Trio!

I was asked if I could make a single portrait from three separate photos recently as a commissioned piece. I asked the client to send me photos of the horses that she had in mind and I crudely made a mock up of all three, sent it back for her approval and I began nervously working on it. I'll admit, it was one of the most difficult pieces I've completed!

Here are the three horses (2 of them are Standardbreds!)

Resizing each portrait to size was pretty tough, but the most difficult part eliminating tack in the portraits (at the request of the client). That took some creative improvising on my part! *It's also very hard to ignore those lines when you're cutting things out! I am really happy with out it turned out.

I have a few little tweaks to make before I sent it off to her, but what do you guys thinks?

I can still make some for Christmas if anyone is interested!

She doesn't have hooves, but she's perfect

Meet Lucille Pupperton, Duchess of Lansdowne.

Lucy.

ROAR

Hugo is going as a lion for Halloween, whether he likes it or not... love this guy.

I made most of this while I was in Chicago and fit it to him when I returned -- he's so happy about it.

awwwww.

You're killin' me smalls.

How I got my groove back

It's true when they say, "once a horse girl, always a horse girl". Reading through so many of your blogs I find solidarity in the fact that MANY of us are re-riders, those who strayed from riding/horses for one reason or another, but found ourselves bitten by the horse bug once again, falling as madly in love as we did as children. We might be a bit more sensible these days, but something about horses throws all sensibility out the window.

More paper cuts!

A little shameless self promotion here. It's nearing the holidays, so if you want a portrait made of your lovely 4-legged friend (equine or canine -- maybe even feline) get in touch! You can email me at: xniamhx@gmail.com for more details.

*EDIT! I made a tab just for portraits! Checkity-check it out!

I just finished a portrait for Carly over at Poor Woman Showing of her former horse Red (aka, Eagles Hill). It's truly an honor to be a part of memorializing a special friend in someone's life. As silly as it sounds, I feel close to many of my blog friends... like penpals of sorts. It's really cool following along on everyone's journeys (especially while I sit on the sidelines NOT riding for now) -- it helps me feel still connected to the equine world! Carly sent me a few portraits of Red to choose from and I picked her favorite and the one that showed the most personality (in my opinion). I'm partial to red-heads to begin with, but it was a really fun portrait to work on.

Here he is:

This was the photo provided. I love his expression! I punched it up a little to bring out some detail.

Red, finished. Mounted onto handmade paper and matted.

It's funny, because every single time I make one of these I doubt whether or not it's going to look very good. I think it's partially because I am staring at it for a few weeks in such close detail I kinda forget the big picture! I'm really happy with how he came out.

Who's next? Anyone with a spotted horse? I'm dying to do one!

cool things.

Every now and again we get some items through the office that I find cool... Yes, sometimes I am impressed by ridiculously expensive books from various fields, but after seven years of handling books worth more than my home I'm a little jaded, and at the end of the day they're no horse book. Ha!

Recently, a client contacted us trying to sell her collection of Misty (by Marguerite Henry) books and related items. Much to my delight, this included a whole history (in photos) of the Chincoteague ponies and Misty herself. We haven't decided if it's an item we'd like to carry, but I got to leaf through the whole collection today. There's even a first manuscript of Misty with annotations and corrections!

Here's a few photos!

Those are original photos photo-cornered into a first edition copy of Misty (that's Marguerite Henry on the right)

The first manuscript

Oh, and I've been working on another papercut...

You may remember her from a previous entry

Almost finished, she just needs a background! Also, her muzzle is actually pink, Instagram just made it look weird.

What my life looks like right now

Kinda working, kinda not.

Wishing I was either in that Wyeth painting, or in London

Hoping to get back in the saddle soon, life has been very, very busy!

Overdue update!

Phew! This is going to be a long post!

I have been insanely busy lately!

