Ride in the snow

Today's high of 21°F felt warm compared to the frigid temperatures we had been experiencing, so when I realized riding was an option today I got downright giddy. Ruth picked me up and we headed to Heather's to pick up the trailer. We had planned on picking up Sinwaan and bringing him back to Heathers so we could all ride together from the start. Hope opted out so we trailered Ruth and Heather's horses out to Sinwaan. New starting point!

There were flurries in the air as we tacked up. I had to readjust my stirrup length since my aunt rode last in my saddle. Mounting up, my seat was downright cold! We rode on down the drive and Sinwaan was acting up a little. The way he usually acts when he is being ridden alone. Barn sour? Tossing his head, prancing, pulling at the reins. Itching to go! Although my riding partners saw a different side of him today, I think it did help to have them along, yet I found myself in the lead part of the time, which is unusual for him. We walked a bit to warm them up and then did much of the rest of the ride at the trot along the edge of the road. At one point I could hardly see, the snow coming down was hitting me in the eyes. The scenery surrounding us was beautiful and I would not have traded that ride for a warm spot on the couch! My toes froze, my thighs and knees felt the chill of the air as we picked up speed and yet I felt overwhelmed by happiness. Yes, it's snowing. Yes, it's cold and YES I AM RIDING!

Ruth commented to me "You know everyone who sees us thinks we're crazy."

There was not much traffic to deal with, thanks to the weather I imagine. One person honked and spooked the horses a little. Otto had a misstep and slid a bit anther time. Yet all-in-all it was a wonderful winter ride. All I needed to complete the moment was a jingle bell. :) I checked the milage when I got home and we traveled 5.8 miles today on horseback. Not bad, maybe next weekend we can go farther.

Model project, #4

The project horse is coming along. I have started painting and have worked 2 or 3 days on him with pattern and shading. Tedious work and I am too much of a novice. I don't plan to post any more photos until he is done and in the mail because I don't want to risk my partner stumbling across this blog and ruining the surprise :)

Riding time

Getting back on track here with reporting my ride times... lol

Last weekend Ruth and I were able to go out and have a very nice extended ride at Bennington Lake. We did a lot more trotting and even a couple short cantering stints. The boys were feeling really good. We rode a lot of the different trails out there and I would guess that we could have covered 7-8 miles.... maybe?

Now my aunt Kim is in town, she is the one who sent Sinwaan to me, so we are planning a ride with her for this weekend. Just waiting now to see how the weather is the next two days.

Model project, #4

The little horse is coming along. It has been a real trial and error learning period for me. After that last primer job and sanding I decided to paint him white because Matt had brought home some spray gloss. After that I decided I still wasn't happy with some of the rough areas on the neck where I had done work with the epoxy. Some holes and rough areas. ARGH! Matt showed me how to use putty to fill in the holes and then I had to sand him again.

Here we are into mid-November and I still haven't started painting! I don't want to do a poor job on this model, but I also don't want to drag it out, I need the motivation to keep working on him weekly.

After all that Matt thought he looked like he had gone through a massacre.

As of tonight, he is primer'd gray again. I decided I didn't like the white gloss, I am going to have to pick up some white matte as my base coat and then maybe I can finally get started painting in the next couple of days!?

Model project, #3

Time for primer! Ah that's much better. However now I could painfully see everywhere that this poor little horse needed to be sanded. I didn't do a great job adding the epoxy, so now I had to sand the edges to get it to blend in better.



Unfortunately I thought he looked too muleish with his new ears and profile, so I broke off the tip of one ear. Now I have to rebuild that. Oh well, I still have to add more epoxy to his rear to fill that hole.



Now I am back to a multi-layered horse again. But he's so much smoother!



*Update, in the process of trying to get his tail down to a more realistic 'tailbone' size, I lopped it off. So I built him a new one out of wire and added epoxy to it.

Model project, #2

Well as you can see in the last photos on post #1 with this model, the epoxy on the neck was a little rough. I posted some pics on a model horse messageboard asking for tips. I got some! The cocked hind leg needed to be further under the body. So I reheated and moved it under a tad more.





After making some more subtle changes and doing some sanding it got to the point where it was very hard for me to tell what on earth was going on with all those layers.

Riding is a GO

I have just been doing a horrible job at keeping up with this blog lately. The GOOD news is that YES I have been getting out for a ride once a week. It's not much, but it's something. My friend Ruth has been kind enough to trailer us out with her to Bennington Lake most weekends.

Yesterday was my first time riding Sinwaan around the property where he now resides. It was incredibly windy. He acted up a bit. Typical barn-sourness. We worked and worked and worked. Walking and trotting back and forth and all around. He started sweating on his shoulders and behind his ears. Since it was so windy I thought I had better put a cooler on him and walk him around until he was dry so he wouldn't cramp up or catch a chill. I took him to the other paddock and walked him around and then let him graze for about half an hour. He loved that.