Letter Art: Invitation

you

Have any interest in drawing, photographing, or otherwise creating letters? Join me. I am looking for Guest Artists for Letter Art Sundays.

Inspiration

Mapping Manh cov

For Mapping Manhattan, Becky Cooper gave out blank maps. People filled the silhouettes with images, landmarks, and significant moments from their own lives. The maps of Manhattan are the same but different.

Too cool.

What can I do that is collaborative? Start a new project on a new site? Meh. What can I do with what I already have? A photo gallery of readers and their horses? In theory, lovely. In reality, getting bogged down curating copyright issues. Guest posts? Yes, always open to those, but that’s not really collaborative.

Aha!

Invitation
You are hereby invited to send in YOUR horse’s name as letter art. No horse? Horse is CH Midnight Soliloquy Dankeshein Zip-Bar Special Cupcake, with a stable name too embarrassing to make public? Have fun with “Rodney”, “Milton”, or “Rodney’s Saga”. Or contribute to the 2016 Alphabet.

Not an artist? First of all, yes you are. I am willing to bet you make art on a regular basis, you simply don’t call it that. Second, I didn’t say it had to be world-class art. I’m no Jessica Hische. No one is hiring me to draw letters for a living. I do it because the colors are pretty. Third, still don’t believe me? Build your horse’s name out of grooming equipement and take a picture [Hoofpick Letters].

Pretty much anything goes within the intersection of horses and letter art.

Motivation
I spend a lot of time inside my own head. I would be interested to see how other people create different approaches to the same concept.

If this doesn’t flip your skirt, I’m always in need of ideas, either for Rodney’s Saga lettering or for letters of the alphabet with a horse angle.

Fine Print
No money involved. Of interest to those who wish to work for giggles. Your own work, see copyright concerns above. You retain all rights to the artwork. Usage would be as a blog post, on the Facebook page associated with the blog, and in subsequent year-end compilations.

No deadline. Offer exists as long as the blog exists. Or if I have to cancel the concept because it becomes a hairball for some odd reason.

Previous Lettering
2015
2014
2013
Horse Alphabet 2015

Karma Is A B*tch

Horse people are friendly, out-going, and love to talk. Most of the time.

WEG 98 badge

Back in 1998, I attended and fence-judged at the World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Rome. (Yes, it was awesome.) A few days before, I was up in Florence having dinner on the patio of a small restaurant. The tables were packed closely enough that I could overhear the party at the next table. They were in Italy for WEG.

I invited myself into their conversation. ‘Really, you are here for WEG? I’m here for WEG. Small world!’ I sat, wagging my tail, waiting for them to be equally thrilled. Not so much. They had a distant family member competing. This made them Terribly Important People. They had no use for a mere spectator/volunteer. Abashed, I returned to my meal.

Several days later, I approached Will Call outside the arena in Rome. Unsure if my pass from the cross-country venue would work here, I’d had an Italian friend arranged a ticket for me. The Terribly Important folks from Florence were at the next window. Their tickets were not waiting for them. Didn’t the ticket window operator understand how Terribly Important they were? Yet another connection of theirs was due to ride any minute. It was Terribly Important that they get into the arena immediately.

I’m a sucker soft touch. I had two possible forms of admission. If they had been nice to me – or even polite – I probably would have given one of them my ticket and set about looking for a replacement, or seeing if I could talk my way in. As was, I picked up my ticket and walked by without comment or eye-contact. I tried not to be smug that my people were more capable than their people.

Be kind. If only out of self-interest.

Hello 2016!

Yesterday, I looked behind [Looking Back at 2015]. Today, I look ahead. Tomorrow, we return to horses.

The Blog
On a bulletin board over my right shoulder, is sheet of paper titled “Katie List”. On it is written “Foto Friday”, “OT Saturday” & “Read for professional development.” It is my personal motivation poster.

Katie was the recipient of a burst of online enthusiasm from me. My advice boiled down to ‘Do things. Do more things. If those don’t work, do other things.’ Well, if I possess the effrontery to tell other people how to live their lives, I can damn well apply that advice to myself. Write. Take photos. Close Candy Crush and fire up my New Yorker subscription.

Therefore, in 2016, my blog will …

1) Continue to serve its primary purpose, i.e. “to keep me from going batshit crazy” [I’m Baaaaaack … With Camera: Bottom Line].

B) Appear daily.