First, the boring stuff. I had my excisional biopsy done last Monday (the day after I came home from Virginia). It was not a pleasant experience, though the doctors were very kind and I think they found me to be an easy patient (I joked around the whole time they were slicing and dicing). I walked away with a much bigger scar than I anticipated and 13 stitches. Boo. They weren't kidding about the "not doing anything physical" thing. It's in such an awkward spot on my back -- just right of center in between my bra strap and my shoulder blade, so literally everything I do puts tension on it (and forget leaning back in a chair or lying on my back). They made the incision diagonal so it would heal a little easier, but it's super annoying. I cannot wait to have the stitches out so I can stop wearing a stupid bandage. This all sounds like a load of useless complaining (it is), but the good news is they think they got any remaining suspicious cells and this should be the end of it -- which means that when we return from vacation I can start back up riding right away! Hooray!

My trip to Virginia was just fantastic. Thursday we drove down (4 ladies in the car) to meet up with about 6 others. We were a little late due to some unexpected traffic, but since we'd all been to the farm before it was simple enough for us to be pointed at our steeds to tack up and get ready for an afternoon hack in the Virginia countryside. I haven't been down to Virginia in a year and half and I expected that many of the horses would have been sold (they were) -- but there were a few familiar faces and some new, exciting ones. I was directed to the lower barn to meet my friend for the weekend. An Irish Sport Horse mare named Aerie:

Oh hi.

It was love at first sight. She's a 5 year old who spent the spring fox hunting. She's still quite green, but boy is she willing. We took the the hills for a get-to-know-one-another (horses and new friends) hack. To be perfectly honest, riding in the Virginia hills both thrills and terrifies me. There was a wide gamut of riding levels and some of the horses were pretty green, so it always makes for an interesting ride. One horse in particular (Bella - a paint gelding) was being a little jerk for the man riding him, they were in back of the pack and Bella was losing it. There was lots of commotion behind me for most the ride, which is unnerving for me on a tiny trail! There were a few spots where this particular trail had been washed away due to heavy rains and we had to climb down some very, very steep banks. At one point in the ride we came across a giant nest of bees -- I was probably 6 horses from the lead and I could hear them buzzing -- we managed to sneak by them without any drama. Riding in these hills probably wouldn't be so worrisome for me if the first time we visited for a camp like this, 4 people hadn't fallen off on the first ride! Aerie was a good girl for the ride and her greenness only showed when we'd walk past something oddly placed in the woods or we'd leave the other horses to walk on the grass (vs. the road). We were out for around 2 hours which was just enough time for us to get a feel for our horses.

Some periodicals in my room.

The next morning (I did NOT sleep due to what sounded like Sasquatch roaming outside of my window) we woke early for an 8 am lesson. This was taught by Jackie (Betsy's mother) -- a former A level pony clubber and instructor. Our lesson focused on what judges might look for in a hunter hack class. We did a variety of exercises (focusing on doing LESS) and then we had a mock hunter hack class. Aerie was brilliant except for right in front of the "judge". She's start goofing around and I looked like a hot mess for 6 strides and then back to perfection. At the end of the lesson we did a little jumping (again, to mimic the hunter hack class) -- Aerie was awesome. Admittedly, it's my first time jumping in over a year (outside of a lesson I had right before we left where I jumped lots of fun things) so I was rusty to say the least.

Lesson time!

Boiiiiiing -- over the gate! Not too bad looking I guess.

The funny thing about when I jump ANY horse, even the greenies, is that I just assume they will go over whatever I point them at. Not in a naive way, but rather, if I set them up for success (straight - leg on - impulsion) they'll go. I had no reason to think she wouldn't go, but later I was told that she doesn't go that nicely for a lot of people and has some antics in her when she feels like she's done. Yay.

After our lesson we headed up to a beautiful farm for a lesson on carriage driving. We were invited to attend a very nice brunch at the Upperville Horse Show on Sunday held by the carriage drivers, so it was especially nice to meet some of the members and learn more about the sport. I know some horse people stick to learning about their particular obsession (whether it be dressage, eventing, endurance) but I've always been one of those crazy horse girls that wants to know everything about horses (ALL OF IT!) -- and as my trainer would say, I'm like a little sponge when it comes to horse knowledge. I cannot seem to get enough! I also think that when you're a spectator at a horse show, it's really nice to know the behind-the-scenes part of a particular sport. The first time I ever saw polo (it was arena polo), I parked myself near the gate so I could see exactly what was going on between the Chukkas. I wanted to see the horse being groomed and tacked, see them coming off the field, watching the riders get ready etc.

