Indy Blooms: Friday Night Fun

When six horsewomen (model and real) gather together, you have a really good time, and this weekend was just that. 

Shannon Call, Kelsey Kramer, Jamie Rott, Liz Cory, and Steff Bodamer. (With Sultanna photobombing in the back.)

Everyone was heading to the Indy Blooms show, and so between the two of us, Kelsey and I hosted these ladies. Naturally, we headed out to the barn.

Sultanna was happy to come get some carrots and Miss Bold was right there with her.

Shannon had a sweet interaction with Two Socks.

A tour of Tim's vehicle collection is always a must for barn visitors.

Shannon and Liz check out the doctor's bag in the doctor's buggy.

We wanted to get into the paddy wagon but we would have had to move it out and there was a tractor parked in front of it.

Kelsey shows us her saddles and other tack in the tack room. She and I laugh because I deliver haversacks from the Mercantile to her there - I wrap them up and place them on her saddle and then she grabs them when she comes to visit Dolly. Saves postage for sure!

Kelsey introduces Dolly to us.

Abby realizes that I am behind her and turns back, looking for carrots.

We hopped into cars and caravanned back into town to have dinner. When our food arrived, several wait staff brought it out. I looked up and one of them was looking straight at me and smiling as he served us.

I knew that smile! It was William, one of my former students! He was in my class as a 4th and 5th grader and just graduated from Purdue and will be starting his Masters degree in August.

He invited me to meet him next week for coffee (I told him I want hot chocolate, haha) so we could catch up. You bet I am going to take him up on that offer.

Seeing Will was the cherry on top of a wonderful day. Saturday and the Indy Blooms show would prove to be just as wonderful.

Stay 'tooned! 

(And don't forget the caption giveaway! Go to this post for details.)

Giveaway - Caption This!

Barn Buddy Kesley sent me this photo of Abby with a caption that made me choke on the swig of Coke Zero I had just taken. (I am not kidding.)

I thought it would be fun to see what readers came up with, so I am having a contest and invite you to send me your own caption for this photo. The winner will receive something from Horsiemama's Haversacks & Mercantile. (And I will reveal Kelsey's caption then.)

You can enter as many times as you want, and entries can be via comments on the blog or by emailing me at horsemama8@gmail.com. I will also post this on the Mercantile Facebook page, too, so you may enter there, too.

Contest ends at 11:59 PM Tuesday and the winner will be announced Thursday.

I can't wait to see those captions!

A Treasure Trove of Little Bits Tack

Some time ago, a quiet, unorganized movement began of appreciating and saving hobby history. Ardith Carlton and Corky Visminas have been leaders in preserving early customs with their Vintage Custom Model Equine Center; Nancy Kelly has written several books on Hagen Renakers as well as hobby history, Gail Fitch has done something similar for Hartlands, and Kristina Lucas Francis has been instrumental in saving Hagen Renaker's items for us all. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. 

My 1970s customs by Sherri Cook McDonald.

Recent losses of some of our more well-known and loved long-time hobby members (Simone Smiljanic and Liz Bouras among others) have prompted even more hobbyists to preserve their own historical pieces or to pass them on to someone who will care for and appreciate them.

Recently I was contacted by an early hobbyist and asked to take her early tack and other items. I agreed, and a few weeks later I received four very large boxes in the mail.

What was inside ran the gamut - mugs, backdrops, books, and other horsey items.

But the real treasure was a large assortment of tack for Little Bit sized horses. 

I looked at that tack and the riders that came with a few of the sets and realized that I had a very valuable piece of hobby history sitting on my dining room table.

And that that hobby history really needed to be saved for the rest of the hobby.

I'd never seen tack and riders made for the Little Bits scale. Stablemate? Yes. Classic and Traditional? Of course.

But not Little Bits. The seven molds were not very popular and not marketed much by Breyer,

so to find tack set after tack set was a surprise.

It was a thrill to sit down and look at them and the workmanship in each piece.

I enjoyed them the short time they were here, but then I passed them on to someone who understood their rarity and value and will take care of them.

What a treat it was to get that glimpse into our hobby's history.

Metal Circus Set

Last month at the April Great Lakes Congress show, Shannon Rodgers gifted me with the NEATEST metal circus set. She'd sent me the horse on the left in February and had then found the rest of the set at the same shop a few weeks later.

I'd posted pictures of it on a metal horse collectors group, but no one had seen it before and could not give me any information about them.

Sam Cory, Liz's husband and metal miniature soldier collector, was at the April GLC show and he was able to give me a little information. While he had not seen these circus pieces, he saw similarities to soldier sets from the 1960s.

