Upcoming liveshow!

Excited! The first Saturday in May, I'll be attending a liveshow again :D I can barely wait! I've got three days to figure out which models to bring and I can say that it is NOT an easy decision.

The show will, except for halter, also have a performance division, a vintage division and a fantasy division. This time I will only show in the halter division since I'd like to try to make some time to visit a friend of mine not to far from where the show is held :)

And this time, hopefully, there will be no accidents involving my models ;) And hopefully, I wont forget my camera this time...

Throwing in a picture of my beloved Athame who had an accident at the last show I went to. She is still not home from restoration but her space on the shelf is empty and patiently waiting for her to come back :)

Athame, an AA Sabiha painted by AA. Actually just realised that this is the first show, since I bought her, that she wont be attending...

My horses

At the moment there are two horses in my life. I'm surrounded by more but these two are the ones that I ride and take care of.

The first one is my mothers and my fjordhorse gelding Unik. We bought him when he was 9 years old. That was a little more then 15 years ago. Today he is a healty 24-year old who enjoys life with light riding, good food and horse friends. He is the sweetest and always has time for some treats and cuddling.

I've loved horses for as long as I can remember and I've been very lucky since my mother share the passion. That meant that I didn't even have to beg to begin riding at a riding school. When I was six my family bought a sweet fjord gelding named Unik. He was 9 years old by then and he was just the sweetest. I continued riding at the riding school for a few years before I fell of a little, grumpy, black pony mare at a lesson. I wasn't badly hurt but I got scared and that combined with the fact that we got a new riding teacher (whom had no respect for her students and whom I didn't trust) made me take the decision to quit riding.

I didn't quit entirely, I still took occasional rides on Unik and I was in the stable a lot, just to care for the horses. I was satisfied with my occasional rides and simply taking care of the horses for quite a while but as time passed by the urge to ride regularly rose. A riding teacher I knew, and trusted held riding lessons at another riding school and I decided I wanted to try again and I got a place in her group. I rode there for a few years and slowly but surely regained my confidence and motivation to ride.

When my trainer quit I did too, at least I quit my riding lessons. Instead I took up riding lessons for a dressage trainer. Unik and I definately had our ups and downs during these lessons but slowly we got things right and we went to our first dressage competition. There were only 3 competitors in our class and I didn't have high expectations (hell, my only wishes were that I wouldn't fall off or forget the programme) so when the results was announced and me and Unik was named winners I couldn't have been any prouder.
My sweet, stubborn fjord and I had actually won our first dressage competition! That was huge to me since people had told me things like: "Don't expect to much, you do have a fjordhorse". We went to a few more competitons and we were mostly quite high on the result lists, earning a few ribbons (I wasn't competing for the ribbons. As long as I was happy with our performance I wouldn't have cared if we finished last, but I wont lie, it was nice to see that the judges appreciated our performances).



The second one isn't really mine. He is owned by my dressage trainer. He used to be her competion horse but he got injured and his career ended. He wasn't ridden for at least a year to give him time to heal the injury. My trainer asked me to slowly begin riding him when I did my work practice at the stable. And I wasn't hard to convince. I've been fond of this horse since I saw him for the first time.

My dream horse has, for as long as I can remember, been a chestnut mare with a blaze and 4 white stockings. Poppes (also called Prinsen (The Prince in Swedish) since I've always seen him as unattainable) was exactly that, except that he was a gelding instead of a mare. Now that I'm a few years older and wiser, I'm happy he's a gelding since I've ridden enough horses to know that mares are generally not my cup of tea :)

Poppes is a gentleman with a little nerve. He's quick to flee if something spooks him but as soon as he realize that you are on his back he stops and almost apologizes for what he did. He is the sweetest horse to ride and care for, yet no horse for a beginner since he gets nervous if he doesn't understand what you want him to do.

He is also kind of a local celebrity on dressage competitions in this area, eventough he doesn't compete anymore people still talk about him when my trainer is out with her younger mare.

Anyway I began riding him slowly and I quickly fell in love with him. That was 4 years ago. The first two years I shared him with two other girls. A friend of mine and I shared the weekends and school breaks and another girl took care of him during the week. This because my friend and I went to a boarding school and we were only at home during the weekends and school breaks. Shortly before we graduated the girl who took care of him during the week quite so it was just me and my friend left. We shared him and talked about leasing him for real since none of us could afford to lease him alone we decided to do it together. Unfortunately my friend had second thoughts about it and had a disagreement with the owner so she decided not to lease him. I was sad since I wanted to have him but couldn't afford him on my own.

Fortunately for me, the owner and I, made a deal which made it possible for me to have him as my own. And, with a little help from my mother, he has been like my own for the last year and a half!

Remembrance and Helios

As promised, here is the introduction of two of the newest members of my herd. First out is my little adventurer from my last post. He is a original finish Peter Stone pony. This particular version is called Shoal.

 

 

I'vee been wanting this one for a while. I saw this particular model at a show and really liked his soft look and beautiful colour. And I'm always a sucker for a dressage-looking-horse with four white socks and a blaze :)

 

Please excuse the bad pictures, they were taken very quickly before I had to go to work.

 

I plan on showing him as a Swedish riding pony stallion (Connemara x Thoroughbred) and his name is Remembrance.

The other horse has been here for quite a while now and I don't even have a good excuse to why I haven't introduced him. So without further ado:

*Drumroll please*

Welcome Helios!

Helios is an Oliver resin sculpted by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig. Isn't he the sweetest? He's painted by Sue Kern and will be shown as a Haflinger foal.

I just can't get over that cute face and that little tounge sticking out! It will be so fun to see how he will do at his first liveshow :)

Adventures of a package

Yes...

