A New Circus Pony!

Nancy Falzone held her annual collectors gathering in October. Unfortunately, it was the same day as The Feast of the Hunters' Moon and so I could not attend.

Knowing my love of circus ponies, Nancy had this photo of a head down circus pony sent to me and asked if I wanted it.

You bet I did! 

I already had this piece, but mine has had a hard knock life.

The new piece is mint and has beautiful detail - I am happy to add him to my collection.

Thanks, Nancy!

Note: there will be a second blog entry posting later this morning. Stay 'tooned!

The Repairs Continue

We have had unseasonably warm weather here in Indiana while Tim continues the extensive repairs to the old barn. 

It's a huge project and he is doing it by himself. But already the roofline is straightening out as he fixes and levels the foundation.

The entrances to the stalls are barricaded and the paddock is closed to the horses as an added measure to keep nosy horses safe while he works.

I'm staying away from it, too, although I have poked my head in occasionally to take a peek. (I guess that makes me nosy, haha!)

One of the holes the groundhogs dug that undermined the foundation so badly.

I'm glad Tim was able to purchase the old barn and farmhouse - now that it is his, he can do those badly needed repairs. And clearly those repairs are going to take a while and winter is fast approaching.

There is a loafing shed in the nursery paddock and then the new barn near the water trough, so even if the task isn't completed before the snow flies, the horses still have options for shelter this winter.

Fall is lingering, but temperatures are expected to drop to more normal numbers this coming week. We've got lots of hay put up and the two other barns - the horses will be fine regardless of how those repairs progress. 

Seeing the Quality in the Stitching

Because I sew so much, I can pick out a poor quality sewing job almost immediately. Shortcuts get taken because it's cheaper and and faster, and a lot of commercially sewn items will show evidence of that shortcutting. Manufacturers get away with it because most people don't know what to look for.

I wasn't expecting much as I took Kohl's blanket off to look at it. But the stitching on the velcro jumped out at me immediately, and in a good way.

See that small stitch of red thread? That was the clue. And, it is not evidence of a shortcut, it is evidence of quality. 

I flipped the blanket over and saw that red thread had been used to stitch the velcro to the outer side of the blanket. Red was reasonable as it is the predominant color in the blanket and as a result, many of the stitches blend in and are less noticeable.

The flip side of the blanket used the bobbin thread. Now, normally your bobbin and top threads match when you are sewing.

My bobbin cases.

But when both sides of the item you are sewing are going to be showing, essentially you have two top threads instead of a bobbin and a top thread. So, the bobbin thread is changed out to match the color of what it is being sewn onto.

Here's an example. This haversack's predominant color is black, so when I attached the customer's velcro to the flap, I used black thread for the top thread.

But on the inside, I switched the bobbin thread from black to white because the haversack lining was white. For the other strip of velcro on the black part of the bag, I changed the top thread from black to white because I was sewing onto the white velcro, not the black haversack. The bobbin was white, too, because of the white fleece on the flip side.

Most people wouldn't even notice that attention to detail, but it is evidence of a sewist doing quality work - winding and changing those bobbins and top threads in and out repeatedly takes time. So to see that Breyer had their sewists switch threads back and forth speaks a lot about their desire for a quality product.

But there was more evidence of quality on Kohl's blanket. Look how nicely the bias tape binding has been applied!

Nichelle Jones of Desktop Stables is one of the best of the best when it comes to applying bias tape. It takes time and effort to do it right. Her bias tape binding is beautiful. But the bias tape on Kohl, while done with the one-step method rather than the two-step like Nichelle does, is still done well.

Take a look at this last picture. Can you pick out another bit of evidence as to the quality sewing job on Koh's blanket?

Another thread change! Instead of using red thread, the sewist switched to white when he or she applied the Breyer tag. A little more time intensive, but the result is a better quality product.

I kid you not, every sewist gets tired of thread and bobbin changes. But if you see evidence that they did, then you know they were trying to stitch that product to the best of their ability.

Kudos to those who stitched up the blankets for Kohl.

