Horsemanship - How Times Have Changed

A lot of my early learning about horses came from the books that I read. I devoured anything about horses, both fiction and nonfiction, and subscribed to Horse and Rider and other magazines, anything to feed my passion for horses.

At first, I accepted everything that I read as true, but as I gained more knowledge and experience, I began to be able to sort out correct information from that which was not.

One book that I read was The Big Book of Horses by Edward L. Chase. While out looking for HSOs last Friday, I found a copy of it in good shape.

I already had my childhood copy of the book, but at only $3.50, it would make a nice show prize for Happy  Trails or a donation to someone else's show, so I purchased it.

Published in 1951, The Big Book of Horses is sixty-eight years old. As I leafed through it, I could tell that some of the information it contained was old and outdated. (I love this illustration!)

This sentence about it going to take a long time for machines to replace the work horse caught my eye right away. Nowadays, aside from Amish communities and a few others, you rarely see horses being used as work horses in the fields.

The purpose of using a heavy western saddle would be to make myself look like a cowboy and would then categorize me as one of "the worst riders"? An English saddle is the one to use when learning to ride as opposed to a western one? Reining and western dressage are only two disciplines using western tack that have put paid to those remarks! 

The page titled "Don'ts in Horsemanship" had some information that I disagree with now and disagreed with when I was just a girl trying to learn.

The author's focus on horses was quite different from mine. How could I not fall in love with each and every horse I have owned? Or those that were not mine but who were under my care? I was smart enough as a girl to know that this was not an instruction that I would follow. Ever.

The horse world has done a lot of changing since this book came out in 1951. Still, it was fun to take a look back into my own horsey history as I paged through the old book. And, I discovered that there was still something for me to learn from it - not only has the horse world come a long way, but I have, too.

A Closer Look at Shopping Finds

It took me a couple of days to find the time to sit down and look at what I'd found while out antiquing last Friday, but yesterday I was finally able to unwrap my finds.

I love the old Hartland woodcuts, and have quite a few of them. But I did not have the TWH in cherry.

 Walnut and ebony, yes, but not this beautiful color. Pictures do not do it justice!

 It still has its original footpads, and is in excellent shape with just a few rubs.

 Such a sweet face.

My luck included finding the Norleans Hereford bull.

He is going to be given to my sister as a gift since she is grieving the loss of her favorite cow, Tulip, who was also a Hereford.

 Looks like an old sales tag is still on his belly - $2.49.

Then I found this early bear cub by Breyer. 

It has the round Breyer stamp and no USA.

 It has a few rubs on its coat but is in good shape otherwise.

 The cub is the light brown faced version and it has pink lip liner.

The feet are an odd color and seem to be colored plastic itself and not painted to make them appear brown. I've sent pictures to a friend and have asked her opinion as to whether or not this might be a piece made from colored plastic.

Like the Hereford, the cub will not be staying with me. I'll sell it or give it to GLC as a donation. But the cherry woodcut TWH has found its new home.

Post Christmas Shopping

Post holiday shopping at the mall or Target is not something I like to do - I don't care for the crowds or trying to find a parking space when it seems that everyone else and their brother is out shopping, too. But, I don't mind hitting up my favorite antique and thrift shops after Christmas!

I found goodies in the very first booth I checked out.

A Marx Thunderbolt with partial tack and wagon. Good prices on both, but I have Thunderbolt and his tack already and I don't want the wagon.(Too big to store.)

A mix of Breyer, Hartland, and Japan chinas. I have the two black chinas on the end. I considered the Hartland dog (I think it's Bullet, but I haven't checked my books yet) but he was in very poor shape. 

 Out of this lot, I did buy the Breyer bear cub on the lower shelf. I think he may be chalky. (All my purchases are still wrapped up and in bags - I haven't had time to get them out and inspect them.)

The china Hereford cow came home with me, too. It is a gift for my sister who just lost her favorite cow, Tulip.

This copy of Hagen Renaker's Scamper caught my eye, but I already have this same piece and left it behind for someone else to enjoy.

 I found not one

but two kids' pony saddles.

 A rocking horse cookie jar. 

 A nice Brahma Bull (but way overpriced.)

These two Poppytrail vehicles almost came home with me. They have been in this particular shop for a long time and they are now on sale for a really good price. I may go back and get them.

 A Canadian Mounty salt shaker and bowl.

 Hartland knockoff and another plastic horse.

I have a Kentucky Derby glass for the year that each one of my kids were born but these were still fun to find. (Since we are so close to Louisville, I find a lot of these glasses when I am out antiquing.)

I had a very similar barn to this one when I was six or seven. I cut my fingers more than once on those metal tabs that were used to hold the pieces together! (You can see them on the roof of the barn.)

This Breyer deer family had beautiful coloring and was in excellent shape, but at $42, I left them on the shelf.

 A modern looking decorative plate.

 An odd (and broken) metal merry go round.

 Resin horse clock.

A shelf of assorted model horses included a cherry woodcut Hartland Tennessee Walker in mint condition and with footpads. I have the walnut and ebony woodcuts, but not the cherry so it came home with me. (I already had taken the horse off the shelf when I took the photo - I'll post a picture of the piece in a future blog entry.)

