Cara's Excellent Adventure

If life had gone according to the plan, I would have a horse crazy daughter of my own. Instead I ended up with two little boys who are perfectly wonderful but almost completely unhorsey. What's a natural born horse mom to do when her kids don't want to go to the barn?

For me the answer was obvious. I needed to find myself a horse daughter. Several years ago I did just that. One of the women in my mom's group had mentioned her horse crazy twelve year several times and I decided to take the plunge. I invited the girl--who I just barely knew--to come out to the stable with me and the rest is history. Cara and I have been riding together for more than three years. It's been a great arrangement for everyone involved, and I have had a wonderful time watching Cara grow and mature both as a rider and as a person.

This weekend Cara and I made our yearly trip to Wellington, Colorado for my friend Trisha's Sixth Annual Mtn View Schooling/Fun Show. This is the first year that I haven't judged at least some of the show, which was good news for Cara. She was no longer restricted to just the classes I wasn't judging, plus I actually had the time to help her school between events.

Cara's mount for the day was Trish's wonderful Arwen pony. Arwen is not a pretty, dainty pony. She has a big head, cranky pony ears and a demeanor that reminds everyone of Eeyore. Still, she's well trained, sensible and just right for Cara at this stage in her riding career.
Because I knew Arwen would take care of Cara, I encouraged her to ride in the Open Pleasure and Equitation classes rather than those restricted to green riders. This was a big step up. The other kids in the class own their own horses and have a lot more riding experience. I told Cara not to worry about ribbons and just ride to the best of her abilities. I could tell she was a bit nervous when she entered the ring for the first time. Still, she managed to get all her diagonals...

and her leads.

Arwen backed up nicely at the judge's request.

Overall, I thought she rode really, really well. She ended up with a fourth in English Pleasure and a sixth in Huntseat Equitation. Not bad at all!

Once the "serious" rail classes were over, the schedule shifted into gymkhana mode. Cara's first class in this division was the Trotting Cone Race. This was essentially a scaled down barrel race to be ridden at either a walk or trot. Cara asked for pointers, and I told her to make tight turns and a maintain a steady, forward trot. Her turns were a bit wide,

but she did great job keeping Arwen moving forward. Her time was good enough for third place!

After that, things got a little crazy. Cara made a last minute decision to enter the Simon Says class. It was a big class but fully ten horse and rider combinations were eliminated on the very first command. Cara was one of the only two to survive the cut and ended up winning first place.

After lunch, we moved outside the ring for the trail class. This is the event that Cara and I had spent the most time preparing for. She'd studied those gate pictures I posted awhile back, and we'd actually rehearsed the obstacle several times sans pony. All that work paid off. The gate was the course's first challenge and Cara nailed it.

From there it was all downhill, literally. She and Arwen marched down the hill,

they conquered the mailbox,

survived the back up obstacle,

and flew over the cavaletti.

Cara's smile as she cantered back up the hill told the whole story. She and Arwen had done a wonderful job. I couldn't have been more pleased if I had actually ridden the course myself. A few minutes later, Cara received her second blue ribbon of the day.

We'd originally signed Cara up to ride in the Pile of Poles class. However, by this point Cara was feeling invincible so we decided to push our luck and go in the Cross Poles Hunters instead.

It wasn't always pretty, but Arwen is a trooper and cantered around the entire course jumping from all sorts of improbable distances. Cara rode out of the ring with a huge smile on her face. She looked at me and said, "I love this pony!"

What's not to love? They won the Cross Poles Hunter class, too. Ok, there were only two entries in the class and the other horse had a refusal, but still... That's a lot of nice ribbons for Cara and her loaner pony!

Lots of love for Arwen.

One last picture of the dynamic duo heading back to the barn at the end of a very long, very good day.

Thanks so much to Trish for making this day possible! My horse daughter and I had a wonderful time.

Oh, that was fun!

What a wonderful day! I have lots of pictures to share but I am completely exhausted...It will have to wait until tomorrow!

Living in limbo

Today's post has nothing to do with either real or model horses--sorry!

I really want to thank everyone for the supportive comments and emails that followed my Worrying post. Seth is still unemployed but he spent all of last week working with recruiters and interviewing. A couple positions look very promising, and it seems likely that he'll be back to work before the severance pay runs out. I am trying my best just to take each day as it comes and not get too wound up about all the what ifs. That's not an easy task for a worrier like me, but mostly I'm succeeding.