3 or C) Serve as a space for improvement and experimentation. Take artistic photos for Foto Friday rather than simply scrambling to fill the space. Write a few longer, in-depth essays that require reflection and revision. Draw the comic that’s been lurking in my head. And so on.

In other words, blog the same, but better.

For details of our exchange, see her post [Here We Go], & mine [This Is For Katie].

The Boys – Rodney
Rodney and I have progressed to a small amount of work in the ring. I see three paths from here.

1) He will never get to place wherein I feel comfortable taking him off the property for lessons or shows.

B) He will make progress but each step will involve reinventing the wheel.

3 or C) He will have a lightbulb moment and think, “Okay, I got this.” At this point, the world would be our oyster. He has enough talent to compete on good looks & charm – at least at the levels I am aiming for.

Which path we take is up to him. Guess which one I’m rooting for.

The Boys – Milton
Cross fingers. Cross fingers. The new stall routine [Naptime] holds promise. I no longer threaten to send Milton back to Canada on a daily basis. I have stopped quoting the Dread Pirate Roberts, “Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.” There are even moments when I actively enjoy working around him.

Of course, I want to be ready to show First Level/Novice/Adult Jumpers by spring. Realistically, if we can spend the winter months getting to a mutual happy place on the ground that would be a victory. When the weather cooperates, I hope we will be equipped to trailer him to places and people that will help me with riding him. After that, we shall see.

Have you priced pickup trucks lately?

The Everything Else
My goals don’t change much [8th]. Ride, jump, show. Improve my writing. Improve my photography. Exercise. Stay healthy. Love my family & my friends. Be grateful for what I have. Do something useful with what I have been given. Life 101.

Finally, if I insist on quoting Doctor Who, I really need to get the DVDs out of the box to finish the Matt Smith years and to catch up on Peter Capaldi. (Hangs head in shame.)

Happy 2016 to you & yours!

Looking Back at 2015

The Blog
I made it! When this goes live tomorrow at 12:01, it will be post #365. A post a day in 2015.

posting 2015

In 2012, I took a scheduled break [Goodbye & Hello].
In 2013, I had a snit [Hiatus] and returned [I’m Baaaaaack … With Camera].
In 2014, I dropped everything to escort Milton out of Kentucky [Delay of Game].
In 2015, I kept at it, skipping quickly past few weak efforts [Why Bother Posting?]. I don’t know what this gets me, other than a Bozo Button for persistence.

Top posts for the year, as of 12/30/15:
Why I Ride by Katie Wood
What Happens at a Model Horse Show?
The Naked Challenge
Fotography Friday: Texture. Written in 2012. Also popular in 2014. No idea why.
My Best Class: Blog Hop Invitation

Since I use WordPress.com instead of WordPress.org, my analytics are limited. I can’t find a comprehensive list of top posts. A few that were popular in other years:

2014
Meet Milton
My Short Happy Modeling Career
Guest Post: California Girl becomes a Southern Belle

2013
Watching the Tevis

2012
A Short Tribute to Amy Tryon

The Everything Else
Reviewing & releasing my resolutions from the beginning of this year [On the 8th Day of Christmas: Eight Resolutions*]

Jump a horse. No. I thought about it. I identified a local barn that gives jumping lessons. In summer, our schedules didn’t coordinate. In autumn, I didn’t want to ruin boot camp [Third & Final Progress Report]. After Nationals, I had no enthusiasm for the project. Did I really want to jump a handful of low fences just to say that I did? Did I really want to add a third barn to my life?

Show my own horses. Sigh.

Buy a DSLR camera. Yes. Learn how to use. No

Start model horse showing. Yes. Started & stopped. To do it right would require more attention to the details of conformation than I am capable of.

Go on monthly adventures. One, the model horse show. Lots of other adventures, but not the sort of blog-specific outings I had in mind.

Learn the Australian crawl. No. Doing occasional stroke and kick practice. The breathing technique escapes me.

Stop buying books. Ha.

Write 365 blog posts. Yes. Then write something other than blog posts. No. I continued with the USDF interviews [Other Writing], but did not expand into new areas.

Did I over-resolve, or underachieve?
~~~
*In choosing not to do 12 Day of Christmas this year, I bowed to the inevitable. I can stomp my feet all I want. I can point to historical precedent. Doesn’t matter. Technically, the time before Christmas is Advent. Technically, the Christmas season runs from Christmas to the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th. Stomp, stomp. No one cares. In the real world, the Christmas season comes before Christmas. It is over sometime on the afternoon of the 25th.
~~~
Update:
Making it official. From the annual summary supplied by WordPress.

