A Roan To Love

I really really impressed myself this weekend. I intended to try to paint a roan, and boy did I paint a roan. I knew going into it I would need to sell her, but I have fallen in love with her and secretly hope she doesn't sell, or at least sells for enough I won't regret it. I keep telling myself I could paint another one, but what if it was a one-time only thing? What if it was just luck, and not some secret talent?

Anyway, I'd like to share some pics of her, to record in my history, no matter where she ends up.

Of course, there are a few spots where I went wrong, but I can live with that. I've only been painting off and on, mostly off, for the past few months. I can count the number of customs I've done on my fingers, ha.

I'm mostly happy with her body. Her extremities could use a lot of work, I know, but for as much work as I did, I'm happy with it.

 (The primer ran some of the color on her belly, as you can see her. Noticeable up close, but not so much in the full body photos).

Unfortunately, I think her offside looks better than the front!

Anyways, I need a name for her, so I will be considering suggestions if anyone has any ;)

Hessen

I was looking for Hessens awhile ago, and still had a tab up for this guy:

http://www.sporthorse-data.com/d?i=730859&z=Hc7LTi

He's going to act as a placeholder until I can write a proper post about them.

Rabicano and Rust

That's what I was painting today, anyway. I went to Cal's Ranch Store, a mile away, and picked up some bodies to paint. One of which was a dog. I was interested to see if some black and tan, "rust" paint would turn a Great Dane into a Doberman, with a little help from a dremel tool.

Unfortunately, nobody I knew had a dremel tool, so until the next nice payday, that part of it will have to wait. Until then, I can touch up the paintjob. Didn't turn out too bad for a first go! (Sorry for the crappy pic, was using the iPhone in low light).

The plan is to dock the tail and round it off, and then cut down the jowls to a more refined nose. I've never used a dremel before, so by the time I actually get one, we will pray I don't butcher the poor thing!

Along with the Dobie, I tried my hand at my first rabicano. I don't have a single one in my stable, and I love black Arabians, and knew I needed one. So I made the most simple one I could:

Not my best job, but satisfactory but a first go. I may paint over it later and make her straight black, but we'll see if it grows on me or not.

On the other hand, I was happy with how her eyes turned out. I'm not the best at tiny little spaces!

Again, sorry for the blur. It's nighttime and my phone sucks, apparently. Good to know!

The Yearling Auction

We hosted a Yearling Pedigree auction the first few weeks of this year, and the results were fantastic! I wanted to share them here, to celebrate the success of the idea, and how much people thought it was a great idea.

I had 11 lots total.

We got 7 bidders.

All but two of the lots 'sold', the Haflinger and the Mustang.

The ASB lot, GH Steeltheshow, got the most bids at four. The dominant white Thoroughbred filly, Yukiallday, got three.

Next year, I plan to include a lot more popular breeds such as the Quarter Horses and Arabians, which I didn't get around to adding this time around. I'm thinking those will go quickly, like the ASB did.

Thanks to everyone who participated and made my little experiment a success!

Models Inbound

I somehow found myself with a lot of models heading my way. A Marabella won from an auction site, a rare GC lot of three won from Germany Ebay for less than one of the three was selling for within the US, a Sugar Blaze from a GC seller from Facebook, a group of non-GC horses from a second seller, and a fairly large group of GCs from a third.

Altogether they make up about half of what I've spent on models already so far this year. My goal is to purchase more this year than I have any years previous, so expect LOTS of activity both here and on my Facebook group.

So, keep your eyes peeled for lots of photos once they get here!

Miniature Horse

I met my first Miniature Horse today. She is so short, and what a cutie! My friend got her as a companion to her horse, and they seem to be getting along fine. My friend and her husband are very happy with her. She's got some work to do before she can be a kid's riding pony, but in any case, she sure is a looker.

Better yet, she's got not one, but two blue eyes!

I'm thinking splash, but I'm not very familiar with this gene. Anyone?

