The sea of legs is the line up from the group lesson at Stepping Stone Farm last Saturday. I counted 10 horses, others swear there were 11. Either way, lots and lots of horses in a little ring. One was excused after the trot, so we “only” cantered 9 (10) at once!!
Highlights
Milton cantered ever time I asked, including the time I got confused and asked for the canter from the walk à la Saddlebreds.
The same horse kept passing him. Milton didn’t like it. By the third time, he said, ‘Oh, it’s you.’
Milton stomped through sketchy footing like the mudder he is not. We even had to make a few tight turns in the mud to get past other horses.
We did a mass reverse at the trot (!). The kids handled the traffic brilliantly. Except for one little white pony who wasn’t having any of it. She refused to turn. We ended up face to face. Milton cut around and kept going.
Rider Flashbacks
The last highlight was a concern of mine. Previous Horse had the habit of rearing and spinning whenever another horse came at him head on. I was told it is a track thing. I was concerned that it would be a Milton track thing. Doesn’t appear to be. Cross fingers.
The odd part is that when the rear/spin would happen with PH, I simply rode it out and told him to get over himself. But then, Previous Horse had a dispensation for bad behavior that I don’t grant to other horses. It was that way from day one. When we tried him at a track barn, his three gaits were walk, jig, & buck. Didn’t faze me. Go figure.
Tortoise Steps (a slightly bigger turtle)
I am learning to tell when Milton is tight in his body &/or anxious in his brain. I don’t know yet if there is a difference between the two for Milton. Previous Horse could be one or the other. Mathilda was more holistic.
Milton is learning that when I tell him ‘it will all be okay’ that maaaaayyyybbbee it will, in fact, all be okay.
~~~
Post 2607. last Tuesday was 2600. We were busy with Art Week.
Remember when Rodney had a fit on the trailer [Dubious Future]? Then had submit to remedial loading lessons [Trailer Training]? At the time we didn’t find anything. However, months later, we found a wasp’s nest in the trailer. Now we wonder if there had been a different nest that we hadn’t found. That would explain the suddenness and the violence of his response. That would also explain why he didn’t want to get back into the nasty, stingy box.
Last Saturday, I was getting the trailer ready for Milton’s second group lesson (!) at Stepping Stone Farm. When I opened the rear doors, I found a bumblebee crawling on the floor, then saw a wasp on the outside of a window screen. I inspected every nook and cranny before we loaded.
There and back again without incident. Nevertheless, I always carry a can of bug zap in the dressing room.
How did Milton fare in a crowded ring? Stay tuned.
Update: Rodney now gets back on the trailer and goes places [What’s Been Happening]. He doesn’t do much when he gets there, but that’s a different issue. Turtle steps.
During our video chat [Part 3], Martine was everything that was charming and delightful. I met her husband (Waves hi!). I got a tour of her house. One could see that she was at easy with the medium.
Me, not so much.
As human beings, we will always prioritize live interaction. There is something about breathing each other’s oxygen. Unfortunately, when one does not spend sufficient time among the three-dimensional, one’s social IQ atrophies. While I was never a social butterfly, I could at least speak coherently and politely. As the hermit grows stronger, the grunting and staring increases.
My favorite mode of communication is email &/or text. I think much better with a keyboard these days.
I’m liking phone calls less and less, particularly as everyone shifts to cell phones. I lose the rhythm of the conversation. What feels like an awkward pause is just the signal being relayed. So, I jump in with a comment, right on top of the other person’s response. Verbal traffic jam. I keep a landline specifically for interviews, so I don’t have this problem.
This was my first video phone call. I knew there was a reason I had been avoiding them. Video chats combine the immediate demands of live conversation with the technological shortcomings of a phone call. I kept feeling the need to rush in to fill the pauses. I was constantly scrambling for something to say. Me?! I always have something to say. If nothing else, ask a question. If I have one viable professional skill, it is the ability to think up questions. Sitting there, staring at this nice lady’s face, I froze.
Hanging up, I felt like a complete dork. The fault was all mine. Martine could not have been nicer or more welcoming. I was the Neanderthal at the dinner party.
