TiMe Stables and Studios presents...

... Belize!

She is the second Eberl resin I own and I'm very happy with her.

She is the Eberl Genoveva and I bought her as a "commission me" piece from Sophie Nordström, the artist who also painted Chester, my Eberl Caitano.

I couldn't be more pleased with her, she has such a calm, serene look and sweet eyes.

She will be shown as a Swedish Warmblood.

Moving and moving

Yes, in two days I'm moving away from home to study. It's super exciting and I've got lots and lots to do and prepare before the move. The worst thing will be leaving Poppes and Nike behind, and also the family dog, (and now also) the family kitten. But atleast I know my mother will take great care of them. But I'll miss them so much. I know I won't move to the end of the world, it's only like four and a half hours by car but I won't be able to go home very often...

 

On another, on topic note, I'm not the only one who've been moving. I won't be able to bring my models, so they'll stay at my dad's. But during the last six months my cabinets have started to get a little crowded.

 

I had one, high, glass cabinet, one low cabinet with wooden doors and one high shelf for CDs or DVDs to store my models.

 

 

Fortunately when looking for bookshelfs for my apartment I found a great deal with two bookshelfs, one shelf for CDs and DVDs and one glass cabinet. I liked the bookshelfs and needed them and the CD/DVD shelf for my apartment so I bought the whole set.

The glass cabinet replaced the small cabinet with wooden doors I had before. And this is how it looks right now:

 

I'm very pleased with the result because it doesn't look so crowded anymore, now every horse gets their chance to shine :)

How to tie a rope halter

When trying to find different modelhorse tack and props that I could try to make I got the idea of trying to tie my own rope halters. I've seen other hobbyists tie great rope halters and I've been very inspired by them. So I began by searching for some kind of tutorial on how to tie a rope halter and I found a great one in Swedish with measurements and very clear instructions. Unfortunately the site does not exist anymore.

Fortunately I found a blog with pretty much the same instructions as the first site I found. It's written in Swedish: http://horsebalance.blogspot.se/2010/10/dagens-tips-repgrimma.html

I've only tried to make rope halters for traditional size horses to this date but when I find "rope" that will work with the smaller scales I'll try tying halters for them too.

For my rope halters I use nylon thread approximately 1-1,5 mm in diameter that I found in a hobby store. I'm not sure what the best thread to use is, I found the nylon thread and felt comfortable working with it so that's why I'm using it. But my first rope halter was actually tied of thread from a string curtain. Thread from string curtains wouldn't be my first choice now that I've found the nylon thread but I found it great for a bit of practicing :)

The horse that will be my model for today is Anything But Mine.

The first thing to do is to have our supplies ready. Tying a rope halter doesn't require a lot of supplies. You'll need thread, a pair of scissors, a ruler and a calculator. I couldn't find a calculator so I used my cellphone.

The next thing to do is to cut your thread. To know how long it needs to be I used the measurements on the blog I linked above. It says that for a horse you'll need 6.5 m of rope (that's for a REAL halter) and since I'll make a halter for a traditional size model (approximately 1:9) I'll divided it by 9.

650 cm/9 = 72 cm.

That's how much rope you'll need so just cut it off :)

Before we start to tie, one of the ends need to be a little longer than the other. For a real halter the longer end would be 80cm and for a traditional size model horse:

80cm/9 = 8.9cm

I made it very simple for myself and put one end of the rope at 8.9cm and the other at 0cm. As you can see on the picture below:

Take a small piece of thread and tie a simple knot in the middle of the loop that is created if you put it like the picture above. That knot will help to get a good start.

Make sure to have the longer end of the thread on the horse's left side and put the knot as pictured:

With the knot still in place as above, tie a simple knot at the side as seen below:

Do the same on the right side. It should look something like below:

If you want to, you can remove the "extra" knot (the light blue one). I like to keep it on because I think it's easier to see that the halter stays in place when tying.

