Kim is a Closet Artist

I've always wanted to be artistic.  I've consoled myself over the years by being told I am creative in my own way, thinking of unusual ways to train a horse, or appreciating the art that is good equine and human biomechanics in dressage.  But that wasn't enough!  I wanted to be good at drawing!

This desire has intensified in recent years, as I have several artsy friends like Rebecca:

 Jasi is incredibly artistic:

and of course we have Kim Hale who is good with watercolors, who does the incredible photography for Bit of Honey Training.

I have a good time in photoshop working on different projects, but I wanted to be able to draw with a pencil on paper, and create something I really liked. Recently I took out a good old yellow No. 2 pencil used for standardized tests and pulled out my journal in case it didn't turn out no one would see anything.

I had taken an art class in high school, more than twenty years ago.  I had a vague recollection of tracing a graph onto the photo I was trying to draw, then putting a graph on my piece of drawing paper.  Using the small squares, all I needed to do was draw tiny portions of the photo at a time, for instance isolating just a line that goes halfway across the box rather than trying to draw a leg.  I remembered this being the only way I was able to get drawings that were anywhere near accurate.

So I printed some stuff off the internet that I liked, drew graphs on the different images, drew corresponding graphs on my paper, and got to it.  This was my first try at artistic plagiarism, redrawing someone else's original drawing. 

Next I tried to do a drawing from a photograph, which was much harder!  Turns out it's much easier to do a drawing of a drawing than a drawing of a photo.  I do still liked how this one of Highboy turned out.

After Highboy's portrait I went back to some drawings of drawings, with increasing success!

This process has been going on for about two weeks.  Midway through last week, as I continued to text images of my drawings to Rebecca (artistic mage that she is), she asked what utensil I was using to draw these things.  When I told her my yellow standardized No 2 pencil I imagine she shook her head in chagrin.  "To Jerry's Artarama we go!" she declared.

Last Thursday we picked up Jasi from school and the three of us made a pilgrimage to the art supply store in Fort Collins.  They have all kinds of everything there, from A DOZEN different kinds of graphite pencils, to giant blocks of wood for sculptures, from pastels made of chalk that slip over textured papers, to pastels made of oil that glide leaving a spreadable stream of color behind.  Soon after walking in I found myself staring in awe at the sheer vastness of the pencil aisle.

Another customer approached me while Jasi and Rebecca were standing a little distance away, and upon noticing the obvious confusion on my face she asked, "Are you new to art?"

I naively responded, "Yes, just this week!  I've been drawing!"  She asked what I'd been using, and I told her about my trusty yellow No. 2 pencil.  Immediate disdain and skepticism spread across her face and she absolutely LAUNCHED into a tirade about all the supplies I needed to acquire and learn how to use.  I didn't understand very much of what she said as it was mostly in arsty-fartsy terminology.  But I smiled politely and nodded every once in a while when she would pause for breath between telling me about all the colored pencils, paints, papers, and miscellaneous media I should be trying.  Eventually she ran out of steam and went back to searching for her own purchases, leaving the three of us exchanging astonished looks. 

In the end, with guidance from Jasi and Rebecca, I settled on purchasing three graphite pencils of varying hardness.  One is super hard and draws lightly, one is very soft and makes thick dark black marks, and the one in the middle is still a bit softer and darker than my yellow one.  This way I can do darker blacks for the shadows in the drawings, and lighter lines for my grid that are easier to erase. I also got a kneaded eraser I can form into a small point to erase tiny portions at a time, and an 9x12 pad of drawing paper.

Using my new pencils and paper, I created these most recent two drawings.  I like them so much that I put them in frames I had lying around, swapping out old photos for the fruits of my new artistic endeavors.  I then hung them on the wall in my office by the closet, under my show ribbons.  It seems to fit, seeing as I take racehorses and teach them to be sporthorses.

I've been battling a little bit with whether what I'm doing is legitimately art, since using the graph makes it immeasurably easier for me to draw accurate replicas of the images someone else created.  Rebecca, Kim H., and Jasi all insist that it's not cheating, it's a technique.  I'm not tracing anything, just using my graph to help me get proportions closer to correct.  I'm going to go with it, since I'm not selling anyone else's images, just making these for my own pleasure.  Who knew I could draw?  It's a fun way to pass time when the weather (or the flu) makes actually riding and working outside too difficult.  I guess this means I'm actually a closet artist, since I didn't know I could do these things and now they are hanging near my office closet.

