Fine Art & Horses

It is my blog so I will once again start out with images of my work.  If you click on any image, please take a look at my nifty greeting card display!  I’m very excited about this new venture in the show.  It really offsets the expenses of being in the show if a large piece of work doesn’t sell.  It also increases my exposure.  It is a tough economy and only the artists who are willing to work with it will be able to show successfully in the guild.  That said, I’m really pleased with so many of my fellow guild members this show.  There are few of us who are actually showing, but everybody is staying positive and working hard.  To coin the phrase of a once popular motivational speaker, no one here is walking around with a Loser’s Limp.  If any of them do have a whining attitude. . . they have at least been smart enough not to talk to me about it!

One of the philosophies of our guild is to educate the community by expanding opinions about art.  We do this by hanging art of similar color and theme together so that the person who thinks that they only like photos of coastal images will see many different media of art in that theme.  Likewise the person who wants to get a painting in a certain color to hang on a wall might see that they really, really like a collage or a photo.  Sadly, this ideal has created controversy in the guild, but I am not going to get bogged down by people who don’t like the ideals of the guild they joined.  I’m pleased.  And I’m very proud of my friends in the guild who take on the huge challenge of hanging the show.  In the future I hope to use some sick time or vacation time so that I can hang a show with them so I can learn more about the process.  Three loud cheers for the Hanging Committee!

Betty Leppin and Vikka Moldern are the artists in the show that dye fabric. . . and they are wonderful artists!  I am very excited to make some purchases tonight!  If you like some of these items, you better beat me there!

A small sampling of some of the fantastic jewelry that is available:

Art by three of my favorite members: Renee Brennan, Frances Borchardt and Stephanie Nadolski:

It is hard to get good photos of the great photography that is being show.  I’m going to beg all of my friends in the guild to use museum quality, glare resistant glass in the future so that I can promote their work better.  All I can say is that if you don’t come to the show, you will miss out on some gorgeous imagery.  Below has some photos by Melissa Kangas, Wayne Bierbaum, and Michael Day.  While there are many great photographers in the guild, these three are among my top five favorite.

Naomi Edelberg Janches’ art glass and a tile by Sara Lee Chaney, who is one of our potters.  Again, their work is something you must see in person; this was the best photo I could get in our retail environment of Naomi’s work and this was the only item of Sara Lee’s that was in a place that I could shoot it.

Mary Bowen is one of the many artists who has been very wise in that she has art in the show that is hitting several price points.  I love her large painting very, very much so I am pleased to see her having fun making other items as well.

Share on Facebook

In a recent post I said that the wheels of Pie’s mind were turning.  I imagine that there are plenty of non-horsemen and maybe a few horsemen out there who don’t realize that the horse has the ability to process information and learn.  Not just to avoid pressure but to actually learn.

When Pie was learning to come out of the gait, he was one of the few horses that I just couldn’t get to jump out of there like it mattered.  I learned that it was because we didn’t have a horse in the barn fast enough to challenge Pie (excluding his older brother who had no need to spend time schooling in the gait).  It is lovely to have a horse that is relaxed in the starting gait but he took it to an extreme.  We would load, he’d look at his hyped up companion, the door would fly open, his company would go darting out, I’d yell and kick at Pie, then, when he was ready, he’d make his way out of the gait. And then Pie would just stretch his long, easy stride and in moments we’d be next to the horse that out broke us.

Therefore, when Pie was in his first race, the bell rang, the doors opened, the announcer said, “And there off!”, and then Pie came out.  Since his works had been so good the rest of the field teamed up and shut him out.  Pie was stuck behind them.  Jozbin, Pie’s jock, didn’t push Pie as it was Pie’s first race and to do some expert riding to get Pie to a place where he really had a chance would just be unhealthy for Pie’s mind and body.  Jozbin did a great job and Pie definitely learned what it is like to have dirt kicked in his face.  (In another post about Pie’s last race I think I mention how much I really appreciate Jozbin, I hope he is doing very well in his career because he understands horses.)

I can’t remember if we did some training in the starting gait between that race and his next one, but we probably did.

What is remarkable is what happened in Pie’s second race.  I didn’t get to watch it from the grand stand because I was late (it was so hard to get out of work that day. . . not because I had so much work to do, but because the co-worker I frequently complain about was standing in the doorway of the room with the time clock talking to me about something that was really minor).  I did manage to watch the race from the parking lot, while standing on the hood of my car I was on the phone with my friend, the foreman best known as Prophet, who kept me up to date on anything that I couldn’t see.  The race was delayed because there was a horse in the gait who was pitching a fit and was on the verge of being scratched from the race.  Guess who it was. . . oh, go on, guess. 

Did you guess Misty’s Hope?  Better known as, yep, you got it our friend Pie.

Thankfully, the guy on the gait crew who was in the stall with Pie, Louis, was also one of the people who had helped catch Pie when Pie dropped his rider and was running loose in the parking lot.  He knew Pie’s, shall we say, tendency for the dramatic.  Lou got him straight and they got that race started.  Pie jumped out in front and was in front from the gait to the finish line.  Wire to wire in front.  It was a great race to watch.  He looked so smooth running along.  He and the favorite dualed for a while, it was so cool to watch as well as stressful, but then the favorite, bless his heart, tired and Pie just drew away like he had wings.  I tried to drive to the horseman’s entrance to make it to the winners circle for the win picture in time, but missed it.  It figures, the only win picture Pie had taken and I get stuck not being in it because of a stupid thing at work.  (I learned later that this co-worker said to someone else, “Susan sure seemed stressed about the KHK headers.”  I so wanted to say, “No, stupid, I was stressed because you were blocking my way out to watch my Pie run.”