And for a little bit of humor...when I got home from visiting my friend, I opened up my computer and noticed my Excel spreadsheet of my models was still up.

Apparently, one of my cats had decided to walk across the keyboard, and 'updated' one of my models for me.

Unfortunately, Night Glider didn't get the joke, and I changed it back to black before I saved and closed out.

Anyone else ever discover your animals have 'helped' your hobby?

Purchases From All Directions

It's 10 days in to the New Year, and I hadn't purchased a single horse. Bid on a few in my GC Facebook group, but that won't end til end of day Monday, and then my paycheck on Thursday would cover that.

It's not that I'd tried to not buy any horses (in fact, one of my goals is to buy MORE horses than usual this year), but my unintended restraint ended today. After an unusually long week of engineering (and mind you, when I say engineering, I mean math, and lots of it. Think about that for a second-- a week of MATH lol. I always like to psych my non-engineering friends out.), I took a detour on the road home to drop by an antique store on the north side of town. They had had postings on craigslist for some Breyers, and seen a few I'd be interested in--namely, the original Justin Morgan and the original Thoroughbred mare and nursing foal set. However, I didn't know pricing, so I wanted to drop by and ask. I could have called, I suppose, but I won't lie, I like to try in person to let my fairly good-looking, charming self help reduce prices if possible. I've never had proof that it works, but it's always worth a shot.

Unfortunately, the situation looked grim. Most models were unmarked, and the ones that were had some intimidating prices. Like a black appaloosa running stallion for $100. Yikes! As I was headed out the door, the guy asked if he could help us with anything, and I decided to take a chance and ask about the ones I wanted. Luckily for me, the ones I wanted were unmarked, so when I asked about one, he quoted me a decent price. I hesitated and said lets look at the others I wanted, and we went to look at the mare and foal set. I paid near book price, but I'm happy with them (I got all the ones I wanted I had seen from the craigslist ad!).

They look like a cute family, don't they??

And then, once upon returning home, I found myself checking the Germany ebay website. And found a Buy It Now of a hard to find UK Clydesdale  family. It was pushing my budget limit, but the mare herself was selling for $20 on my group, and I could nab the whole family for ~$35 including shipping. So I did!

Whoohoo! Finally 'Ello Love and her foal will be heading this way! (Samantha, you will be getting their stud as a gift ^.^ to add to your Clyde stallion conga).

On top of all that, I won an auction for the original Marabella for only $11 and cheap shipping, so I got her as well. I'm super stoked!

Sometimes I feel that being young in the model hobby has its disadvantages. I am not good at crafting and so I will probably never make a name for myself that way, and I won't be able to make enough of an income on what I can do in order to trade for the expensive horses or tack. And so I will be left to purchase them all straight. On top of that, I have to catch up with all the horses that were released before I was even born! At prices 10-20-50x what they were sold at originally. $5 Traditionals? I can't even imagine. If I had a time machine, you know what I would be doing! ;)

So, share! What have you, my readers, purchased so far this year? Any great deals? Any surprises? Grails found already?

Palomino Sabino Thoroughbreds

Remember those painted Thoroughbreds I posted about the other day? I had two I was tracking down parentage for.

Let me introduce to you,

The Royal Lemon (Puchilingui x Lemon Bits)

and his son,

LordoftheLemons (x SFC Baroness).

I am highly amused by the name choice I settled on. I have a feeling that my palomino racing line will be revolving around the 'Lemon' tree!

Painted Thoroughbreds

Two Thoroughbred models have sent me on a search for pinto Thoroughbreds-- sabino, mostly, but the frame overo pattern also helped me track down a pedigree for a hard to decide model, as well.

When I got Carrick earlier this year, I wasn't sure what to do with him. He is fairly cute in person, but I didn't have anything specific planned in my breeding groups for him. It wasn't until I saw his photo close in order with Sato's that I realized I wanted them to be related, Carrick the sire of Sato. And so I started my search for a sabino Thoroughbred, and a whole ton of painted Thoroughbred popped up on my screen.