No tour of the house. It’s not fit for public consumption. (Seriously, I need to do something.) I wasn’t even all that comfortable with the background. It’s one thing to say that you are 12 years old and that you hang up all your horse show ribbons. It’s another thing to provide proof. No scenic husband to introduce. She did get to see some of the office managers when they came to stomp across my desk.
Martine pretty much covered the story [Part 1], [Part 2], [Part 3]. Of course, I have a few things to add.
Kudos
First of all, a huge thank you to Craig Zernik of Four Corners Gallery. We spend an hour, at least, coming up with the Mad Horse in a Box framing concept. Mat or no mat? Brown frame? Oooh, how about Tardis blue? Is this a good blue? How about this one? And so on. Then, he did a lovely job building the frame. Plus taking the close-ups I forgot to take, keeping me posted, and generally providing all around outstanding service.
I really did take it directly to the gallery.
Realism
For those of you who haven’t seen Rodney IRL, she caught the look in his eye. This is clearly himself.
Photo by Craig Zernik
As for the scarf. Hung picture on wall. As I walked away, I swear I saw the thing move out of the corner of my eye. So, all that painstaking knitting with pastel pencils was worth it.
Photo by Craig Zernik
Nits
A few tiny, tiny corrections for the record.
Rodney is 20. Bought him in 2010 at the age of 11. Therefore, 11+9=20. Sigh. I try not to think about this. I’m in such denial about his age that I had to work the numbers out with pen and paper. As for Milton, bought in 2014 at the age of 6. Therefore, 6+5=11. Double sigh.
Rodney is a TB but not an OTTB. No racetrack flashbacks for him.
Previous Horse had passed on when I started looking for his replacement. That added to the feeling of Clear the decks, Let’s do this thing, Let’s find that special horse.
As for the spirit behind the search, she was right on,
The one about whose greatness she would write for years. The one whose ribbons and trophies she would display proudly in her house; the one about whom she would reminisce in her old age. [Part 1]
I sniffled when I read that.
Photo
Martine was also right about the photo.
It’s not a flattering angle … The head collar does nothing for his pretty face. [Part 1]
However, I never really looked at the technical aspects. I was too enchanted with the contents. Horsie! Scarf! Ears Up! Too late to change now, it has become an icon of the blog.
Pastel paintings are notoriously fragile. The thought of that ****ing scarf being damaged terrified me. If I had to do it all again, would I succeed? Eeeek! I started looking at shipping possibilities somewhat nervously.
Plan A was that Rodney would fly back to the US in April with my friend John (hi John!) who would then mail him to Katherine. It seemed safe enough. Rodney would be in a hard-shell suitcase, well protected by special cardboard packaging. But he would still have a couple of days of being thrown around by the USPS inside his cardboard box. It still seemed safer (and cheaper) than
Plan B – post him from France to Alabama. Over a week of being thrown around by various shipping services… Seemed too risky. And probably very expensive.
Plan A was looking good until John told me that he was delaying his return by a month. Oh no… Katherine had been very patient, but another month of waiting was a lot to ask. I started looking at how much it would cost to post Rodney direct from Provence to Alabama and was pleasantly surprised to learn that it would cost only €16 to post the picture plus cardboard packaging. Plan B started to look good once again, but then both Katherine and I began to have doubts about how well he would cope with transport. Imagine all of that carefully applied pastel pigment being shaken off and transferred to the surrounding packaging – it did not bear thinking about.
Plan C was born – frame the picture, put the whole lot into sturdy cardboard packaging and send it off. I had just acquired a cheap second-hand frame, which should protect the picture; the packaging should protect the frame. If anything got damaged, it would most likely be the frame. It would be more expensive than plan B as the weight would go up significantly. I worked out an estimate on-line and was once again pleasantly surprised – the postage was still less than €25 and that it would take only 5 working days to arrive.
I messaged Katherine on Facebook with the happy news. Long, detailed, cheery messages were being winged back and forth across the ether, when I thought, Hey, why don’t we do a video call? I’m an avid user of Skype, Whatsapp and Facebook for making phonecalls, they are great for keeping in touch with my scattered family; voice and video quality are really good these days so I thought, why not give it a try? I’d never heard Katherine’s voice; she’s never heard mine.