I know that we went to the gait for more training after that race.  When  horse acts like that in the gait he or she usually goes back to the gait just to stand in it.  Stand. Stand. Back out.  Go back in.  Stand. Stand. Breathe. Relax.  Back out. Go back in. Stand. Back out and then go on our merry way.  Which we did.

Pie’s third and final race which you can read in full detail by clicking on this link.  I will tell you, though, that he was relaxed in the gait, yet he jumped out in front of everyone.  He saved his energy for the race.

The point of this is that even over the time of two and three weeks; Pie processed information and learned.  He’s such a smart boy.  More on my smart Girl Sioux soon.  She’s learning a lot lately, too.  I’ve got the two best horses in the world, sorry for the rest of you horse owners.  But thems the breaks.

; p

Share on Facebook

This is the link to the clip of Jimmy Stewart being interviewed by Johnny Carson, it is a long clip but this link should take you right to the spot where he talks about Pie.

 

 

 

Share on Facebook

I’m trying to get a little bit of a routine with the horses.  I wish there were the same amount of day light hours everyday.  Mondays I have barn chores and since it was nice I put all but my two horses out right away (no sense in having them dirty the stalls one second longer than necessary).  I mixed up Pie and Sioux’s food (Pie – supplements, beet pulp, grain, and a little forage and a bunch of water. Sioux – supplements, beet pulp, a bunch of forage and a bunch of water.), then I took Pie out in his halter and put him loose on the grass for a second, then I gave Sioux her dinner since it takes her longer to eat it, then I set my timer for 20 minutes and got Pie and we hand walked down the paved driveway and then back, I believe Equine Exercises calls this “Legging Up” but I’m tired and could be wrong.  I tried to make note of his breathing.  He actually chipped a hoof on our walk and I noticed a slight grimace which may or may not have had to do with the hoof, so I switched our walk to the grass.  Then we backed up a slope.  Then we did a serpentine walking up and down the slope that lines the last portion of the driveway.  It was great to see him developing those muscles.  But he did get tired sometimes so I’d give him a break and give him a reward.  That whole process took us about 17 minutes.

I got back and fed him and cleaned all of the stalls except for Sioux’s since she was in there and still eating.  She seemed less aggressive tonight, not great, but better than she has been when I was giving her grain to help her put her weight back on.  By the time I got all of the stalls done both horses had finished eating.  The round pen is in the middle of the pasture that the cows are in and it has great grass so I took both horses and then turned Pie loose with his halter and lead rope on.  He’s learned how to step back if he steps on his lead, it also is my way of letting him know, “don’t get too settled here, I’m coming back for you.”  Then I took Sioux into the round pen.  I really didn’t know what I was going to do with her since it has been a while since I’ve worked with her.  I’ve wanted to teach her to walk with her head lowered the way I have with Pie.  For Pie it is to help him develop his top line while also loosening some of his tight areas.  For Sioux, I’d like to see if it will get her ‘telescoping’  She has a wonderful way of going when she gets up speed and is running around in the field, but she doesn’t have any kind of form when training.  So, I don’t have the same opportunities to teach head lowering to hear like I did Pie.  Pie was on stall rest and his only exercise was walking around the shedrow at Bowie training center, which at the time seemed pretty limiting but in hindsight, having less options helped us focus.  So, I worked on head lowering with Sioux via micro shaping.  The round pen has been mowed and there are four poles set up equidistant from each other.  At first she was just poking her nose down to cross over the poles.  And right around the time that I thought she’d never keep her head down for even a millisecond longer, she did.

Sometimes with clicker training it seems like the thing that we hope they will do will never, ever, ever present itself, and then. . . for an instance it is there and we can catch it.

What is really fun and funny with Sioux is that once she catches on to whatever the Clicking Game is, she is not about to let me make the mistake of not clicking when she gets it right.  She’d take an extra step with her head down and I’d see her shift her gaze ever so slightly like, “eh-hem, aren’t you forgetting something?”

We had some frustration with the calf getting loose outside the pasture and giving Sioux cause to look.  However, I learned that she has come to see my Taxi Cab Hailing Whistle not just as a cue to call her to me, but a sound to call her attention to me.  I hope that continues to work it really helped in the round pen tonight.

I guess that is all for tonight.

Share on Facebook

Pie’s mane is braided like a Morgan’s because it was the fastest way I could get it off of his neck for these pictures.  It’s grown very long as I’m trying to see how long it will grow.  Well, that and because it give him great fly protection.

I think the hives are from a sweet feed that I accidentally got.  I was sort of in a hurry when I bought it and wasn’t really thinking that ‘textured’ feed is the same thing as ‘sweet’ feed.  I did know that but apparently I did not recall that at the time of the purchase.  It did give both Pie and Sioux a major weight gain boost but I don’t really like what it did to their personalities.  Sioux’s first mom, Kate, warned me that Sioux gets kind of mean on grain and she is right.  Sioux has been switched to beet pulp, forage, and her minerals/supplements (herbal tea leaves, flax seed, turmeric).   Pie is still getting several pounds of grain a day but he’s also getting bagged forage and his mineral/supplements.  I hope that by next weekend Sioux will be back to her self again, at which point I’ll start working from Peggy Cummings’ book with her.

Oh!  And the round pen got mowed today, so that will be a more pleasant place to work with the horses, now, too.

Had a great ride with Pie tonight.  I wasn’t as pleased with his body carriage as I was last week, but we had a lot of opportunities to work on various exercises from Equine Fitness.  Lots of trees have come down on our trails due to all the recent storms.  It was a good work out.  For both of us, I’m tired.  Time to hit the shower and start making plans for Sioux’s new training program and figure out how to do some of the Connected Groundwork exercises with Pie (that portion of our day did NOT go well).

Share on Facebook