Our instructors for the afternoon:

Brothers! 1/2 Hackney, 1/2 Clydesdale

We learned all about the equipment, each and every safety precaution, training routines, and lots of details about what makes a good carriage horse.

Spoiler alert: pony on the right made his brother do all the work!

They took all of us for a lovely ride around some old polo fields -- we even galloped up some hills! I got some great video of riding in the back! I'll put it up if I can figure out how to rotate it!

Gorgeous view.

Saturday we had a jumper lesson with my instructor. There were at least 10 of us in the lesson, which made for a little bit of chaos with the variety of riding abilities, but she handled it well breaking down each exercise in a way that everyone could learn from watching one another. We finished up by riding a series of fences on tight turns to reinforce what we had worked on over poles.

Weeee! This was in the middle of three fences set on a sort of serpentine. Harder than I thought!

After our lesson, we headed over to Upperville to watch our friend's daughters compete in the lead line and walk-trot division.

Lucy with Farnley's Contact!

 We watched a couple of classes before heading over to Middleburg for some shopping. YAY!

Side-saddle jumping... just. flipping. nuts.

Saturday night, we were invited to watch the Belmont Stakes at infamous Hickory Tree Farm (read more about it here) and to have a little cookout. The farm is everything you would expect from a place of this caliber... immaculately kept grounds, perfect airy barns (with indoor dirt tracks), a full training track outside (complete with a starting gate), and a graveyard for stallions. Who could ask for a better backdrop? We hung out with some old friends and made some new ones, all while watching the sunset over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Not too shabby.

So many babies! These three were nuzzling my shoulder while I snapped photos of the sunset.

Pretty training barn.

Sunset.

Training track.

Sunday, we woke early for a long hack (we did a little XC jumping) and got in a nice long canter up and down some huge hills. it was thrilling being out in a huge group hearing nothing but your own breath and the thundering of hooves over the countryside. It was such a perfect final ride for our trip. I was very sad to kiss that pink nose one last time as I turned Aerie out...

We headed back to Upperville to attend a carriage brunch, complete with mimosas -- yep, there was a bartender at this brunch) and to watch a little of the driving before heading home.

Tiny pony!

Gorgeous!

All in all, it was just what I needed. I have been feeling pretty down about not being able to ride while I'm recovering (and further more, I was frustrated with where I was with my riding). All this starting and stopping really messes me up and it was really nice to have a big boost of confidence before taking a another month off. I made a couple of new friends and fell in love with yet another mare!

My new bff (ha!) and a nervous horse -- they bonded very sweetly!

Ladies weekend, 2012.

News about Kiki

The relationship I have with my trainer is special. She's part instructor, therapist, friend/sister/mother and role model. She's built a fantastic business (and now has a side business as a saddle fitter for County), has a beautiful family and a barn full of happy horses. She's someone that I feel like I can tell anything to and it's been that way from the beginning. When things were really tough with Kiki (and I was also in a bad mental state) we'd just just talk during my lessons. I ride around in circles hardly asking for anything from Kiki and just vent. I needed it, and she was always willing to play the appropriate role for me. As with all horse people, we don't agree on everything, which makes for a more interesting relationship. I'm glad for that, but it can be challenging at times. When Kiki left the farm, I did not agree with the decision... mostly, I was wrapped up in my emotions and couldn't get a handle on what was the best thing for her. It's easy for me to look back and acknowledge that now. In the moment, I felt betrayed and it took me a long time to feel close to my trainer after that. Hearing about Kiki since she moved on has always been bittersweet. I know that went to a good home. The girl that took her brought her to Wellington, Fl and kept her at a lovely facility where she had loads of attention.

Just when I thought...

... all was well with the world and maybe things would start falling into place, I get a phone call. Not THE phone call, not the one that makes you burst into tears while your mind goes blank and makes your ears ring. The one that happens before that call.

In the spirit of over-sharing (I've never held back much in this blog) I'll fill you in a little.