When you've tied the simple knots on both sides it's time to tie the knot under the chin. You could do a fiador knot for this, but since I haven't got the hang of it yet (patience is a virtue I am not possessing) I am doing a simple knot with both of the threads to create a little loop under the chin, as pictured:

Do another simple knot with both threads further up:

Take the shorter end of the thread and put it out of the way on the right of the horse as we wont use it right now. Take the longer strand and do a simple knot with a loop:

Now is a good time to remove the light blue knot. Then carefully, without moving the knot too much, untie the first knot we did slightly so you could stick the end from you latest knot through the first, see below:

Take the strand over the nose and carefully, slightly, untie the knot on the other side and put the strand through that one as well. It should look something like this:

Take the strand we put away on the right side earlier and the strand we just worked on, tie those together with a simple knot with both strands. Put both strands over the poll and tie to the loop on the left side.

Cut the ends at desirable length and slightly burn the ends with a lighter if you feel you need to.

That's it! :) The tutorial might not be the best, I know my skills in explaining to others aren't great, but hopefully you understand something or you at least enjoyed the pretty model horse :)

The (slow) process of documenting my collection

It has been an extremely slow process of documenting my collection. Actually, the only thing I've done so far is to document every single model horse in an Microsoft Excel file. My collection consists of 328 models, ranging from micro minis to slighly oversized traditional resins.

Next step in the documentation process will be to take "studio photos" of every single one. And with studio photos I mean simple photos with plain white backgrounds and put them up here on the blog.


After that I'll organize all my pedigrees, with info, showrecord and pictures of all the horses in a binder.


And at last I'll take "real" photos of my horses, publish them all on my website and hopefully photoshow them as well :)


Oh, and for those of you who are interested I put up a few more "studio photos" of my horses on the collection pages.

Almost wordless Wednesday

 Some pictures from the last liveshow I went to :)


My table at the show.

 



The Brigitte Eberl warmblood class. Probably one of the toughest classes to judge. I am the proud owner of two of them but I wouldn't mind having them all standing on my shelves ;)

A Breyer Tr. Totilas. First time I've seen one IRL and I really like him.

An Eberl Firenze I'm in love with :)

An absolutely adorable custom on the G4 vaulting? (I think) mold.

Breyers new gypsy vanner. I think he looks so much better in person than in pictures.

I couldn't help myself when I saw fjords on the table ;)

And another beautiful fjord :)

Big and small.

Cute pony custom.

One of my all-time favourite PS weanling customs. Wouldn't mind having her on my shelf :)

The callback table for the Best in Show voting.

A Pegasus.

Dressage entry.

Another dressage entry, with one of the most incredible saddles I've seen!

Driving entry.

Trail entry.

Another vintage guy proving he is still going strong, winning his class in the vintage show and winning his performance class.

Drafter Barrel Race

Another oldie but goodie. Best in show in the vintage show and third in his performance class.

A horse-rugby entry!

A beautiful scene.

A driving scene that really inspired and impessed me. Cart made by the owner (I think she made the harnesses and the drivers too)

Taking pictures of the showjumping winners :)

Teamchasing

Shilah J in an Indian costume.

Mem Ehlafaa in an arabian costume made by her owner.

Pixar looks quite relaxed in this scene.



Collection

I've been looking for a good way to showcase my collection. First of all because I do want to have a good overview of my models and second of all because I love to watch other people's collections so I thought someone might like to see mine :)

Inspired by Jennifer Buxton at Braymere Custom Saddlery I decided to showcase my collection on my blog. To your right you'll find the links to the pages :) I've only put up a few horses but more will come :)

The resins and customs got their own page and since I've got alot of original finish plastics I decided to divide the rest after size so feel free to browse and I'll hope you'll enjoy it :)

Angel, Chance and Troublemaker. My three custom stablemate foals.



Show report - Halter

This time I decided only to show in the halter show. I had some new additions to show, one of which I hadn't even seen prior to the show, and my dear Athame to pick up. I showed 32 horses this time and I had no accidents this time so I got to show all my horsies :D

At this show I showed three arabians. Shaniqua (Cl. Arabian Mare OF), Farasha (Tr. Wheather Girl Thunderstorm OF) and Athame (AA Sabiha ret.). Shaniqua and Farasha placed first and third out of three in their class and Athame placed third out of three in her class. I'm very happy with Shaniqua since she has practically showed well in every liveshow I've brought her too since i bought her in 2006. Athame hasn't done too good at live shows but she will always be one of the most beloved models in my collection and I don't think third place is very bad when she's competing against a Rose Nahar and a Rose Khemosabi.