2015 WP streak

Saddle Seat Wednesday: It Was a Very Good Year

From first show [Report] …

Sam & Alvin Photo by Julie Wamble
Sam & Alvin
Photo by Julie Wamble

… to last [Report].

Sam & Big Photo by Melissa Croxton

Sam & Big
Photo by Melissa Croxton

By the numbers
17 shows
Big shows, 10
Fun/local shows, 7

64 classes
Riding classes, 50
Driving classes, 14

7 horses
Riding horses, 6
Driving horses, 3
(Natalie & Alvin did both, hence the math fail.)

Good horses, good teaching, good people. The chance to ride and show. I am conscious of my good fortune.
~~~
Inspiration for adding the BTN section, the $900 Facebook pony: 2015 show season by the numbers

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch: Naptime

Milton stall 12 28 15

Milton is undergoing mandatory naps. If this works, I will declare Saddle Seeks Horse to be the bestest, most wonderful, sparkliest blog on the Internet.

In Knight’s Hospital Stay and Strange Return Home, blog author Susan Friedland Smith updates us on the status of her OTTB, Tiz A Knight. A few weeks ago, Knight went to the vet clinic for colic 😦 . He came home 🙂 . He tried to colic again. 😦 . Bottom line, he does not like his open-plan stall, “24 x 24 pipe corral with a gorgeous mountain view.” He wants in. “My trainer placed Knight in a closed-in box stall and he perked right back up and the colic symptoms went away.”

Hmmm.

Milton is an OTTB. I’m sure he was heavily stalled as a racehorse. Tracks are not known for turnout. I don’t know exactly how he lived in the interim barn, but it was Canada, so some stall time had to be involved.

I am of the opinion that stalls are bad for horses. Ideally, every horse would be on pasture 24/7. Constant walking is good for their joints. Constant grazing is good for their gut. It’s part of their design specs. The only use of a stall is for human convenience [How I Learned to Think Like a Horse]. I will grant that some horses are used to the stall life. Over at the Saddlebred barn, Sam lasts for about 10 minutes of turnout before he is standing at the gate saying, ‘… letmeinletmeinletmeinletmeinletmein … ‘

Previous Horse and Mathilda adapted to life outside without a blink. In hindsight, Rodney had a long transition period when he and Mathilda were being kept apart. In Milton’s life, we have screwed with everything else: food [Clean Cups!], meds, even going so far as to test him for Lyme disease. Why not try this.

The first thought was to put him up at night. I couldn’t face it. Too much poop. I made the executive decision that Special Milton Time would be during the day, at least for the first test. Less time, less poop. They tend to nap after breakfast, anyway. Walking around at night would be warmer. But mostly, less poop.

So, Milton goes in the stall at breakfast. Rodney is fed in the run-in area, next to the stall. They eat hay. They nap. Milton comes out early afternoon. Occasionally, Rodney goes in for the day or for a few hours. Rodney loves the stall and gets cranky when Milton bogarts it. Regardless of who is in the stall, the other tends to hang about.

Tension in the barn has dropped dramatically. Sure, Milton still pins his ears and waves his nose and bites Rodney and misbehaves. That’s normal horse stuff. There is no longer a hostile edge to everything he does. While both of us are exceedingly unobjective, we think we can see increased peacefulness reflected in the way Milton carries himself.

I have no idea why. Does Milton feel safe in a four-sided box? Has he been tired for the last year? Does he enjoy an enforced break from his roommate? Who knows. Have we turned a corner? Are we kidding ourselves? Time will tell. For now we are cautiously, hopefully, tentatively thrilled.

It’s always the one thing you never think to examine.

Crystal Horses, Guest Photo Shoot

Swarovski Crystal horses from the NYC store. Photos by Amy Vanderryn. Welcome Amy.

Here’s what Amy does IRL: Rijn Australian Shepherds

For me, objets d’art inspire admiration but not acquisitiveness. I wouldn’t want to worry about dusting them or keeping the cats from knocking them over. They sure are gorgeous to look at.

Done with NYC for this trip. Previous posts were Doctor Hooves Meets Manehattan and Horses of NYC 2015.

How about you, admire in situ or take home?