This week, on instagram I did a few days of intense posting around I topped it with a bunch of Amira dressed for Halloween in 2016.
The shooting, that still holds a special place in my heart:
-MEET YOU AT THE GRAVEYARD (2018) - Dieweg Graveyard (Bruxelles) & Brugge's Graveyard
http://andreamofspots.blogspot.com/2018/10/meet-you-at-graveyard.html
Horses dressed for Halloween, long time ago...
Will do another recap on another thema next month for sure!
Yesterday I posted the portrait Sue Kern did for me of my gelding, Excalibur.
The search was difficult because it's not that easy to found a sculpture that looks like him. So, as far I did with Amira for her portraits, I choose on a "mood board". So I searched for a resin that have an attitude and body langage that reminded me of my pony.
I also wanted a Eberl resin, painted by Sue to match my Amira portrait n°2. So the two resins would kinda belong together.
If I see Amira galloping freely with energy in a field when I close my eyes, I see more Excalibur "showing off" in front of other horses (or sleeping in a corner, wich is less epic).
Of course, the best of the best, for both my horses would be to have original sculptures, I really wish this dream can come true one day or another, but waiting for that opportunity I'm really glad with how I managed to run thoses portraits on the closest look.
See the "mood board"
For me that trotting lipizzaner, if you close your eyes on the lenght of the head, is pretty close. The body is really the same, the attitude too. Sue did a more fitting tail and reworked the head a bit.
Also, thoses two portraits were never introduced to their equine counterpart...
Now it's done! - And I like that!
And you, how would you choose a model for a portrait?
Moonshine
Breyer Premiere OF (designed by Tammy Myrold) on "Forever Sage" mold. Released in 2015 and sculpted by Kristina Lucas Francis.
Colour: Grulla, Blanket Pattern // Breed: Mustang.
Gender: Mare.
So this summer, three of my hobby friends came at home!
I've spoken about the Live Show we did before, I posted some of the shootings we did together and I started to talk about our pony rides with my latest post about Excalibur...
So what else didn't I have mentionned? the fact they have met Amira, because she's the real star!
Amira who was perfectly fine, as always. She shared a field with an old retired lipizzaner mare (as my actual stable is one that breed lipizzans) this summer.
The fact that we took a galop in the fields with Excalibur, even if I wasn't comfortable with that idea because the pony buck a lot. But he was kinda stellar, despite a few tentatives.
Maybe I am a bit too worryied but my friends were happy...
That morning ride was followed by a trail together in the afternoon, wich was also an exercice for me as Excalibur is difficult to handle with other horses. He feel like he's competing against them and try to take the lead on me... wich is really not somethin' I appreciate and need to be worked.
Most of the trails I've done with other horses have been a nightmare.
He surprisingly behaved well, I felt he was electrised but he was listenning to me. I was a bit relieved to be honest. Maybe our gallops in the field on the morning helped.
With other horses around, cows were more easy to handle. Good point on the group therapy :')
Because there's a lot of cows everywhere in the mountains...
After a long ride, we started the return. A water spot is always welcome, Excalibur loves it and always splashe and splashe and... he never stop, I had to get him out of it.
When we started to gallop, he immediatly started by a jump and a buck and I had to stop him. It's really difficult to gallop him with other horses, he instaneously take the bit to the theeths and jump in the air/bucks. That attitude cracks my nerves to be honest.
I had to get first to properly gallop him, and let the others enjoy a soft ride.
You can enjoy the smooth gallop too...
Once back, we asked for extra pictures as that's not everyday that you can do this with your hobby friends ;) - Great memories!
I've already talked about it, it's not a true love story in between me and Excalibur.
He's not the smartest, most willing horse, let's be honest. He's not nasty, but he's lazy...
I've started to improve him on that point, I've found that rewards that can be eaten were the most helpfull.
I show you some lunge work I did past winter, so you can see all that energy flowing out of him (or not...)
Or if you dont want to follow the link just watch here at 3:12 (you can also stop watching at 6:09 for the lunge part)
What you see on this vid is not because the floor is muddy, it's really how... motivated he naturaly is no matter the weather, floor condition or exercice.
If I was able to improve his walk and trot on lunge, I wasn't able to have him at canter. He doesn't wanted to. So I had to work this when riding. After a few search on how to administrate rewards when on the back of the horse, we worked on the depart in canter...
You can see on the video how I took the bad habit to lean forward every time I ask for canter because on how hard it is to have it. Yes it's not helping - I know - but I didn't even realised how much I was doing that.
You can see at 0:56 that he's bucking, bucking is a real problem with him - as it is with horses that doesn't put energy in their canter.
As you may or may not know, I am mostly a self thaught rider, so yes I am not perfect on saddle. I lack of actual riding class so pushing away the bad habits, with a horse that indulge thoses, is a really difficult task.
On another side, I can agree with you he's really good at standing and he's a very obediant pony :')
So well, it wasn't perfect but as spring came, I had already improved the pony, his willing was better even if he had his own problems, like he doesn't like to canter on the line of the arena that's not enclosed.
So yes now he can walk, trot and canter with more energy, but there's still difficulties and you better stay concentrated on him or he'll slow down.
But I got him well enough to start jumping a bit, just to change our exercices. He kinda liked it.
Then after a winter and a spring working and improving, I got 3 friends at home this summer! I jumped on the occasion to do multiples videos and show our progress. Since then, I wanted to actually wrote this post!
So I got not one, but tree way more experienced rider than me on the pony, and believe me, they had a harsh time. Because yes, he's better, but he's also able to test if by chance he can just be slug himself.
@Kelly_Breyerhorse she's the youngest, she's having 2 half lease on horses and also is working for her riding center... she litteraly spent her time working with and riding horses.
You can see her asking for canter, she's leaning forward with her feet not at the right place, sorry girl it's just how awfull that pony is...
Here's a canter round, on the good, easy side of the pony. You can see how hard it is to keep him moving. And I said it again: she's a better rider than me. How on hell do I manage to do the same? I wonder when I see this.
@AGrassStory she's got years and years of riding and she own a mule. So she know how to ride for sure.
But well... cantering with Excalibur is a mercyless exercice. Here's a canter round with her, on the difficult side of the pony. It's a real challenge. And I will wrote it a lot there but she's a better rider than me.
(And yes I love this vids with all our energy flowing... really tun the sound on!)
@Manghorse_Modelhorse also have got years and years of riding beside her. She's not currently riding a lot but she's experienced for sure. Her wish was actually to jump a bit, so we worked on this.
But don't worry, it was hard for her too...
For a change here's a trotting video! Should I said it again? She's a better rider than me.
And a beautiful jump archieved at the end of the trip!
So now you have seen that Excalibur is not an easy ride, so let's talk about how he improved, because I showed what I could obtain out of him to my friends. Yes they had difficulties, because they didn't know him... but for myself he was just "greater" than before ;)
I of course worked him on walk, trot, canter...
But mostly on bars... with the help of my friends and their advices we did great things! Even a first try of them on canter!
I was just so thrilled! Look how easy it seems just from thoses captions.
We jumped a bit too! We even did that jump several times with no stop in between.