Sam told me that metal sets are usually sold unpainted and the buyer then paints them. As he examined the ringmasters, he pointed out that the arm of the one with the whip was articulated to go up and down. 

The right arm of the other ringmaster was also articulated but had been painted over so that it would not move.

See that gold horn or handle? That makes me think that this wasn't just a liberty horse, but it was a bareback rider's mount, too. (Which then makes me wonder if there is a rider for it floating around somewhere.)

This piece is missing a leg and a tail, but I don't care - I love it.

The new white horse is similar to the one Shannon gave me in February.

Someone on the metal horse group had suggested that my first piece was a custom and one of a kind, but I don't think that's true.

Here the two are together - the first is on the left and the newer one on the right.

And their flip sides. (The pieces are still in the same order.)

The black piece made it into my Anything Goes entry at the GLC show. 

Thank you again, Shannon. This circus set is becoming one of my favorites.

Retirement & New Beginnings

My friend Kathy had to retire her guide, Nacho, this spring after six years of faithful guiding and leading. This was a big deal in our community. 

Since Kathy is the administrator of the school corporation's mentor program for new teachers, she and Nacho are in every school building (all twenty of them!) throughout the year. As a result, Nacho is well known and quite beloved by students, teachers, and staff alike. Several teachers put their heads together and decided to hold a retirement party for Nacho. 

Pepper was invited to come, and so Teacher Daughter Lisa, Pepper, and I joined the throngs to thank him for his service and have our picture taken with him.

There was a yummy cake for the adults 

and one just for Nacho, both baked by the head chef of the high school culinary school.

Kathy and Nacho do a lot of public speaking outside of school and around the community, and so his retirement even made the news.

As you might imagine, Nacho's retirement was very bittersweet for Kathy. Their lives were so interwoven, she even wrote an insightful book called Two Plus Four Equals One about her relationship with her guides. But it was time, and so Nacho is now living with Kathy's parents. (Kathy's parents live a few blocks from her so she sees her beloved boy often.)

Meet Tate, Kathy's new guide. A big, strapping two year old black Lab, Guiding Eyes for the Blind matched the two in April and she traveled out to New York for several weeks of training with Tate. (The matching process is lengthy and detailed, but Guiding Eyes for the Blind works hard to match the personalities and needs of both partners.) 

Look at those jowls!! Kathy and Tate meet for the first time.

He is a massive boy. 

Kathy and Tate learning to work together in New York City.

After a week of letting Tate settle into his new home and routine, Kathy texted and invited me to come over and meet him. She asked that I bring Pepper, too.

Both black Labs, but look at the size difference. 

They got along well, but I think Pepper was a little intimidated by him. 

Meanwhile, Nacho is thoroughly enjoying his retirement. I see him frequently when he is out walking with one of Kathy's parents, and he's even been over for a play date with Pepper.

Tate, Nacho, and Pepper are getting together tomorrow for a field trip with Kathy. She is taking the dogs (and her mom and me) out to a local school to read with a group of second graders.

That is something Pepper is familiar with and enjoys. Last week she went into Teacher Daughter Lisa's classroom and was read to by her students.

As you can tell, Pepper enjoys that!

It's the end of the school year and graduations and other retirements are happening. But there are also new beginnings, and Kathy and Tate's partnership is just that.

I look forward to seeing this partnership grow and thrive.

Show Prep!

I am heading to a live show this weekend, but since it is only 40 miles away, I am not packing a suitcase or making motel reservations.

The show string has been pulled off the shelves

and carefully packed into tubs.

 A couple of haversacks and an embroidered ornament have been set aside as donations.

And I am madly cleaning house. Why? Because I may not need motel reservations, but friends coming to the show do, and they are staying with me!

 Photo from Indy Blooms Facebook page.

Liz Cory, Jamie Rott, and Steff Bodamer are heading this way and are going to stay with me Friday and Saturday nights. I can hardly wait.

My across-the-river hobby and barn buddy, Kelsey Kramer, is also going to Indy Blooms, and her friend, Shannon Call, is coming in from Ohio for the show, too!

Photo by Kelsey. (Note Dolly's tongue.)

We will all be gathering at my home Friday afternoon, then going out to meet Dolly and Abby (and Two Socks!) and then out to dinner. Saturday we will caravan over to the show, and then Saturday night Liz, Jamie, and Steff are going to stay with me again.

It sort of feels like Happy Trails is happening this year. (It's not, but it will be back next June.)

Happy Trails 2021 - Allison Pareis, Stan Solar's, Pat Reed, me, Yvonne Rott, Kelsey Kramer (back), Liz Cory (front), and Jamie Rott (Kneeling.)

Live showing is fun, but the gathering of friends is absolutely the best part for me. To say I am excited about the weekend would be an understatement.