Kohl, the 2022 Pony for Christmas

When Breyer announced Kohl, I could not order fast enough. A vintage mold in my favorite horse color AND with a holiday blanket? I was all in.

She is here and she is lovely!

The outer shipping box was pretty

as was the gift box inside that contained Kohl.

She was attached to a red box liner so that you did not destroy the gift box when you removed her.

I carefully removed the liner from the gift box

and pulled out the special snips I use to free Breyers from their boxes. They are really sharp with thin pointed ends. 

How sharp are they? Well, I've got a nice hole in my thumb right now, but at least my thumb took the poke and not Kohl!

The mane braids are painted in festive red, white, and green.

Even her forelock got a dot of green!

I was already happy with her, but when I took off her blanket for a closer look, I was even happier.

Stay 'tooned!

Nothing Jaw Dropping

 Ever tried to take a photo of the underside of a horse's jaw?

Note to self: put a halter on that girl!

Teacher Daughter Lisa had run out to the barn during her lunch break and found a spot under Abby's chin that she described as, "Rough fur, almost like a scrape. Nothing huge, just wanted you to be aware."

I went out and after wrassling with Abby a bit (My phone is not a treat, Abby!) I got some photos so I could see better.

Lisa was right - she does have a rough spot under her chin, one that looks as though it might have been a cut.

Tim and I are both keeping an eye on it and applying Neosporin every day. If things don't improve, then I will call the vet.

In the meantime, it is not bothering her and she continues to eat well.

I'm not worried, but I am being vigilant.

A Rolling Reveal

Abby loves a good roll. Add in a nice squishy mud spot and she is almost as happy as she is when I bring her candy corn or candy canes.

I often pull out my camera and shoot some snaps of her enjoying herself.

After her most recent roll I was looking through the photos and smiling at her obvious enjoyment. But then, a flash of white on her belly caught my eye.

What on earth was that white spot near her udder? I began scrolling back through the pics I'd just taken, looking for a clearer picture of it.

Was it a healing scrape? A fungus of some sort, or maybe even a granuloma? Not going to lie, I was worried. I've had her for over ten years but I'd never noticed that spot before.

I decided to look back through photos of Abby rolling and the best place to find those was right here on my blog. 

I did a search and the very first hit was all I needed.

There that cream colored spot was, clear as day. Somehow I had missed it in the past.

Abby and I have been together ten years and during that time my orthopedic issues have worsened.  It is difficult for me to bend and look under her belly, but seeing that white spot, and the jolt it gave me, pointed out that I'm not the only one getting older; Abby is, too. 

And while the belly spot turned out just to be that - a belly spot - I plan to more closely check her over from now on.

On a totally unrelated note, she does have another issue going on. More on that tomorrow.

Stay 'tooned!

Visiting the Horses with Trinity

Horse Buddy Trinity, our oldest granddaughter, came over for a visit last week. Naturally, she and I took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and headed out to the barn. (Had it been raining, we still would've gone!)

We visited with Abby first. Then we headed into the nursery paddock where Tim has been working with Two Socks. He had separated her and Sultanna from the others so there were no nosy helpful horses tagging along as he worked with her.

Two Socks continues to show that she is a fast learner and an intelligent filly.

She is comfortable around people, will lead, back, pick up her feet, and allow you to give her scritches.

She is also very curious and pokes her nose into anything the others are doing.

A horse lover since she was small, Trinity is always eager to go out to the barn with me.

She took some snaps of me with Sultanna and Two Socks while we were there.

Look how tall Two Socks is getting! Her mama is a big boned mare (as was her Uncle Trouble); it looks like she, too, shares that family trait.

Why, yes, I do kiss the horses. Frequently.

When we finished visiting with the horses, we hiked over to the old barn to see how the repairs were coming along.

Tim is replacing the foundation - he discovered that groundhogs had been digging underneath it and that places under the barn were completely unsupported. Yikes!

So, he brought in two hydraulic lifts and raised the barn off the ground so he can pour a new foundation. Needless to say, we are all staying away from it while he finishes that task!

It was a perfect day to hang out with a young woman that I love and the horses.