Bear -- my ursine/equine new friend

The paperwork in under review and soon I will officially be leasing Bear. He's a 17hh, 10 year old TB. He raced until he was 5 and was rescued from the kill pen by his current owner. She's had him for 5 years and has done a tremendous job with him. I went to the farm yesterday to have a proper test-ride on him and he was perfect. Right now, I think he's just what I need... not dead broke, but not young and stupid. He's quirky and he's always going to have those thoroughbred moments, but we seem to be a good match. We rode in the jumping ring yesterday which is basically a grass field with undulating terrain with loads of jumps scattered about. It was a good test for me to see how he'd handle the changes in terrain and whether or not I felt balanced enough on him. One things for sure... I have NO stamina for riding. I need to cut myself a little slack... I have ridden maybe a half a dozen times in the last year and I haven't exactly been exercising, so I need to get my body and lungs back into shape! He's not super fit, but he's not out of shape either, so maybe it's a good thing! We rode with another horse in the ring and he was really good about staying focused and we only had one discussion about where we were going (aka, away from his horse friend). So we W/T/C and hopped over a teeny tiny crossrail. I wanted to see what he'd do/how he'd feel over a jump and he was stellar. He trotted up straight, popped over and cantered away. No hesitation, so rushing, and it was just not.a.big.deal. He ended our ride with a little hack around the property and called it a day. We had one little moment when I was turning him out and went to grab the crown piece of his halter and he thought it would be cute to wheel backwards and up. The shock on his face when I was still at the end of that lead rope was hilarious. I reprimanded him, he came back over quietly and we tried again until he did it quietly. Not a behavior I tolerate.

I should be signing the paperwork this week, we've added in an option for me to take him to shows and/or XC schooling (with insurance, etc) and next week I'll start my riding duties!

For now, here's Bear:

update?

I spent the day in Radnor today... it is, in a word... gorgeous. The feeling there is much like going to any bigger eventing site, it's electric and I instantly had the feeling of wanting to jump ALL THE THINGS.

For now, before any big decisions are finalized, just a few teaser photos:

JUMP ALL THE THINGS @ Radnor

Gorgeous farm that may or may not contain a certain horse lease option.

A 10 yr old, OTTB named Bear. I test rode him quickly in jeans! He's a full bodied 17hh. Whoops... despite my stirrups being a hole or two longer than they need to be, I actually felt quite comfortable on him! I'm going to give him a real trial one day next week.

Did I mention it's a 20 minute hack to Radnor from the farm? Yea.

Rolex Predictions!

With less detail than previous years (Since today is the jog up and it would be unfair of me to guess after Dressage starts)... here are my hopefuls for top 5!

James Alliston - Parker: a bit of a long shot, but I think James is an incredible rider with a terrific track record. I'd love to see him in the top 5 with either horse.

Boyd Martin - Otis Barbotiere: This horse has such a cool personality. I've followed along since Boyd picked up the ride and they've only gotten better. Boyd has nothing to lose with him at Rolex and they could easily snag a top placing.

Oliver Townend - Pepper Anne: Ollie is personally one of my favorite riders going, and I think this mare is just gorgeous. Her record seems pretty good so far, and if anyone can give her a great round at Rolex, it's him. Go mares!

Andrew Nicholson - Qwanza: I admire Andrew's riding style, and took one look at this mare a few days ago thought she had that extra something special. It wouldn't be surprising to see them at the top this weekend.

Beck Holder - Can't Fire Me!: You have to love the thoroughbreds at Rolex this year. Courageous Comet has been making a big comeback this year (and an easy favorite), but I'd love to see Can't Fire Me outshine the competition!

It seems obvious that I'm overlooking Olympic qualifications, etc and that I am choosing some underdogs here, but it's more fun cheering along that way!

At the end of the day, realistically, I think it's going to be down to William Fox-Pitt and Phillip Dutton, battling it out at the top, with a wild card thrown in.

nerd with an X-acto

Finally!

It only took me 3+ months, but the portraits of Rebecca Greene and her two horses are done! I'm hoping to get them in the mail tomorrow and I'm excited to see what she and her friend think. I'll admit, making portraits of people is MUCH harder (especially on this small scale), but I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out.

Scooby Who:

I asked Rebecca's friend what her competition colors were and she told me that Scooby's were bright blue, but after wearing out the velcro on her sport boots she started using hot pink tape to hold them on. I was really excited to incorporate his colors throughout!

This is the original photo I used. Ohhh his little chin whiskers!

Cassidy Blue:

I used a neat handmade paper to mount this portrait on and tried to include chestnut tones within the layers.

