Thankful

My earliest attempts at photo showing featured my Dad's barn as a backdrop.

My barn has recently found its way back to me. I am happy to have it, but also a little sad, so it's been sitting untouched on my coffee table for the last couple weeks.

Today is Thanksgiving, which is usually a busy day for me. This year, however, we're eating at Carol's, so I was left with a lot of time on my hands. I decided to dust off  Dad's barn and take a few updated pictures.

This barn is beautiful and features all of my Dad's usual attention to detail. However, it's not an ideal photo prop. When Dad was designing it, he asked me how big the stalls should be. I consulted a book and told him that an ideal stall was twelve feet long by twelve feet wide. He did the math and decided that was much too big. We ended up making each stall just wide enough to house two traditional scale models. That's a perfect size for play, but it looks a bit crowded when viewed through my camera's lens.

Still, if I'm creative, I think I'll be able to work with it.

The holidays are harder than usual this year, but despite everything, I really am thankful. Thanks for the barn, Dad, and for everything else, too. I love and miss you.

Playing favorites

I don't have a favorite kid...

or a favorite dog... 

or even a favorite horse. 

And yet, every time I get involved in some sort of a hobby related "Ask me Anything" challenge, some is sure to ask if I have a favorite model. 

I don't.

All three of these are contenders

That hasn't always been the case. When I was very young, I loved Zucchini the most...

and in the early days of this blog, I often referred to Nejmet es Subh as "my favorite horse."

Those two are still on my short list, but they've been joined by at least a dozen Purdy horses... 

and mules. 

I am also extremely attached to a number of ponies...

and a small herd of portrait models. 

Yeah, there's no way this one's going to be left behind!

I'm sorry, Teresa. I find your question to be completely unanswerable. If I have enough time to save one, then I'm pretty sure I have enough time to save them all... or at least all my "favorites!"

Ask me (almost) anything

I don't know if it's the return of winter weather or the shorter days or the election or missing my dad or all of the above, but I have been feeling really blue lately.

Since I haven't been feeling social, I've mostly stayed off social media. That changed last night when, suddenly, Sarah Townsend's "Ask me anything" challenge dominated my Facebook feed.

I got swept up in reading everyone's questions and answers, and eventually decided to participate myself.

I've answered every single question posted so far, and surprisingly, I feel more cheerful today than I've felt all week. Coincidence, perhaps, but on the off chance it isn't, I've decided to extend the "Ask me anything" challenge to blog readers. What do you want to know?

Love and laughter postscript

In her guest post published earlier today, Sandy Sanderson wrote: Driving to the service, Jenn and I actually got to spend some quality time together, which had been a long time in coming, but that is for another post.

This is that post.

A little over a year ago, Sandy and I drove from Colorado Springs to the small town of Gardner to attend Jim West's memorial service. It was a long, beautiful drive through rural Colorado, and despite the sadness of the day, we had a wonderful time.

Longtime readers know that I always brake for horses...

(this pretty Appaloosa lives very near Jim's final resting place) 

...but Sandy and I braked for pretty much everything.

We stopped for barns, 

mountain vistas... 

and dirt roads.

Mostly we took photos...

but every now and then, we saw something so enticing...

one of us couldn't resist hopping a fence... 

and exploring! 

Oh, Sandy! You're outta control.

Burrs and tears aside, I loved driving--and braking--with Sandy.

Hobby friends really are the best friends. Love you, Sandy! Can't wait for our next road trip!

Love and laughter

One of my favorite parts of the Jennifer Show was watching Sandy Sanderson show thirty six different horses in the performance division. Her energy and enthusiasm was contagious, and she totally rocked the Overall Champion Shower concept. I asked her to write a guest post about the experience, and she rocked that, as well. Thank you, Sandy. I love you, too, and I would have totally given your Chia pony a NAN card!

Love & Laughter, a TJS Postscript 

by Sandy Sanderson

I like Jennifer Buxton. We go way back.

But I had almost forgotten how much I love her.

At Jim West's funeral last fall we showers in Colorado decided we would always to try to remember to say "I love you" more often to each other. 