Today I got a notice to pickup a package at the postoffice. The only thing is that the notice was sent to the wrong house... It wasn't just that it was sent to the wrong house. It was even in the wrong village!

My parents are divorced since approximately 3 years. My father kept the house so I decided to stay with him. So I've had the same address for over 20 years. Today when I was visiting my mother she went to get the mail and she said that there was mail for me... I was surprised to see that it had MY name and address correctly written on it but still it ended up in my mothers mailbox... I was actually pissed off when I saw that because our addresses are not similar and the only similarity in our names is our last names, which we share, other than that nothing is alike. Anyway I calmed down, thought about calling the postoffice but decided to let it pass as a mistake... If it happens again I will however call them...

Anyway I went to the postoffice to pick up my package just to see that it had a slight damage to the box it was packed in...

 

When I haven't dealt with a seller before I'm always a little nervous about how they pack their models. And even if it wasn't too badly damaged I've seen badly packed models get injured with less damage to the package. But I had no reason to worry since my new addition was well packed and had survived the trip with no damage :)

I won't introduce him today ;) But he will be introduced together with another little fellow who has been here for quite some time now... :)

The Riders

Even modelhorses need riders so I talked my riders into a little photo shoot. So let's meet my team.

First of all we have Laura,

Altough Laura prefers to ride in sidesaddle she is very versatile and have tried both dressage, show jumping and cross country. Together with Imperia (Breyer Tr. Sidesaddle Strapless OF) she have had great success in sidesaddle performance.

Then we have Alexa,

She is mainly a dressage rider and was most often seen paired up with Mickelin (Breyer Tr. Milton OF) before Lord (Breyer Tr. Keltic Salinero OF) joined our herd.

Then we have Katja,

Katja is our youngest rider and has a great hand with our ponies.

Fredrika

Fredrika is the rider who is seen least. She's a little camera shy and prefers enjoying her hobby on her own. She owns the thoroughbred stallion Qul's Tears For Fears, who is seen in this picture.

 Brad:

Brad racing Narnia (Sm. G2 Thoroughbred OF)

Brad and Joe are brothers. They train and race our racing thoroughbreds for us.

Joe:

Joe racing So Much Stolen Hope (Sm. G2 Thoroughbred OF)

Miranda:

 

Is a very dedicated rider and only competes in dressage. Horse seen in the picture is Hagalund's Nobless (Schleich Hanoverian Mare OF)

 

And last but not least Samantha:


Samantha and Mickelin (Tr. Milton OF) dressed up for Christmas.

Samantha is our very versatile western rider who is often paired up with Chocolate (Breyer Tr. Impress Me Shannon OF) or TO Rascal Knox (Breyer Tr. Zippo Pine Bar OF)

New arrival

Actually, she arrived Wednesday but I had no time to photograph her so she will be introduced today instead.

She hasn't got a name or breed yet but I'm leaning towards some kind of pony. I won this little girl as a commission me piece at a liveshow some time ago and recently the artist contacted me saying she was finished. It came as a total surprise to me as I'd totally forgotten about her :) So this Wednesday there was a little package in my mailbox containing this, very well packed, little filly.


I want to apologize for the dust on her, didn't notice it when I photographed her.

These are just some quick pictures because I had very low battery on my camera.

That snip is just SO cute!

I'm very happy with this little filly who is a Breyer Sm. Scrambling foal repainted by Swedish artist Annika Gustafsson. She stands beautiful on the shelf together with my three customized stablemate foals. I plan on making a diorama base for my three customs and I might have to add in this little girl too :)

I also payed for another model Wednesday so he is about to arrive soon as well. I can't wait :)

2012 Review

Just a little more then 3 months late... I blame my camera which is a master in hide and seek.

2012 hasn't been a great year for me, model horse-wise, that is. But I've still managed to get some very appreciated additions to the collection.

First out were two OF models who arrived together from a fellow Swedish collector.

D'Artagnan:

Who is still unshown since I'm not sure what breed to assign him. Thinking that Azteca might work or perhaps Mangalarga Paulista. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated :)

Arriving at the same time was

Azrafel Ibn Shai:

Azrafel is an arabian stallion. He came with me to the only liveshow I went to. Unfortunately it wasn't his day and he placed last in his class.

Next horse was a bit of an impulse buy. A fellow hobbyist tried to downsize her herd and published photos of her collection to see if anyone was interested in a particular horse. I looked at the pictures, knowing that she had a lot of beautiful horses but didn't expect to buy anything. Until I saw a picture of her Kitty Didit resin. I came in contact with that model at a liveshow in 2007, I believe, and fell in love. I sent her an e-mail with an offer and she accepted :D I was so happy, and I still am.

Lost All Hope:

She is shown as a thoroughbred mare and was, by her previous owner as well. She won her class at the first liveshow I took her to and went on to claim the Champion reserve title in her breed division.

After Hope I was offered to buy an Eberl Caitano painted to a lovely bay. I have been a fan of Eberls models since I saw one for the first time so I couldn't pass this one (I mean Eberl model, warmblood, painted in a beautiful colour by one of my favourite artists. Hard to resist).
Chester VS:

Chester is shown as a Swedish Warmblood and came with me to his first (under my ownership) liveshow, winning his class and crowned Champion reserve in his breed division.

Last horse is Chance, a Breyer sm. G2 Scrambling foal rr Therese Wolmer. Chance was gifted to me by a fellow hobbyist. I already own two of Therese Wolmer foal customs and Chance was the one missing from the trio.

Chance:

She almost looks black in this picture but she's actually a dark bay.

So in total I received 5 new horses this year, not counting the ones I won at the show.
Two resins
Two OF
One Custom