grabbed mane, grabbed leather, grabbed anything I could possibly grab and somehow managed not to fall off. To this day, I still don't know how I managed to stay aboard!

I survived the close encounter, but sadly, the snake did not. As you might expect, all the riders in my group were abuzz with stories of the "huge snake Jennifer almost fell upon." Shortly after our return to the ranch, one of the other wranglers took it upon himself to ride up to that ridge and find and kill the snake. He offered me the skin, but I wasn't interested. I didn't need a souvenir to remind myself of that day. Somethings - like rattlesnakes - are impossible to forget!