Crappy weather, good sale

Well between having to restore my computer to the original factory settings and settling into my day shift at work I haven't really found time for my blog. Scent of Pine and my bay design-a-horse made it back with their repairs and someone long awaited showed up today: Sweet Potato Pie

Very happy with her. Jake and I have been getting ready for our show in April and have put together books of our horses with their reference pages. I will be sure to try and post some of the pictures later. Today was the last day of the Stone Bucks sale so Jake and I snagged up 5 horses. I'm pretty sure he managed to pick out a OOAK which is great because he sure does deserve it! I've been working on some English tack but once again come up short with the saddle. I'm starting to think I may just stick with western tack unless I'm making bridles. I just can't get the hang of parts of the english saddle. My next project will be a Canadian mountie set. I have found reference photos of a saddle and it looks like a cross between english and western, something I might be able to accomplish, lol!

Valor Arrived

The second piece to the Zorn puzzle arrived today from Rio Rondo in Kansas. Valor sculpted by Williams is a handsome fellow....even with his silly head wrap...

They will make a handsome pair once finished and will debut their show careers in April at Plastic Ponies on Parade. A wonderful pony arrived today from Karen Gerhardt. I had tried for this pony on ebay and lost him by $5 and was super upset because he is my favorite color. I put an ad up on MHSP for him and Karen emailed me offering up her artists' proof, signed. I was astonished! So here he is in all this teal color-shifting glory. He has some flaws and probably needs a bath but he is going to be one of those never sell models. I wish I had known about this wonderful color sooner!

How cool is that? I have to artists' copies of horses? Still need to get around to getting Wendy to sign Pepe though.....

Just can't wait....

Okay so I was going to keep this a secret for as long as possible but I'm just so freaking excited! I just recently got a Rose Affinity resin and have a Williams Valor on the way and both will be painted by Karen Zorn!!! Affinity came in the mail yesterday and this afternoon I took her outside to get some good pictures. This model is absolutely amazing! She even has little bumpies on her muzzle where her whiskers should be!

Valor almost looks like a big piggy next to this slim mare! I will post pictures of Valor when he arrives (hopefully sometime this week). Affinity will be painted to look like this pretty gal:

Rags to Riches in her defeat of Curlin in the Belmont

Now for Valor I gave Karen a choice, pick out of the ten triple crown winners I don't have and she decided to go with:  the only Triple Crown winner to be undefeated, Seattle Slew:

Now this will be the second of the eleven Triple Crown winners I will have. A few years ago I told a friend that I wanted to have a collection of Valors that were all painted by different artists to be portraits of all the Triple Crown winners. The first one I was able to buy was a portrait of Affirmed painted by Lisa Bickford. Funny I got him first since I didn't know a thing about him. But while I worked on paying him off (it took me a whole year!) I read about him in books and online. He had a fascinating rivalry with a horse named Alydar (who I have a book about). These two duked it out for the Triple Crown and Alydar came second in all three races. I have a feeling a portrait of that amazing horse will make it into my collection as well (just not on a Valor).

Here is Affirmative with his first show winnings

I can't wait to keep adding to this collection that will be so full of history. I'm sure it will become the envy of any racing fan! Eventually I would like to have silks made up for each horse and possibly a jockey. They will all be getting a custom halter made with their show names on them just like Affirmative came with. Quite ambitious no?

Here today, gone today

My second design-a-horse arrive yesterday and was stunning....except for a few glaring imperfections. So needless to say he went the way of Scent of Pine...repair. I did manage to take lots of pictures of him before he went back. I can't wait to get him back already!!!

Baggage

Updated pictures:

I decided to add packs to the saddle set and what a pain in the butt they have become! I will probably be peeling super glue off my finger tips the rest of the week but the results have been worth it.