After some hesitation (something about a hairbrush…) and one failed attempt (a Linux machine that didn’t want to give FB permission to access the microphone or camera) we connected via the wonder of modern day mobile phones. And we had a great, wide-ranging chat. “Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings” sort of thing.
Forty minutes later, we said our goodbyes.
And I think I can now say, Yes. We are friends. An internet friendship CAN be a real thing. And a blogger meet-up, virtual or real, can help accomplish this kind of thing.
Virtual Bloghorse meetup – when Rodney met Flurry and Aero!
The final question was, would Rodney survive his journey?
Ten days passed with no news from Alabama. I was beginning to worry and on Wednesday last week I decided to follow the tracking number and see where the package was. But life is kinda busy around here and I didn’t have time to do it that day. That night, I was out with friends in a local cafe (for the music, not for the wine!) when my phone pinged!
An email!
“C’est arrivée.”
Hooray!
And did he survive?
Well, the box took some damage :
But Rodney is looking good.
(I love this – Katherine didn’t even open the box at home – she took the whole lot straight to the framer’s for fear of damaging the pastel. It’s nice to know that someone respects my work!)
I can’t wait to see how Rodney looks all framed up and hanging on a wall.
Long-time blogging acquaintance Katherine commissioned me to paint Rodney in early February. Unfortunately for her, she made the mistake of saying “No hurry.” Haha. Fatal. Thanks to that remark, it took me a while to start, but start I finally did, and I gleefully winged off a photo to prove that Something had indeed been done.
Her immediate response (besides “Yay!”) was “What’s the cotton bud for?” Smudging, I replied. Pastels require a lot of smudging. I use a rag (the sky), fingers (biggish areas of colour), cotton buds (smaller areas of colour), paintbrushes (where I want to get a hairy effect or a shiny highlight effect), and pointy sticks like the one below the cotton bud (for fine detail).
This exchange quickly morphed into a “You should do a series of posts which explains your process and what you use.”
Ehhh no, what if I totally screw up it and my series turns into “How I create firelighters using pastels” ???
But I tried, I really did. I videoed my studio, my dogs sleeping beside me and me doing some smudging. The only problem was, the smudging footage turned out to be some really detailed coverage of my worktable. It’s hard to hold a camera and smudge pastels at the same time. So I decided that filming was not a good idea, and I returned to my usual habit of taking ‘progress’ photos.
And then progress ground to a halt. There was a trip to Chamonix to see Youngest Daughter. And work at the stables. And lots of work at Villa Amande. And a Paddy’s Day party to organise. But finally I got back to Rodney. And I rapidly got to the point where all the Horse Bits were more or less coloured in and all that was left was (cue dramatic music)…
The Scarf.
The chromatically correct replica of Dr Who’s scarf. The one created by another blogger (a knitting blogger) a couple of years ago. Read about its origins here
This scarf is quasi-famous. I had to get it right.
I like to knit knitted things. Let me tell you right now, I don’t like to paint knitted things. Knitting this scarf would probably have been easier than painting it.
At one point, I was quite certain that I would completely ruin all my work and would have to tell Katherine I was starting again and leaving out the ****ing scarf. But I persevered. Sketched in the folds and the way it draped. Got the colours as close as I could. Worked on the shadows under Rodney’s neck. And then painstakingly shaded in each knitted row. Technical aside – for all of those fine lines, I used pastel pencils, not pastel sticks.
First pass with colours on The Scarf. Note the accidental Arm and Sleeve smudging going from underneath his jaw towards the underside of his neck. Not a good thing. See next photo. Working my way down, row by row. The clear paper is to prevent me from smudging the rest of Rodney away. Sigh.Tackling the shadows under the neck
And the end result.
Note how the sky changed from the very first pass – I felt he needed a little more definition behind him. And I also liked the way that the sky appears superficially blue but is in fact a little stormy – much like Rodney himself!
I am really pleased with how he turned out. I just hope that Katherine is too. And that Rodney arrives safely in Alabama… we’ll find out in Part 3 I guess.
Virtual Brush Box 