Announcing Mahzi's New Job

When Mahzi arrived here over three years ago from Mountain Pet Rescue, she looked like a border collie mix and acted like a full border collie.  She was hyper, athletic, super smart, and BUSY.  I was told that she was approximately a year old, since she had all her adult teeth and was so tall and leggy.  She had been a stray in Arkansas that animal control picked up, but because she was so intense they had no luck adopting her out from the high-kill shelter where she was held. Mountain Pet Rescue brought her to Colorado to find an active mountain home for her.

I adopted her from the rescue and brought her home to learn the ways of being a horse-training border collie.  She definitely had the border collie brain.  She caught on fast and loved to run with me and the thoroughbreds in the back forty.  She would jump the jumps, climb on the logs, and was always right next to me ready to work.

Time passed, and Mahzi began to change.  I suspect that when I got her she was actually closer to six months old, to have had all her adult teeth but to still have so much maturing ahead of her. She gained 30 lbs, putting her at a solid and fit 85 lbs now.  She filled out tremendously, then slowed down and became a lab.  She preferred to lie around and watch me and the horses work rather than participate.  Most of the time you could see her lying in the arena, giving me a look that clearly said, "I can see you from here, have a good ride."  She also didn't like being out working in the cold in the winters, and had to wear a coat to get through barn chores. 

This fall we decided to bring Mahzi in the house and see how she liked the slower pace of house dog life.  She took to it incredibly quickly.  The lying around in the heated living room is just the thing for her, and when she has to go outside to do business she hurries right back to the front door and gives us a woof to let us know she's ready to come back into the warm.  She also enjoys using her deep bark to terrify delivery people, who no longer ring the doorbell but just toss packages at the front door and bolt.

Mahzi loves to lie next to Jasi when she's doing homework at the dinner table, and Mahzi adores the "cookie in a Kong toy" routine in the evening.  She'll often fall asleep on the carpet, snoring away, and if you happen to wake her up she looks at you blurry-eyed with the tip of her tongue sticking out (she sleeps with her tongue out.)

We are getting into the windy season here at the ranch in Colorado, and I have a hard time with so much wind.  It gives me wicked vertigo, a leftover from the head injury.  I spend my time hiding in my office on days like this, and today Mahzi and I took a nap in my comfy chair.

The old saying, "Its a dog's life" doesn't sound so bad when you're a lazy lab living in the house!

I seem to have collected a fair number of animals that mature late, from late blooming horses, to Mahzi, my now 85 lb lap dog.  Her before and after photos are impressive.  Hard to tell it's the same dog!

First Trailride of 2018

Thank goodness for a fighting immune system!  I'm finally feeling better enough that I was able to get out and ride Highboy on the trails.  He was so pleased to be going and doing SOMETHING that he was remarkably well behaved despite not having been ridden for nearly a month.  The other possibility is that he is finally a grown up, because he has finally turned nine (by convention all Thoroughbreds turn a year older on January first).  Really a toss-up between the two.

We spent our first trail ride of the year at Eagles' Nest in Livermore with Shambhu and Carol.  The river was mostly frozen so there's no fun splashing videos this time, but it was still a beautiful scenic ride with sunny weather.  We finished just as some clouds were rolling in.  Highboy was performing his usual routine of "But I don't wanna go home yet!  Just five more minutes!" and crawling as slowly towards the parking lot and trailer as possible. 

He and Shambhu have a pretty good system worked out.  Highboy insists that he wants to lead at the beginning of our rides, because we are charging out into the great unknown and if we're having an adventure Highboy wants to see it first.  Shambhu is perfectly content with this.  It's a lot of responsibility to be the lead horse especially headed into new territory, and Shambhu is really more of a content follower.  Once we get past the halfway point in our loop, though, the roles switch.  Shambhu is happy to be headed back to the safety of the trailer and a hay bag and he takes the lead.  Highboy then proceeds to drag his toes, lollygagging along and stopping often to stare around at the scenery.  He never wants the rides to be over!

Super Cold

I've been having a rough month - between stomach flu and now regular respiratory flu not too much has been going on here with the horses.  We have had huge temperature swings, for example yesterday was over 60 deg with more than 40 mph wind, and last night we were down to 10 deg. Tomorrow night is supposed to be a balmy 3.  Highboy was sick, too, and we've just all been down for the count. 

When I woke up this morning, after my blessed husband told me he would feed the horses for me (having trouble breathing between my asthma and being sick), I saw it had snowed last night as well.  Looking out the window at my frosty horses made me remember this photo I took of Samson years ago on a similar morning.