 Oh, how I drooled over this gorgeous green sleigh!

 The bells had a beautiful sound but were $70 each strand so I left them behind.

 I see this piece in shop after shop.

 If one of the Pony Pals had been along with me, one or two of these might have come home with us!

A non chalky Midnight Sun and and a very beat up 2002 Ideal American Quarter Horse, both left behind.

I may have only bought the Hartland, bear cub, and cow, but I still had fun. It was also really nice to have so many things to choose from and look at.

In the next couple of days I will post photos of my purchases.

A Breyer Under the Tree!

My Lisa bought me a Breyer for Christmas!

I was goofing around a bit with the dogs (that's Millie with a bow on her head) when I began unwrapping Lisa's gift.

Now normally, I can easily recognize a Breyer box when it is wrapped, but since my kids usually buy things other than model horses for me, Breyers weren't even on my mind as a possibility.

 That moment when I realized that I was unwrapping a Breyer of some sort. "You didn't!!" 

 She did! Stella from TSC!

I had wanted Stella even though I collect mostly vintage molds. I like the Bluegrass Bandit mold and I like Stella's color. I'd even been online December 24 looking to see if our TSC still had one that I could go get. (They didn't. Lisa had gotten the very last one.)

Super excited about this gift - thank you, Lis!

Wild Mustangs for Christmas!

Sarah, our oldest daughter, does photography as a hobby. She lives in Aurora, Colorado and enjoys spending time with her camera in The Rocky Mountain Arsenal (an old military site turned into a wildlife refuge) and up in the Rocky Mountains surrounding Denver. This summer she spent a week in Yellowstone and Wyoming, camping and taking photos of all sorts of wildlife. 

Three of those photos became my Christmas presents from her.

Sarah said that these two Mustangs reminded her of the stories I would tell her of Amy and Cee, and how they would stand and scratch each other's backs just like this. I love the personal horse connection that she tied into this photo.  

The stallion photo is in black and white. Sarah said that the black and white brought out his details better than they when they were in color. I think the barn wood frames were a great choice, too.

These Mustangs are some of the Pryor Mountain herd, the same ones that produced Cloud and all his get. Sarah spent seven hours out in the field to get these photographs for me.

 I am trying to identify which horses she photographed.

Here is the stallion in color. I've gone online and looked at photos of herd members to see who he is. Ireal, Pax, Garay, or Miocene are possibilities.

This yearling is Titania. Her dam is Morgana and her brother is Sorcerer. I don't know who her sire is but I am trying to find out. (I have a message out to the Wild Mustang Center in Lovell.)

I'd told her that I would love to have one of her photographs to hang in my home some day, but I never dreamed that she would travel to Wyoming and track down Mustangs to do so! But I sure am thankful that she did - I can't wait to hang these.

Christmas Candy - Breyer's Christmas Web Special

There were some horses under the tree for me Christmas Day, but I forgot to get the photos off of Lisa's phone before she went home, so I'll post them when I get them.

In the meantime, I had set an alarm for 11:00 AM to remind me to check Breyer's web site for its Christmas web special. When it rang, I logged into my Collectors Club account and up popped Christmas Candy!

Photo credit to Breyer.

Some people had predicted that we might get a candy striped Zebra, and they were right. At $135 the cost was a little pricey, but I really liked it and so I bought one. Colors are shipped randomly, so with 500 of each color I should be able to buy others second hand. 

There are only twelve of "licorice coal," the black Zebra, and while I think that that is a clever idea and lots of fun for collectors, I honestly hope I don't get that piece because I love the striped colors. My preference is for red, green, gold, and blue in that order, but I will be happy with whatever arrives in my mailbox.

I checked social media late last night and I was surprised that there seemed to be a lot of folks who didn't like it and had chosen to not order one. Some mentioned cost, while others simply said they did not care for the mold that had been chosen.  

With a horse whose favorite treat is candy canes, and grandchildren who save their own candy canes from Santa to give to her, how could I pass up Christmas Candy?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

May there be something horsey under your tree and family and friends close by.

Lynn & Abby

Jose - Donkey from the Past

When I was in junior and senior high school, not only did I care for my own horses, but our neighbors down the road paid me to check their horses each day and feed them. There were two Quarter Horses, sisters named Sycamore Lass and Scojeadon (I have models named after both of them), and there was also a burro named Jose.

 The only photos I have of him are of poor quality with the color fading.

Jose was brown with black points and a mealy muzzle, and he was a very naughty, mischievous boy. He never bit or kicked, but he was difficult to catch and quite sassy. In other words, Jose acted just like a donkey!

It's Christmas Eve, and I always think of him on this day. The connection of donkeys to the Nativity story never fails to bring him to mind.

I wonder about the donkey that Mary rode. Was he or she anything like Jose and other donkeys? Or did it have some inkling of the importance of the role it was playing for this family?

I don't know the answer to those questions, but at Christmas time I like to think about donkeys and their contribution to the Christmas story. And, I always smile as I remember Jose.