Scavenger hunt: Hay bale

Finding a hay bale at a barn full of horses isn't tough. Usually, there's a giant stack of them!

Despite that, I was really stuck when it came to the photo scavenger hunt's eighth prompt: Straddle a hay bale. 

As I saw it there were three issues. First, access to the hay at my barn is strictly staff only. I didn't want to make waves by helping myself to a bale, even on a temporary basis. Second, I am allergic to hay. Even if I had permission to touch it, I don't want to. Finally, and most significantly, my horse is not ready to straddle or side pass across a hay bale. The obvious solution wasn't going to work for this one. 

Clearly, I needed to get creative.

I can't remember when I bought these two little straw bales, but they've been hanging out in my stash for a long, long time.

The first order of business was turning them into hay bales. For that, I used watered down acrylic paint in several shades of green.

Not bad!

I took the bales to the barn and used them to build a Sage appropriate straddle obstacle.

Not impressed...

but willing.

Ta da!

I made some adjustments...

and we did it again.

And again.

I took a break and checked the camera. Even on the tiny screen, I could see that the hay bales were just too small in relation to Sage. The pictures were fine, but lacked visual punch. Once again, I needed to get creative.

Eight down, two to go.