Anyway the Rose Khemosabi who won the class Athame entered, claimed Champion Arabian reserve after Walad, who also claimed the champion title in the vintage show.

Champion: Walad, Breyer PAM rrh Sophie Nordström (right)
Champion Reserve: Ahvaz Aslan, RC Khemosabi rep. Sheri Rhodes (left)

In the thoroughbred division I showed 4 horses; Nimble's Last Thief (Zenyatta OF), Sunny Side N (Seattle Slew OF), Royal's Mexican Heat (Sm. TB rr Sophie Nordström) and Lost All Hope (RC Kitty Didit rep. Lexie Lawrynovisz). Nimble's Last Thief and Sunny Side N placed third and fourth out of four in their class. Royal's Mexican Heat placed second out of third and Lost All Hope placed third out of five. I thought Lost All Hope would do a little better but I'm still happy with the outcome.

Ciderprinsen J, who is probably one of Swedens most winning models right now, claimed the Champion title with the beautiful Affinity resin, Sun's Eight Bells, as reserve.

Champion: Ciderprinsen J, Eberl Sioux rep. Sophie Nordström (left)
Champion Reserve: Sun's Eight Bells, RC Affinity rep. Sophie Nordström (right)

 

The warmblood division is one of my favourite divisions since warmbloods, especially Swedish warmbloods, are very dear to me. I showed 5 horses in this division; Lord (Tr. Keltic Salinero OF), Imperia (Tr. Sidesaddle Strapless OF), Charisma (Tr. GG Valentine OF), Chester VS (Eberl Caitano rep. Sophie Nordström) and my unnamed Eberl Genoveva rep. Sophie Nordström. Lord placed fourth out of four in his class. Imperia and Charisma placed first and third in their class. Chester VS and Genoveva placed second and fourth in what is probably one of the hardest classes to judge. The Eberl Warmblood class. On the table in that class stood no less than six beautiful Eberl resins. I wouldn't mind bringing them all home with me ;)

 

Anyway, the champion title was claimed by the winner of the Eberl class, a beautiful Firenze resin, Impuls VS. And my Chester VS, who came in second after Impuls VS, was also his second in the championship.

Champion: Impuls VS, Eberl Firenze rep. Sophie Nordström (left)
Champion Reserve: Chester VS, Eberl Caitano rep. Sophie Nordström (right)

When it came to the European division, I only showed two horses; Bocelli (Tr. Tregoyd Journeyman OF) and Déja Vù (Tr. Goffert OF). They placed first and fourth out of four in their class. Bocelli also claimed the title of best heavy European.

But in the end it was the lighter Europeans who claimed the top titles. Grand slam for the spotted ones ;) Sorilea, RC U Know rep. Kathy McKenzie won the champion title and Mikkel Heden, RC Mephisto rep. Dani Schacht took reserve champ.


Champion: Sorilea, RC U Know rep. Kathy McKenzie (left)
Champion reserve: Mikkel Heden, RC Mephisto rep. Dani Schacht (right)

The draft division was quite small this time, with only three classes but there were still some beautiful horses. I showed three horses, Brigadör (MM Brigadier rep. Annika Gustafsson), Fallen Warrior (Tr. Foxvalley Oliver OF) and Prince (Sm. G2 Drafter rr Sophie Nordström). The all showed in the same class and placed first, second and sixth out of six. I almost couldn't believe it, Brigadör has never ever done that good. And then he surprised again when he claimed the champion reserve title behind Glittertind J, an awesome RC Tiny rep. Sophie Nordström.

Champion: Glittertind J, RC Tiny rep. Sophie Nordström (left)
Champion Reserve: Brigadör, MM Brigadier rep. Annika Gustafsson (right)

Stockhorses are beautiful but I don't have very many so I only had three to show; Wherever I Go (Liddy Quintessance rep. by me), Illusions Fade Away (Tr. Treasured Moves OF) and Chocolate (Tr. Impress Me Shannon OF). The did quite good and Wherever I Go placed third out of four, Illusions Fade Away placed second out of four and Chocolate placed third out of five.

