Monday, August 29, 2011

Tack Tips

I'm new to tack-making. I admit it, I'm such a noob at it that the only thing I feel okay with the idea of selling is plain halters.

But, you've probably noticed I've been fiddling around with saddles despite that fact. I find crafty stuff easier to learn by doing, which means practice efforts that will make seasoned tackmakers cringe. But that's fine by me, and I'm still going to share my tackmaking on the blog, so that maybe some other complete noobs can follow in my footsteps and not feel like they failed miserably.

This week, over at Dreamflite, there was a blog post about buckle free tack that I think is well worth reading. Go check it out! I don't own any sticky wax, the only temporary stick stuff I have is PVA glue, but I'm going to try using Dreamflite's tips when I try making an artillery harness for LRH Nighthawke. I'd always intended her to be an artillery horse, from the moment I bought her. She'll be wearing a British Horse Artillery set one day.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Real Horse Insights

In between pedigree assignments and taking care of my cat, I went looking for pictures of Pacers, and diagrams of horse gaits, but what I found was something even more interesting.

I haven't ridden since 2006, but I rode a lot between 1992 and 1998, then took a quick break from 1998-2005. I was a good rider when I was younger, but I've learned more about riding since I stopped riding in 1998 than I ever did while I was riding.

What I had as a young rider was a quiet, polite, stubbornness that even the most difficult of horses responded well to. I rode horses that were known buckers and bolters, I rode horses in riding lessons that needed to be taught how to jump, and I got results. Sometimes it took me a while to explain to the horse what I wanted him to do, but I always got there eventually.

What I lacked as a young rider was physical strength, and the mental maturity I needed to understand the really tricky things. I understood a lot about what the horse needed, I learned that from Holger Heck and Volker Greiner's Start to Ride. That book was bought as a birthday gift two months before I started taking my first riding lessons. I read it many times before I started, and kept returning to it even while I was receiving instruction.

What I didn't understand was what the rider needed. I confess, I skipped whatever chapters there may have been in that wonderful Start to Ride book that told the rider what they needed.

Now that I'm older, and revisiting all of my horse knowledge, I'm suddenly understanding things that were beyond my ability to understand as a child. I'm beginning to understand where I was lacking bodily, and how to strengthen those weaknesses, and to work around those that I can't strengthen, in a way that will interfere minimally with the horse. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that if I were to ride a horse tomorrow, I would ride even better than I did when I was younger.

Today, I found something that comes to me quite easily, explained in a way that has to be shared. These articles, by Leslie Desmond focus on "Feel". Feel is something that, for me, comes easily. I empathize well with animals, I always have. To me, feel is empathy, patience, consistency, and a positive attitude.

It might seem like all of this is of no use to the model horse enthusiast... but I think it might be. Performance showing is supposed to show winning moments. If your horse model is tense and showing stiffness and resistance, he's showing a reluctance to work with his human (rider, driver, handler), for some reason. This could be the difference between a win and a loss in the performance classes, I think.

To use an example, the Classic Mesteno model is standing very tensely. I don't think he's suited to many performance classes. He's tense and alert through his whole body, and wouldn't be paying attention to what a rider or handler is asking, but to something that appears to unnerve him.

The G3 Cantering Warmblood, by contrast, is still alert, but moving loosely, in a relaxed, but disciplined fashion. There's no tension in her, and she's moving along with what looks like it would be a lovely rocking horse canter (albeit a hard one to sit if you have a weak core!)

I think I'm going to try and approach my customizing with a nod toward remembering this idea of "feel".

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Today is P.A. Day

Today, I've got to take my cat to the vet for a follow-up, so I'm not going to get much hobby stuff done today. I've decided that today, I'm going to really buckle down and work on my pedigrees. The Sire and Dam lists might look wonky a little while I'm working on this.

Yesterday, I drafted up a quick pedigree for Wasabi Sensation, the Standardbred Pacer I'm doing a repaint on. I haven't done a real horse pedigree before this one, this is my first crack at it. I wasn't really all that happy with the pedigree, so this morning, I did a bit more research and found a dam I like better.

As it stands right now, he's a 2005 stallion by Fantastic Frisky, out of Cayenne Pepper K. It might look from his bloodlines like he'd be a trotter, but Fantastic Frisky actually performed equally well as a trotter and as a pacer, in fact, in some ways he was better as a pacer, because he didn't break over while pacing.

To make this clear to anyone who ends up here because they're looking for real Standardbreds, this is a model horse blog, and Wasabi Sensation doesn't actually exist. He's a plastic toy horse. For more information on model horse pedigree assignment, check out these links:
Model Horse Pedigree Assignment/Breeding: An Explanation for Real Horse owners
Model Horse Breeding (Pedigree Assignment)
Breeding Model Horses (aka Pedigree Assignment)

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Lots of small updates

I'm still prepping the Stablemates. I'd forgotten how long prepwork takes!

In between letting coats of primer dry, I've been trying to assemble my own Aussie saddle pattern in CL scale. I've been making the original shapes out of sheets of foam, so once I've got that finalized, I'll scan them in to show what I've got.

I've actually gotten to the point where I've made the saddle tree, and started making the seat itself. I did something a little different from a lot of model horse tackmakers, making the saddle tree out of sintra. Sintra is a closed cell PVC foam. It's quite resilient, and heat formable. It's flexible when it's thin, just flexible enough that used in tack making, it won't hurt it too much if you squish a saddle. I use sintra a lot in my costuming hobby, so I have tiny scraps sitting around a lot of the time. The cheap plastic for sale signs printed with black and orange that you find in stores are usually made out of sintra, which should give you an idea how cheap the material is.

I'm still working on the flaps, and I want to try something a little different in how my stirrups attach to make them removable and and easy to replace. I was thinking about somehow using hooks and eyes, but I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to make that work yet. I don't have any super-fine leather, I'm using what I have on hand, so it's going to look a little coarse, but it should be sufficient for photoshowing.

I've also got a quick no-pattern Portuguese/Spanish styled treeless saddle I'm making out of vinyl, leather, and foam, which is coming along nicely. I'll make a pattern for this too, since it's pretty quick and cheap to make, and would be good for a kid's tack collection.

I've also entered some of my horses into the races over at the Model Horse Fun Club.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Prepwork

The last two days have had me hard at work prepping a batch of Stablemates for repainting. I'll be keeping the G2 Standardbred and the two foals, but the rest are going up for sale when they're finished.

I have one horse that's being a real pig to prep, because he's one of my first, badly done repaints, with thick paint all over him. Removing that paint is a pain in the hindquarters.

Right now, I've got three models in primer still needing a quick inspection to make sure they don't need more sanding, with the others still in need of a coat of primer.

I'll be sharing my progress with the Standardbred for a tutorial on how I approach painting roans.