In Memory of James

In memory of James who was gone too soon.

Just as you always did at Christmas time, we hung a candy cane on our tree today to honor your memory.

You are missed. Rest in peace, James.

Baby Steps toward (the New) Normalcy

First, if you didn't see yesterday's second post of the day and were a giveaway winner, please scroll down and read it - thanks!

Life is slowly returning to normal since James' passing. There are still some very raw moments, but that's the grief process. We did have one big piece of closure Wednesday afternoon when his Indiana memorial service was held.

Lisa with James' oldest daughter who flew out for the service.

It was also Pony Pal Mila's seventh birthday and she was very sweet about waiting to have her family party until this coming weekend. (She did get to open some gifts at home that morning.)

James was from Washington and the rest of his family is out there, so a funeral and the burial will take place there. Lisa and Craig are flying out for that while I will stay home and take care of the dogs.

Which will be fun - here they are "helping" me change the sheets on the bed yesterday, although Pepper and Nash got into a tug match with a toy while Molly simply milled around underfoot and smiled and wagged her tail at me the whole time.

Aside from my blogs and a few quick looks at some model horse sites, I have not been on social media much as I packed away Christmas (the spa tub is empty!) and put out a few winter decorations.

This has not been a good time to be out of the loop on Breyer news - Collector Club entries closing, Christmas Day Horses released (love the colors but not the mold), Warehouse and Grab Bag sales, 2023 new releases, and most exciting of all, BreyerFest reveals! I am soooo far behind on model news and hope to catch up. 

Surprisingly, I have been able to get back to the sewing machine and work on some donations and orders.

These are for Are You Kitten Me Live - I love the vintage black cats! I hope to wrap up my custom orders and pop them in the mail by Monday or Tuesday and then I will officially reopen Horsiemama's Mercantile & Haversacks for business again. (I closed it for Christmas and then extended that to January 9 after James died.)

Baby steps toward normalcy (or what will be the new normalcy), but slowly it's coming.

More on Marney's Marker

There is indeed more to the story of Marney Walerious's marker at Kentucky Horse Park - there were two of them! Nancy Kelly did some more research and here is what she discovered:

The original tree and marker; photo taken by Nancy Kelly in 2006.

Before the Atec Arena was constructed and before the restaurant was built there was a road on the edge of the park sort of in the southwest area. The first Breakables Live was held around there someplace, in a tent, and there were trees lining that road with markers, one of which was Marney's. I remember "visiting" it after the show.

The original stone. Photo by Nancy Kelly.

The marker you showed a picture of was that marker. It was larger and thinner and suffered a lot of damage. We had heard it was actually broken.

Then construction the Altec (completed in 2010) and the restaurant caused them to remove the marker, first putting it in storage, even losing it for a time, then at some point a new marker was ordered and placed near the Man O'War memorial.

The second stone marker, heavily damaged by mowers. Photo by Nancy Kelly.

When that area was reworked the current marker was then relocated to the present location. This marker also suffered damage, but not as bad as the original, thinner one.

Thanks, Nancy, for finding and sharing more information about Marney's marker. I hope to visit it next year at BreyerFest.

Marney - What's the Story Behind the Two Stones?

Recently I have been writing the history of Great Lakes Breyer Registry/Great Lakes Congress,  the longest running model horse club and show series in the world. During a phone interview, Kerri Johnson, the club's founder, credited Marney Walerius with a lot of mentoring in the early days of the club.

As I continued researching, I came across some old materials in my files about Marney's tree and memorial stone that were placed near the Man o' War statue at Kentucky Horse Park in August, 1992.

A tribute to Marney was handed out to those of us in attendance at that BreyerFest.

 On the back was a map of the park with directions for finding the site.

This is the stone that was originally placed under the tree. (Photo retrieved from Google Images, but Sue Sudekum took the photo and then gave Nancy Kelly permission to put it on her web site. Go here to Nancy's web site to read more information about Marney.)

Kerri also sent me a photo that she had recently taken of Marney's memorial stone so that I could include it the finished history.

It is not the same stone. And clearly it has had a tangle or two with the mowers at the horse park.

What happened? Where is the original stone? Why was it changed? Was it, too, damaged by the park's mowers thus needing to be replaced? And while I like this stone better than the first, the word "hobby" has been left off, making Marney's contribution to the early hobby muddled and unclear to those who may not have known her. 

I have moved on to another writing project so I am going to have to put this mystery on the back burner until that is finished. But I do plan to dig into this and see if I can find out the story behind the two stones.