Driving to the service, Jenn and I actually got to spend some quality time together, which had been a long time in coming, but that is for another post. Suffice it to say, I love Jenn Buxton, and all my fellow showers.

When Jenn and Jennifer Scott announced The Jennifer Show, I had NO idea how fabulous this show would be, but I was still determined to carve out time to prepare some new and fun entries for performance. The fact that Jenn was tempting me with a saddle as grand prize was also incentive, as  I've been on the waiting list for a while, and it IS more fun to win one! But then, when ALL the unbelievable prizes kept pouring in from hobbyists, well, I was really pumped.

When the format and class list came out, my brain really started smoking! During my daily 160 mile round trip to a job in another town, I would make mental notes. Talk about distracting driving!

First and foremost, I was so excited that I didn't have to show just one or two horses. Every time I leave for a show, I feel remorseful  leaving all my other fantastic performance horses at home. I'm known to throw in a few Halter horses, mostly out of guilt for leaving ALL those horses on their shelves. But the Jennifers came up with a way to have TWO Overall Performance Champions! Which meant there would be TWO ways to win a Braymere Saddlery saddle!! #1. customary overall horse by points, AND # 2. overall shower by points like in "alive"horse showing. (vs live showing lol)

I've been model horse showing for almost twenty years and have kept all my NAN Champions and all my retired Breyerfest Live Champions and I'm almost as bad of a tack junkie as Tiffany Purdy. I mean, who has four parade saddles??? I'm outta control.

So I thought......wouldn't it be fun to show a different horse in EVERY class? Or as many horses that I had tack for per class ? Think of how many different horses I could bring!

Along with still having to decide what horse, reference material, tack and props I needed for each class, (which I consider fun) I was able to make a costume that I felt would make Jenn laugh. 

I thought my entry for Fun Costume would actually have a chance to win but that class was tough! (As was every class). But it didn't matter that I spent HOURS every evening, hand sewing every individual branch on this costume, or that it only got fifth place. What mattered was Jenn's laughter when she saw it. I KNEW that entry was what she had in mind when she listed that class. 

Then, a couple days before the show, I thought of another Fun Costume entry that she would enjoy, as would Ryan. Another late evening "entry creating session" in my new studio.....

All in all I showed thirty six horses, in twenty seven classes. And I only missed showing one horse. Yes, that's TWO tables of horses.

In the end, I won Champion Shower and my show buddy, Lu Heater, won Reserve Shower. 

And I had sooo much fun,

and I got my saddle....

and... I made Jenn laugh. 

Love you guys!

Under the supermoon

Yesterday's full moon coincided with the closest approach the moon makes to the earth on its elliptical orbit. This created the biggest and brightest supermoon since 1948.

photo by Corina Roberts

I knew this was going to happen, but I didn't give it much thought until Sunday night when my friend, Valerie, posted this amazing picture to Facebook. The caption read: Headed out for a ride with my girl & the supermoon! 

photo by Valerie Lowe

I was immediately jealous, as were Mary Jo and Karen. We decided we also needed to go on a supermoon ride, so last night we headed to the barn and saddled up.

This is us at the beginning of our ride. That's me on Santana, Mary Jo on Scarlett and Karen on Bob. 

It was still mostly light when we set out, but as the sun set, it got dark quickly.

Really dark. 

Really quickly. 

Moon rise was supposed to be 5:24 PM, but that came and went with no visible moon. It was still really dark and also a little bit cold and a lot bit spooky. The horses began to question our sanity.

Then, all of a sudden, it happened. The moon came up, big and bright and absolutely amazing. It was light enough to cast shadows, but still much too dark to photograph from the saddle. After a few half hearted attempts, I decided to put my camera away and concentrate on enjoying the ride.

Of course, once we got back to the barn, I couldn't resist snapping a few more photos. 

None of them turned out anywhere near as good as Valerie's, but that's okay. 

It was a great night to be outside. I'm so glad we did that.

The next supermoon like this will be November 25, 2034. Who wants to go riding with me?