Sunshine Award

In a recent post, Jennifer of Braymere Custom Saddlery nominated my blog for the “Sunshine Award.” Here’s the small print: “The sunshine award is for people who ‘positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere’. The nominee of this award must do the following, thank the person who nominated them, nominate 10 bloggers of their own, answer the 10 questions given to you, post them, and add the Sunshine Award Button to the blog.”

Since I have nothing of interest to post about this week, I went ahead and answered the ten questions. My answers are also from a model-perspective since real horses are kind of lacking in my life at the moment…

1. Mares or Geldings?
…what, no stallions? 😉 I prefer mares, actually, but if we were talking real horses I’d probably say geldings. I’ve had off-experiences with real mares. The geldings have all been… normal, for lack of a better word.
That said, I love my plastic mares and their non-existent mare-attitudes!

2. English or Western?
I learned to ride in a western saddle, and have a love for the west in general, so western will have to be my first choice. I do love the sleek and clean look of good English tack though.

3. Do you prefer younger or older horses? older or newer models?
That’s hard to say, cause I kind of love them both. I’m a big fan of Hess’ horses…

and am also fan of newer sculpts, like Eberl’s Marwari:

The oldest horse I have in my collection is a dapple grey Old Timer who’s been yellowed from living in a garage for years. Sunshine helps but it’s a long, slow process.

My newest is Two Step.

4. Have you trained a horse from ground zero?
My horses come to me perfectly trained or un-trained and nothing needs to be done about that ever! So, uh, no. 🙂

5. Do you prefer riding or groundwork?
Riding!

6. Do you board your horse or keep him at home?
I keep all of my horses at home. The majority of them live on a nice, large bookshelf that is (sometimes) well-dusted. They are all extremely well-behaved for being crammed in so close together and made to wear tack for weeks on end.

7. Do you use all natural things or just commercial stuff?
More commercial I suppose? I use embroidery floss and ribbon more than anything else, but I’ve got a nice stash of leather and roo-lace as well.

8. All tacked up or bareback?
Tacked up, of course. Being tack-friendly is one of my requirements for adding a new horse to the herd. (well, sometimes) I like having a wide variety of breeds to fit the wide variety of disciplines. I’ve bought horses with the excuse of making a breed-specific tack set to go with it. Has that actually happened nooooo. (I’m stuck in Arabian-land)

9. Equestrain role model? Hobby role model?
It’s tough to choose a role model since I’ve only met a handful of hobbyists in person. There are many tack-makers whose work I really admire though, like Christina Brown, Susan Bensema Young, Jana Skybova, Jennifer Buxton, Dee Crawley, and Liz Shaw. (back when she was making Arabian costumes, though her current work is just as beautiful) There are plenty of others too.

10. What’s your main goal while being in the horse world? hobby world?
When I first got into the hobby it was all about realism. I wanted to learn how to make super-realistic tack and wanted to learn how to take those pictures of models that fool real-horse people. (Cobra mares, anyone?) I wanted to participate in shows and bring home blue ribbons and all that. While I would still like those things, I’ve come to realize that this needs to be more about fun than anything else. The moment I start pushing myself to “fit in” with other people in the hobby or to try to impress anyone is the moment the fun of it starts to go away, and when the fun goes away, what’s left?

As for ten nominees, I’d like to nominate Shoestring Stables, Last Alliance Studios, Ivorytower Stables, Dreamflite Design, Desert Night Creations, Designs By Hart, Eva’s Office, Marilyn’s Hobby, Chinook Studios, and Don’t Eat the Paint, all of which I enjoy reading or visiting for eye-candy alone. Sorry for any duplicate nominations, haha…

Thank you again Jennifer for mentioning my blog!