The original:

As you can see I chose not to cut out each little tiny square on his sheet. it's not about being 100% accurate, because thankfully the eye will fill in a lot of the little details.

Phew! Done!

Again, it was really an honor to make these for Rebecca. Reading over her blog today I got the sense that she's only just beginning to address the loss of her two partners. Her new horse looks terrific and sounds like he's got a little bit of Scooby in him!

not the best idea

Having a lesson for the first time in 4 months (and after only riding a half a dozen times over the last year) without stirrups. Brutal. The only thing that doesn't hurt is my core -- thank goodness for my perpetually strong core!

More later.

crickets, tumbleweeds and little bit of altruism

There's not a lot going on over here regarding horses. I mean, I am thinking/reading/yearning/watching about them CONSTANTLY. I am in full move-in-to-my-new-house-and-become-a-grown-up-slash-take-care-of-my-dumb-dog mode.

But there are a few vaguely horse related things happening...

Mainly, I was contacted by a friend of Rebecca Greene's a few weeks go. You may remember reading about Rebecca and the tragic story of losing her two beautiful OTTBs in a fire at the farm where she boarded her horses. She was recently interviewed and this article had me sobbing at my desk. There's a Facebook page set up by one of her close friends here where you can read a little more about her attempt to rebuild her life following this tragedy.

Her friend had seen a link to my paper cuts through Eventing Nation and sent me a lovely emailing asking to commission a few portraits (at the time I had no idea who they were for). We chatted back and forth a few times and it was revealed that they were for Rebecca... and she wanted portraits of the two horses that perished in the fire. After some deliberation, I decided that I simply could not charge her for the portraits. I thought back to why I started making them in the first place... inspired by Andrea over at Eventing-a-gogo, I felt compelled to make a portrait to memorialize her beautiful mare. It was something I took a stab at on a whim. I've never done any kind of paper cut art before and I wasn't sure I'd be able to translate the emotions of the horses involved into a cut paper piece of art. Gogo's portrait was successful and created momentum that I didn't expect. I was contacted by several people to make more portraits and I added more involved technical elements and I've been fortunate enough to make a little pocket money from doing something I really enjoy. So when I thought about Rebecca and the struggles she must be going through, I knew I had to dig up the same inspiration I got from Andrea and Gogo and make something really special.

They are still in progress, but here's what I have so far:

It needs some cleaning up and some extra detail (to come), but I'm pretty happy with the overall look. Humans are hard!

Rebecca Greene and Cassidy Blue (Kaz)

And her upper level prospect:

Rebecca and Scooby Who

In progress, only two layers complete

I thought it might be interesting to show these in progress (since I haven't really done that since my step-by-step tutorial). Stay tuned for the finished pieces and see how I include competition colors into background!

I promise the next post will be sooner rather than later and will include a trip to Dover Saddlery and an email exchange with a new trainer (UL event rider)...

... cliffhanger!

More Craigslist weirdness...

Let's hope this doesn't evoke the same reaction -- I'm short on horsie topics these days and suffering some real horse-withdrawal with the house purchase taking over my life. This is the best I can do for now.

Favorite paper cut to date!

I was fortunate enough to gain the attention of Miss Katherine Erickson over at Grey Brook Eventing via Facebook about my paper cuts. She asked if I would kindly make one of her lovely mare Kiki, and her Mother's dog as surprise Christmas presents!

I was eager to make one of Kiki (for one thing, the name!) and for another, I've been following along with her blog for quite some time now, and I feel as though I know her mare a little bit.

Without further ado, here they are!

One of the two fantastic photos provided. I got to choose...this one is so charming!

Finished. I tried including some of the background info in this one, so I included the grass (I loved that she had a big mouthful in the photo) and I mounted it onto two layers of handmade paper that reminded me of hay/straw.

Bat! What a cute little pup! *I used the photo with permission to make a paper cut

Finished. He was extremely difficult. The other photo I had to use showed more of his coat color which was inspiration for the colors I chose. As usual, I didn't use literal colors, but rather tones that depict the animal in a way that helps define character.

The one of Kiki, is without a doubt, my favorite so far! What do you guys think?

ps. Her Mother LOVED them!