I am also trying not to worry too much over my little old lady dog who has suddenly, sadly started acting her age. Poor Abbie. I know that fifteen and a half is very old for a dog, but the rapid decline in her physical condition has been startling nonetheless. There will be no more pictures of her flying over jumps or swimming in pools. She doesn't have the hind end strength for those things anymore. She's not sick or unhealthy really, she's just old and wobbly.
Unfortunately there's no cure for old. I hate that our time together is running short, but rather than obsess over the things I can't change, I'm trying to focus on the time we have left. Abbie is still alert and happy. She doesn't seem to be in pain. I've been giving her lots of extra attention. We go on short walks and once a week, I take her to the dog park. She doesn't run or play, but she seems to enjoy walking and sniffing and interacting with other dogs. It's a good life for her still, and I am grateful for every single day.

So, that's how it's been this week. I'm taking each day as it comes and trying not to get too far ahead of myself. Tomorrow I'll be in Wellington, Colorado taking pictures and helping out at Trisha's schooling show. I'll try to post a few photos in the evening and should have a good show report ready for Monday morning.

Random collection picture

I have a bad habit of starting customs, getting stuck and then leaving them unfinished in my body box for years. This is one of the few models that didn't fall victim to that trend. It's been several years since her completion, and I'd like to think that I could do better job of things now. Still, she's not half bad. I think she may even have a NAN card or two...Her name is Velma. My older son Ryan went through a prolonged Scooby Doo phase, and apparently her creation coincided with one too many viewings of Creepy Capers!

My accidental collection

A couple weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised to receive a box containing this fellow. He's a Romeo medallion sculpted by Kelly Savage and finished by Barb Ness as a thank you gift to all the 2009 NAN auction donors. I kept him on my work desk for a while, but since I'm actually trying to work there today, I decided it was time to put him away. It was at this point that I realized that I seem to be cultivating a new collection. I never had any plans to collect hobby medallions. It's one of those things that just sort of snuck up on me. Looking back, I think it started two years ago at the Wild Wild West Live Show in Colorado Springs. That was a particularly good show for me and I somehow managed to win both the Overall Grand and Reserve Performance Championships. In addition to the big rosettes, I also won two painted medallions.

Both of these are sculpted by Kristin Berkery and painted by Cathy Wallden. I especially like the blue eyed pony.

The SMB medallion on the left came next. My lovely old Lady Phase custom by Chris Jolly won that one in the vintage custom class at the Devilish Kokopelli Live Show in 2008. The Sommer Prosser medallion on the right was a freebie that came along with a subscription to the Model Horse Resource Magazine.

This last piece in my Artist Giftware collection is a decorative tile by Karen Gerhardt. This was a second that I picked from a group of giveaway items that Karen brought to a local hobbyist gathering. I think it's just lovely and can no longer remember why it was relegated to secondary status!

At six pieces this is still a small collection, but it's a collection nonetheless and one that I'm pleased to own. I've had a fun time getting these out and taking pictures of them, but now I really must get back to working on that bridle...

Run, Dolly....Ruuuunnnn!

Today I am pleased to share an article written by my friend Rosemary Simeon. You may remember Rosemary's name from my MEPSA show posts. She is a superb model photographer and is also a talented writer. This article was originally published in the Australasian International Model Horse Club newsletter, and it describes one of the many tricks Rosemary uses to produce those awesome photographs.

Run, Dolly.... Ruuunnn!

by Rosemary Simeon

In this article I’m going to try to help you overcome a problem with dolls unable to stand, either because of windy conditions or because of their own inability to balance. Showmanship photos have always been a worry to me because in the past I’ve had the handler fall over and pull the horse over too as they were firmly attached to each other. At least when riders fall off they only damage or dirty themselves and not the precious horse. I am also trying to impart some of my enthusiasm (and yes love too) of the dolls who really make performance photos come alive. All problems can be overcome given a bit of knowledge and some ingenuity.

