Trick and treat

Most horses like candy corn, but a few do not. Today I bought a bag of candy corn and brought it to the barn to get Olive's opinion.

I met her in her stall and offered her a handful. She snarfed it down without hesitation and asked for more.

Here's video evidence.

After our ride, I took her outside for better lit candy corn eating photos.

This time, she said no.

Emphatic no.

Is candy corn a Halloween trick or is it a treat? According to Olive, it's both.

Happy Horsing Around results

I've attended several model horse shows this years, both officially and unofficially, as a judge, friend, photographer and raffle ticket seller.

But not as an entrant.

Never say never and all that, but if I'm being honest, it really feels like the showing part of my hobby life is over. I just don't have any interest. 

Not even a little.

Like less than zero.

And yet...

A couple weeks ago I was scrolling on Facebook and saw a mention of the Happy Horsing Around photo show series. I was not familiar so I clicked on a link and arrived at a private group. I asked to join, and part of the request was an agreement to actually enter photos in the show.

"Huh," I thought. "How can I agree to enter something when I haven't even seen the class list?"

I agreed anyway, and my request was approved.

Happily, the class list was delightful with fun, fall-themed classes in both the Halter and Performance divisions. My photo table was a casualty of last spring's basement flood, so I didn't take any new photos for the show. However, I was able to find several good entries in my files. I placed them in the appropriate classes, and then I kind of forgot about it.

Yesterday Facebook let me know that the show had been judged, and my horses did really well. Tuscalero was second in the Fall Artist Resin class.

Zombie Slayer won Ghosts, Spooks and Skeletons.

I had two entries in Anything with Pumpkins. Snickers placed second...

and Tucker was the winner.

Agatha was second in Trick or Treat...

and Validator and Zips Cocco Chip were first in Fall Festival. This one made me especially happy because I really do love this photo.

Last but not least, Winter Games took the top prize in Costumes for Fun.

This was a low effort show for me, but I enjoyed it a lot. I wish I had discovered this series earlier, but better late than never I suppose. I'm looking forward to next month's show. Maybe I'll even take a few new photos for that one.

And maybe - just maybe - the showing part of my hobby life isn't over.

Only time will tell.

Ratified

When Ryan and James were little, Carol asked them to take care of her daughters' rats, Bella and Alice, while they were on vacation.

One month later, we had rats of our own. Go figure.

The rats were well loved, but rarely seen outside the family until one fateful day in early 2011. Someone - I think it was James - came into the studio with a rat on his shoulder. Much to my annoyance, the rat ended up on my work table. So I did the only thing I could do under those circumstances: I put a saddle on her.

She didn't mind, so I did it again.

And then again and again and again, over the course of many years with multiple generations of rats.

Our last saddle rat, Pixie, died unexpectedly in 2016. She was young and healthy, and we were all traumatized by her passing. After a lot of discussion, we decided not to replace her. It was the end of an era.

Last month, Ryan moved into a townhouse. He loves animals, so I knew it was only a matter of time before he got a pet. I thought it would be a cat, but instead, he bought a pair of rats.

When he invited me to come meet them, I asked if I could bring a saddle.

"I don't think they're ready for that," he told me. "They're young and fast and not all the way socialized."

That wasn't the answer I was hoping for, but his rats, his rules. I left the saddle at home.

When I arrived, both Yoda and Soda were sleeping in their tube. 

We woke them up, and for the first few minutes, they were calm, quiet and inquisitive.

Basically, they looked like perfect saddle rat candidates.

Then they woke up for real, and it was a circus.

Oh, I had forgotten how fun - and fast - young rats can be! I had so much fun playing with them. I didn't realize how much I missed that.

Thank you for sharing your babies with me, Ryan. With or without saddles, I think they're amazing.

Zero tenths

Kylee Parks is one of the hobby's most accomplished artists.

Her body of work includes one glorious Breyer,

a herd of fabulous resins...

Barely Jolie painted by Melanie Miller, NaMoPaiMo 2022

oh so many amazing medallions...

and a small group of one of a kind customs, including five Best Customs Contest winners: Nerissa (2022),

the Circus Horses (2019),

Toadstool (2017)...

and, of course, the iconic Takeshi (2018).

Takeshi is truly a masterwork. Every detail - every scale - is absolute perfection.

And yet, he's not my favorite. That honor goes to little Wolfrik, a German Riding Pony stallion customized by Kylee from the Breyer Giselle and painted by Caroline Boydston.

Back in 2016, Jennifer Scott and I held the first Jennifer Show. Kylee Parks contacted me about proxy showing. She already had someone who could put her models on the table. She just needed a place to send them. Even though I already had way too much on my plate, I told her she could ship them to me. I had seen her work on Instagram, and I was curious to see how it would look in person.

The horses arrived a couple weeks before the show and WOW! They were amazing.

Especially this one.

I was so enamored, I took a million pictures of him from every angle.

Then I shamelessly posted them on my blog, stating that possession was nine tenths of the law, and well, he was on my shelf.

A couple minutes after I clicked publish, I thought, "You know, this could end badly. You don't know this person at all. What if she doesn't see the humor in horse thieving?" Fortunately, that wasn't even kind of the case. When I met Kylee in person at BreyerFest 2017, she positively encouraged me to fake steal Toadstool.

In the years since then, I've amassed an impressive herd of Kylee horses, dogs and medallions.

Still, I never stopped thinking about little Wolfrik. In my mind at least, my nine tenths claim remained intact.

In the last couple of years, Kylee's life has started calling her in other directions. While she remains committed to the hobby itself, she is no longer showing or collecting and has started parting with customs. Yesterday, Wolfrik went to auction.

I'm not going to lie. My first reaction was, "Excuse me. I didn't say you could sell my pony." Then I thought about and realized that my life has also moved in a different direction. A few years ago, I would have moved heaven and earth to add Wolfrik to my collection, but now? I'm ready to let go. Therefore, I am officially renouncing my nine tenths claim. Thank you, Kylee, for putting up with all my nonsense lo these many years. I hope Wolfrik's lucky new owner will love him as much as I have. 

Penciled in

About a week ago, Piper and I went to our local pet store to look at costumes.

She tried on a couple.

"Not funny, Mama."

Neither one of those came home with us. What we really wanted was a guinea pig costume.

This year's selection was a little lackluster. Instead of something fun like a dragon or taco, we ended up with a pencil.

A really big pencil.

A two pony pencil!

I got out my biggest model and tried it on him. Thankfully, it was a perfect fit.

With that decided, it was time to get to work. I carefully cut off the wide belly band and removed the velcro front closures.

I replaced both with grosgrain ribbon straps fitted with Rio Rondo blanket hardware.

The original pencil tip hat was unusable, so I made a new one with cardstock, string and acrylic paint. I also made a matching ribbon halter with pencil pattern accent pieces.

All it needs is a kid with a backpack and perhaps a few other school supplies.

But that's a project for another day. 

"Why is she like this?"

"Nobody knows."

All joking aside, this is a really easy way to make a fun Halloween costume for your models. Just be sure to check the size in the store. Some of them are really big!