Midweek weekend

Sometimes the best weekends happen in the middle of the week.

My best friend, Carol arrived in Denver Tuesday night. I picked her up at the airport after work, and we spent the rest of the night catching up and playing with Piper. A perfect Friday night.

The next morning we went to the barn. 

I rode Sage, and Carol took pictures.

Look at us go!

After that, we had lunch with Karen.

Then Carol and I got in the car and drove east, to the new-and-still-under-construction Hogan Park at Highlands Creek.

Eventually, this nearly one hundred acre space will be home to a disc golf course, performance plazas, climbing walls, a zip line, embankment slides, linear challenge courses and pollinator gardens. 

Right now, it's mostly large public art installations.

I liked it a lot and am glad we went.

The day ended with dinner at my favorite restaurant with my two other best friends. There just aren't words for how happy this pictures makes me.

Today - pretend Sunday - featured a visit from best niece, Gray, and two of her horse friends.

We played with the foals...

and Gray rode Sage.

Sage was so good.

Carol and the kids have all moved on, and Seth, Piper and I are enjoying a quiet evening at home. We're all tired and a little people out, but also very, very happy.

Tomorrow is Monday Friday. Back to work!

Preparations

Seth and I are expecting a number of out-of-town visitors this week, including our niece, Gray, and two of her barn buddies.

Of course, I want to take them to the barn, and of course, I want Gray to ride Sage again. Except this time, I want it to be a real ride, no lead ropes involved.

But before that happens, I wanted someone else to ride her.

Specifically, someone else who is not me.

So I asked fellow mustang owner, Rain, if he would be interested in giving her a few training rides. He definitely was, and the first one happened this past Sunday.

Before he mounted, Rain started with a little groundwork.

Sage was fine, so he took her to the mounting block...

and climbed aboard.

I held my breath as he asked her to walk forward, but Sage moved out willingly. 

If she had any concerns about being ridden by a stranger, she kept them to herself. 

Sage looked very confident and relaxed with Rain.

That is not to say there weren't a few awkward moments.

Sage is very green and also very opinionated. Of course, there were a few awkward moments.

Still most of the ride looked like this. I was so pleased.

At one point, Sage acted like she wanted to trot. We haven't done that yet, but I told Rain I was fine with it if he was. He definitely was!

The session finished with a series of walk/halt transitions and Sage's first ground mount. All of this went really well.

I can not overstate how much I enjoyed watching Rain work with Sage. I'm so proud of my funny girl, and I'm looking forward to sharing her with Gray!

The Shirmar herd

I'll never forget the first time I visited my friend, Trisha parents' house. There were horses everywhere: On the walls, on the towels, on the toilet seat and, of course, on the shelves. I almost fainted when I walked into the living room and saw what looked like a whole wall of Hagen-Renaker Amirs, Zaras and Zillas.

"Whoa!" I gasped. "Are those...?"

Trish knew where I was going and quickly cut me off. "No," she said matter of factly. "They're knock-offs. My grandma painted them a long time ago."

And for years, that's all I knew about those horses.

Now, thanks  to Kristina Lucas and her excellent Muddy Hoofprints blog, I know a bit more.

In a post dated November 13, 2018, she writes: Decades ago, and for a very short time, a company called "Shirmar" made unglazed castings of several Hagen-Renaker Designer's Workshop molds, including large Zara. They were identical in size to HR's finished products because the HR foreman provided Shirmar with the HR molds, and his personal permission, to make them. This was done without consulting the Renakers, and they subsequently requested all the molds back. 

This explains why no generational size loss has been recorded in Shirmars; they were all first gen. Some were allegedly plaster castings, but some were cast in ceramic and fired to bisque. I have handled a Shirmar that was identified in one HR book as plaster, but it was actually bisque. Collector Laura Behning had a complete family set of Shirmar's renditions of Amir, Zara, and Zilla, and confirmed that they were hollow ceramic, not plaster. 

Shirmar's castings were made for the hobby painting market, just as holiday-themed white bisque and plaster sculptures are sold today, by craft supply shops. However, a telltale sign of a bisque Shirmar is a huge, unplugged pour hole in the belly.

Amir's pour hole

Last month, rather unexpectedly, I became the caretaker for most of the Brown/Welch Shirmar collection.

There are a few Amirs,

a number of Zaras,

and two Zillas.

Most of them aren't pristine.

There are some broken - and in this case, missing - legs.

Also, a couple of the models have been attached to bases.

Trisha told me that this trophy used to have a Gladys Brown Edwards topper. Sadly, that broke so Marie replaced it with one of the Zaras.

The trophy itself was won by Mt View Charmalea in 1970.

Most of the Shirmars aren't dated, but this one - another Zara - is clearly marked 1973.

Although the do very much resemble their HR relatives, these models are thicker, heavier and a little bit coarser.

They clean up nice, so a few are destined to be refinished.

I've dreamed of owning a palomino Amir my entire life.

Others will kept as is, in memory of Marie and Donna.

Eventually, some will probably be re-homed. 

But not yet. 

It's been almost forty years since I first saw these horses. For now, I'm happy having them on my shelves.