R. Blue Mist Bandit, a Lonestar resin with a beautiful grey paintjob, claimed the champion title and R. Shimmaree, an incredibly detailed appaloosa, claimed the reserve title.

Champion: R. Blue Mist Bandit, RC Lonestar rep. Kate Schick (left)
Champion Reserve: R. Shimmaree, PS ISH cm Anna Zaharenkova (right)

Another one of my "not-so-many-horses divisions" is the other American breeds division. I showed two horses; Since You Don't Love Me (Sm. G2 ASB rep. Annika Gustafsson) and Lotus (Tr. Harmonie Tuigpaard OF). They placed first and fourth out of six in their class.

Independence Day, an Independence resin painted by Sophie Nordström was crowned champion and FDL Fiesta, a Breyer RC Paso cm Juliane Gartska was crowned champion reserve.

Champion: Independence Day, RC Independence rep. Sophie Nordström (left)
Champion Reserve: FDL Fiesta, Breyer RC Paso cm Juliane Gartska (right)

I've always thought that I don't have a lot of ponies but they must've been multiplying some how cause I brought no less than five horses to the show. Remembrance (PS Pony Shoal OF) who placed third out of six in his riding pony class, Lady Louisa (RC Pasha rep. Sophie Nordström) and If I Could Dream (HA Misty Dawn rep. Annika Gustafsson), who claimed second and fifth out of five in their class. Treasure (Tr. Cefnoakpark Bouncer) who was third out of three in the welsh class and Epsilon (NL New Forest OF) who was first in his class.

Epsilon made me proud and claimed the champion title with Gideon, a Flitwick rep. Sophie Nordström as reserve.

Champion: Epsilon, NL New Forest OF (left)
Champion Reserve: Gideon, Flitwick rep. Sophie Nordström (right)

I only had one horse to show in the wildhorse/cross division. Acuatico (Tr. Blue Suede Shoes OF) didn't do to well this time, he placed six out of six but with the competition he had, I'm not disappointed :)

Shilah J was a very worthy champion and Kilarnes Mazurka was a worthy reserve.

Champion: Shilah J, RC Caldero rep. Sophie Nordström (left)
Champion Reserve: Kilarnes Mazurka, HK QH Stallion cm Anna-Karin Uhlén (right)

The longear division is once again the only division where I don't have any to show. But their were lots of cute longears to drool over :) Rufus (Resin cast rep. Sophie Nordström) claimed the champion title just before Bonnie (RC Honey rep. Sophie Nordström).

Champion: Rufus, Resin Cast rep. Sophie Nordström (left)
Champion Reserve: Bonnie, RC Honey rep. Sophie Nordström (right)

Another one of the smaller divisions was the Asian/Oceanian/African division. Only two classes and my only horse in the division was Ancient Gold (Tr. Akhal-Teke OF). He placed second in his class behind Anastasiya J, a Kara Kush resin rep. Sophie Nordström. Anastasiya J was accompanied by Ancient Gold when it came to the champion titles as well when she claimed the champion title and Ancient Gold got reserve.

Champion: Anastasiya J, RC Kara Kush rep. Sophie Nordström (left)
Champion Reserve: Ancient Gold, Tr. Akhal-Teke OF (right)

The last division was one that I had really been looking forward to. I had my beautiful baby Helios (RC Oliver rep. Sue Kern) to show for the first time and I was excited to see how he'd do. He had good competition in his class but he still managed to get first place in the class. And I couldn't be more excited when he actually was crowned champion with R. Arrow, a PS weanling cm Anna Zaharenkova as reserve.

Champion: Helios, RC Oliver rep Sue Kern (left)
Champion Reserve: R. Arrow, PS Weanling cm Anna Zaharenkova (right)



It was a tough Best In Show voting with lots and lots of beautiful horses but in the end R. Blue Mist Bandit won the Best In Show with Independence Day as Best In Show Reserve.

Best In Show: R. Blue Mist Bandit, RC Lonestar rep. Kate Schick
Best In Show Reserve: Independence Day, RC Independence rep. Sophie Nordström

It sure was some tough competition with lots of beautiful models and I am so pleased with how well my horses did :) After all I got two Champions and three Champion reserves :) Now I'm eager to start with some new performance ideas and I can't wait until I can attend another liveshow :)