Over the years I’ve been showing, a couple of people have told me how they overcame the problem of trying to get dolls to run convincingly and still stay upright. You can, of course, prop them against the horse or an arena fence, but it generally doesn’t look too convincing. You would still have problems getting the doll to balance on one leg. David (my Project Manager) and I discussed this problem and what others had done to overcome it, which were variations on the same solution, namely some sort of doll stand. The contraption below is our solution – it looks absolutely weird but works a treat! This method would work with live shows as well as photo shows. Better still it is cheap and can be made out of scraps found in any real man’s shed. The base does need to be as big as shown because of the extreme angles you may want your doll to take. Because the base is very thin, it is easy to disguise in your footing materials.
A very simple doll stand made out of a scrap of metal with some wire (probably fencing!) as the support. In the second photo the stand is placed on its side so that you can see that the wire is simply twisted around on the bottom to keep it in place. The support has to be strong enough to support the doll’s weight but thin enough to hide easily. The hook at the top is to allow fine wire to be threaded through to encircle the doll’s waist or top of the legs. You can have a few of these stands with different heights of wire for adult size dolls or child dolls. As I sometimes use more than one doll in a photo shoot, I like to make sure they all have their own stands. This is homemade with a capital “H” !

There are two methods of using the wire support. The first photo has the wire support threaded up the inside of the doll’s pants. You can just see the support near her boot on her left leg. The second method has to be used for a doll with long boots; you simply use a piece of fine wire looped through the hook on the top and tie the fine wire around the doll’s waist (or top of his legs in this case). When his coat is pulled down it hides the wire and the support.

That’s all well and fine but these dolls are just standing around … how do we get them to run? Read on!

Now this is where it gets interesting! Running … the male handler doll is well and truly hitting his stride. I’ve deliberately let you see the support but in a show photo I would have hidden the support by either the horse’s body or by trying different angles until I succeeded in getting rid of it. The second photo on the right shows a child running and she does have one foot off the ground and I have hidden the support. I could have used the method of running the support up the inside of her jodhpurs but I used the same method as the other doll, i.e. the wire around her waist. You can just see the support on the right, just above her knee.

I might add I took all of these photos on a day that, although sunny, was very windy. Not a single doll hit the dirt and as you can see by the last two photos, these two dolls would not have been able to balance in these extreme positions without help even in still conditions.

Here we have one of my show photos of Carringal French Cuffs demonstrating the method and I defy you to see the support! The doll would not have been able to balance if leaning on the horse (would have fallen backwards) as he is standing on one bent leg. Also I work outside in natural light where unfortunately there is always some nasty little breeze around to cause me grief.

I hope that this article helps you to overcome problems with your dolls and I hope to see lots of great performance photos!

Ok, this is Jennifer again. I want to thank Rosemary for allowing me use her article. If you enjoyed this and would like to see more along these lines, please post a comment and let her know!

How to ride a rope gate

Every fall my friend Trisha holds a schooling show at her parents' farm in Wellington, Colorado. This year's edition (the sixth!) will be next Sunday, and as in year's past, Trish has invited my young riding buddy Cara to borrow one of her horses and participate in the fun. Cara and I spent Labor Day riding at Trisha's, and on the long drive home we discussed the classlist and which classes she should enter. One class we both agreed on was Open Trail. Of course this led to further discussion about the different trail obstacles, most of which are pretty basic. There is one obstacle, however, that trips up almost the entire class year after year. That obstacle is the rope gate.

Rope gates aren't really that hard, but you have to have a strategy. Trisha's show caters to novice and intermediate level English riders, most of whom have never schooled for a trail class. I think in the past five years, only two riders have managed to successfully negotiate the gate. I tried my best to explain how the gate should be ridden, but I could tell that my words were only confusing Cara. Luckily, I'm not limited to words. Just the week before, I'd watched several classes worth of real trail horses competing at the Aurora Horsemen's Association monthly show. I took lots of pictures and hopefully these will go a long way towards clearing up the confusion.

One note to anyone who might want to use these pictures for live show reference--these photos show a nice local level horse successfully negotiating a rope gate. Horses competing at the national level would be expected to complete this obstacle with an added degree of finesse and polish. Still, this should give you a feel for how the obstacle should be ridden.

First the horse rides up alongside the gate so her body is parallel to the obstacle.
When her shoulder is even with the standard, the rider asks her to halt. The rider then opens the gate by lifting the loop off the standard.

The horse takes a few steps back...

and then turns to walk through the gate.

The rider must be very deliberate through this part of the obstacle so as not to lose control of the horse's body position.

She wants to end up so that the horse is once again parallel to obstacle.

Almost there...

Whoa!

The horse stops next to the second standard and begins to back.

More backing.

Still backing.

When the horse is in position next to the first standard, the rider asks her to halt and places the loop back on the standard.

Ta da! That's how it's done! Pictures are definitely worth a thousand words when it comes to explaining a complicated maneuver like this. Hopefully Cara will agree with me, and she and Arwen will do themselves proud next week at the show.