Costume postscript

After the first Denver BreyerWest, Erin Corbett gave me a bunch of brightly colored pom pom headbands that had been worn by the judges during the open show.

I took them to the barn and put them on all the horses.

Oh, how I miss some of those horses!

Five years is a long time, but somehow the orange headband is still kicking around my house. 

This morning, I picked it up and took it with me to the barn.

I put it on Sage in the traditional, above-the-eyes position.

She was deeply unimpressed.

After several failed attempts to get her to show some expression, I moved it down her nose.

All of a sudden, she was so interested.

She kept raising her nose higher and higher, trying to get a better look.

Such a funny girl!

Last year on Halloween, she was a completely unhandled wild horse.

Now she's this.

I'm so glad I still had that headband. It was perfect for Sage today. Thanks again, Erin. You were right. I really did need those!

Pet costumes

According to a story I heard on NPR, Americans were expected to spend over eight hundred million dollars on Halloween costumes for their pets this year.

That is an absolutely insane number, especially given the current state of our country.

But also, especially given the current state of our country, maybe this is what we need to do to get by.

All I know is my animals are cute in their costumes, and I have no regrets.

Emma might. 

But I do not.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Green eggs and candy corn

The day I met Sage was also the day she had her first real horse treat.

Stefanie's assistant was working with her, showing off the things she knew. She did a new skill correctly, and Stefanie said, "Reward that."

Taylor patted her pockets and replied, "I don't have anything."

"I do!" I exclaimed. I reached into my pocket, fished out a cookie and handed it to Sage.

She chewed and chewed and chewed, bobbing her head up and down as she did so. When she was done, she turned her lip up in the air and waved her head around.

"What did you give her?" Stefanie asked somewhat accusingly.

"A Nutrigood Low Sugar Snax," I answered like the Dover product advisor I am.

"Hmmm," Stefanie responded. "We use hay pellets, not cookies."

By this point, Sage had stopped making faces and was actively begging for another Nutrigood snack. "If I adopt you," I told her conspiratorially, "There will be a lot more of those in your future."

As we all know, I did adopt her.

And, as we all know, I keep my promises.

Sage has sampled a lot of treats in the last five months, but she has not had any human candy. That changed this morning when Lynn reposted her 2018 Halloween Candy Corn post.

As soon as I saw it, I knew what I had to do.

Sage knows good things come in plastic bags. She was interested but not overly so.

Then I tore a corner off the bag and she got a whiff of all that sugar.

She got so excited, she knocked the bag right out of my hand.

At this point, she got a little confused. There was lots of snuffling, but no actual eating.

I gathered up the loose kernels and offered them to her in my hand. She dove right in.

I also offered some candy corns to Kaffi...

and Luna.

Two more...

very enthusiastic yeses.

Say!! We like them, Mom-I Am! We do! WE do like candy corn!

And we will eat them from your hand!

And we will lick you where you stand!

We would eat them off the ground!

And we sure would like another pound!

They are so good, so good, you see! Thank you, thank you, Best Mom-You-Be!

Halloween capybara

A few days after I achieved my lifelong dream of owning spending time with a pair of capybaras, Heather Jackson-Lain posted this preview picture to her business page.

"Oh!" I thought. "I need one of those!"

My Halloween capybara arrived in early October. I promised myself I would paint him before the holiday, but as usual, time got away from me. He has been sitting, untouched, on my desk for weeks. This morning, I looked at him and told myself, "Now or never." A couple hours later, the capybara was prepped and primed.

I want to say the rest of my day was spent painting, but that's not exactly true. 

There were two trips to the barn, one to the grocery store and a long dog walk.

But really, the rest of the day was spent painting.

Here's where things ended up.

This may or may not be officially finished, but it's close enough to count as done before Halloween.

"Welcome to the family, Great Pumpkin Capybara."

This hasn't been a good year for art, but today was actually a good art day. Thank you for the inspiration, Heather. I love my Halloween capybara!

Da fence

Over the weekend, Seth and I took Piper and Tang to Lowes.

The holiday decorations were out in force.

Heh.

Someone - not Piper - got over excited and had a little accident. 

Eventually, we found what we were looking for.

One of those boards is going to be my indoor arena's new arena fence! 

We bought it, took it home and cut it down to size. I located the wood veneer edge banding I'd used to build the other section of fence. Happily, I had a good amount leftover!

I cut it to size with a pair of craft scissors.

Then I ironed it onto the board.

Old fence, new fence.

After some weathering with watered down acrylics and pan pastels, the two sections are almost identical. For the first time ever, my indoor arena has a corner!

Next up: Rebuilding the wall!