It wasn't until I read this page: http://www.whitehorseproductions.com/pintotbs.html (third down in the Google search for 'sabino thoroughbred') that I realized Thoroughbreds also came with the frame overo gene. For some reason, this information had not crossed my path until then. But when it did, it opened up a whole 'nother door. See, I had this guy: 

I knew he would have to be a warmblood of some type, but there's a limited amount that allow overo. Yet, once I realized Thoroughbreds could be overo, I knew if I could find a registry that allowed Thoroughbred crosses and did inhibit color options, I would have a breed for him. And since he is fairly thick, it didn't take me long to find what I was looking for-- Irish Draught Sport Horses aka Irish Sport Horse (although this term is usually used for horses that can have other than Irish Draught breeding), and Irish Hunter. And even though the Irish Draughts don't come in overo, the TBs do. That's all I needed to feel happy about that!

And so from there the search continued to find him a parent. 

A Google search for overo Thoroughbreds led me to this great Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/simbion/unusual-thoroughbreds/. They have a variety of neat-looking horses, including many overo and sabino patterned ones. 

I also tracked down Ellusive Quest, one of the more popular overo studs, I think: http://www.colorworld-ranch.com/questfoals.html. I ended up using him as sire to my Irish Draught Sport Horse stallion, and named him Ellusive Treasure. 

The other two are still undecided, as I have to also find a parent with the cream gene to pass down, but I will write an addendum as I do. 

GC Grail

It's a fantastic way to start out a model year--especially the Year of the Horse--by receiving one of your grails in the mail. 

I got mine today. I'd actually paid for him nearly two months ago. A fellow GC collector bid on lots from Germany to ship here, and was selling some of the horses ahead of time to help cover the shipping costs, etc. So I jumped on the chance and offered her a fair price, which was more than she was expecting, I could tell, and we both were super happy with the transaction. 

After the horses made it to her house last week, I paid for the shipping here, and she sent him out Monday. Now he's here!

Introducing the UK bay Arabian stallion, released around 2003--

He didn't come with a name, so he will most likely remain unpedigreed for awhile until I figure out how he can fit into my stable. I am so happy he is here. I've had his brother, the white-gray one, for several years now. All that's left is to track down a black one (and there are only two known that exist, both with different markings, so it's assumed they're both OOAK prototypes). 

My other grail goal for this year is a Naomi and Wynonna. I might settle for a Susecion and Le Fire instead, but I'd really like the new ones! If anyone sees any for cheap--under or around $100-- please let me know.

Golden Hart Estates First Annual Yearling Auction

I decided to amp up the marketing for my stable this year, and the first event on the list is a fun, free, and small pedigree auction of yearlings born in 2013. The auction is open to the public, and all it requires is sending me an email with which horses you'd like to 'bid' on. In the end, I draw names from a hat, and the winners get the pedigrees, as simple as that!

My goal is to reach 100 foals born from my stables this year, and since I already have an interest in one of the foals, it looks like I'm off to a good start!

Happy Happy Days

It's always good to be reminded the simple, glorious bliss of being outside in the sunshine and romping in the grass.

Rebel's grown up so much! He has been a fun, yet challenging, addition to our life. He requires a lot of exercise to keep him in line, but he is extremely loyal. I have always wanted a Doberman--perhaps because they resemble horses in shape, and black has always been my favorite color on animals. (I own a black cat, too!).

I wanted to share a few pictures with my readers. I hope it is an acceptable deviation from the model horse stuff!

(Sorta impressed with my iPhone. It got all the action shots pretty clear, but then it blurred the standing shots because it focused on the leash ^.^. Oh well! Running shots are way more fun!)

He can really stretch out when he wants to. For anyone who hasn't experienced a Doberman--they love to play, and run!

They have been called gorgeous, or beautiful, or even regal. And then there's this--

Still a big goof!