Horse Swimming Video

I finally was able to get the video of the mares swimming off of the phone, and here it is!

So much fun with water loving equines!

Turnout in the Round Pen

Tonight we turnout the girls out in the round pen to play a little.  Miss Pea and Raven had a great time running, bucking, and jumping the poles, but I think that Miles the border collie had the most fun. 

Fort Robinson Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we took off and spent nearly a week at Fort Robinson in Crawford, NE.  I took Raven, Jasi brought Miss Pea, and Kim H. rode Rain.  Owen and Kim H. did a phenomenal amount of cooking in a limited kitchen (the oven was particularly challenging as the temperature setting on the dial didn't match what was actually going on in the oven...) and we were treated to a huge awesome thanksgiving turkey with pies!  Rebecca came too and helped with cooking, horses, and did some hiking. 

Our trip started with a drive and good tunes courtesy of Jasi's music playlist and bluetooth speaker.  Even the dogs could sense some fun adventure was afoot.

Fort Robinson was an old cavalry base back in the old west days of "cowboys and indians," and this trip we had the horses staying in barn 105, one of the old cavalry barns!  This barn was just across the field from our cabin.

 

Our cabin was the same one we had stayed in the last time we made a trip here, and the evenings were spent eating good food, playing games.  Of course I had to go to sleep early, and each night I was joined by the dogs.  Most nights they would fall asleep with me on the bed, then when Owen came to bed he would send them to the dog beds.  They always gave him crusty looks, and Miles tried to explain that the border collies ALWAYS sleep with me on trips.  Owen literally had to shove them both off the bed the first night.  This woke me up so I used the restroom while I was awake.  As soon as I was out of bed the dogs jumped up again to lie down in my spot.  When I returned from the restroom I just quietly said, "off," and they hopped down politely.  This left Owen rolling his eyes, but it all worked out in the end.

 

We had great weather, and spent much of our riding time working with Miss Pea in water crossings.  I love the little creek that runs through the Fort, it has good footing, sandy bottoms where you can see all the way through, and fish swimming around the horses' legs. 

Our first couple rides were spent in these crossings, and Raven was able to show off for Miss Pea and demonstrate how to get across.  We went back and forth several times until Miss Pea decided that it was safe, then she began following Raven, and finally going through all on her own.  Feisty McSassypants (Raven) actually decided that it wasn't fair for Miss Pea to go through first, and you can see her little temper tantrums in this video.
https://youtu.be/df38sbdPj8k

We saw a humongous group of turkeys on these water crossing rides.  I swear, when I zoomed in on the photo and did my best to count heads, there were nearly forty of them!  This led us to ask the google what do you call a large group of turkeys?  We all wanted it to be "a gobble of turkeys", but turns out a large group of them is called "a rafter of turkeys".  We eventually resigned ourselves to that bit of information when we watched them all fly up into the trees to roost for the night.  We could picture them flying up into the rafters of a barn for the night, hence calling them a rafter of turkeys.

https://youtu.be/yTYdaU3BO5k

 We also went on other rides near the buttes on the other side of the base.

This first ride by the buttes was Saturday, and we spent the ride singing along to Jasi's collection of Christmas music saved on her phone.  Two and a half hours of holiday merriment, with a lot of words mixed up and added in such as "all I want for Christmas is a vacuum cleaner...." from Kim H.

We went on our last couple rides out on Crazy Horse Trail, so of course I posed for a photo with one of my very own Crazy Horses.

This trail led us parallel to the road for about three miles from the base, ending up at the lake.

There we played in the water, and eventually we just stripped the horses' tack, hopped on bareback, and went swimming!  Owen, Rebecca, and Kim drove down and met us at the lake with dry clothes (we were so grateful!)

 

The water was pretty cold, but Raven dove right in!  She reminds me so much of Honey, the last mare I owned 20 years ago, after whom I named the stable.  She loved to swim, too, and when Raven got deep enough that she began paddling I immediately remembered how much fun Honey and I had swimming in both Massachusetts where I grew up and Washington State where we swam in the ocean.

Raven enjoyed herself so thoroughly that she was humming while we were deepest in the water.  She splashed and dunked her face, and even tried to herd Miss Pea in deeper.

Miss Pea actually went in pretty far too, and enjoyed splashing around in the water with Jasi.

Rebecca took some video of us in the lake, which will be available as soon as we can get the iphone to cooperate....

Overall we had a great trip and enjoyed ourselves.  The horses were tired by the end, which is another sign that it was a good time.