Pimp My Pony

I'm a Breyerholic.
I still have my very first, a charcoal glossy Family Arabian Foal (FAF) my dad gave me for my 5th birthday in 1966 (you do the math).
Now I can add my own hand-painted creation to my shelves. As promised, here's an in-progress photo of the model I was painting for the Beach Horse themed contest at the seminar.

I opted for a pinto, patterned on the near side in a map of San Diego Bay, circa 1941 US coastal survey map. From the chest and up the off side, I used a 1971 US coastal survey map of the West Coast, San Diego-Alaska, including the Aleutian and Hawaiian islands. In another photo, you'll see that I added a string tail in the approved colors of the CA flag.

I'll also share photos of the other eight contestants who pimped out their Reeves/Breyer models. Every entry was striking, clever, and demonstrated that there is a lot of latent artistic talent among our AHP members. Congrats to Jada at AQHA, whose model clinched the most votes. If she ever leaves editorial (and I hope not!) there's a bright future for her detailing vans and sports cars.

Don't Dream It, Be It

I think we'll leave the fishnet stockings back in the closet with the rest of Tim Curry's early acting career, but like the Rocky Horror Picture Show lyrics go, it's time for my Dream Horse to become its beach theme.

Here's the Before... for the after, you'll have to wait until the Seminar when it joins the rest of its colorful herd on display.

Ok, one more thing to pack.

Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride

"Buy the ticket, take the ride."

It's my favorite quote by another writer, Hunter S. Thompson. I don't know how many, if any, of my fellow equestrian journalistas count the king of gonzo journalism and unabashed author of the 1970 classic The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved as among their literary inspirations, but when it was time to decide about going to San Diego, I decided that I would embrace my inner Raoul Duke, buy the ticket, and take the ride.

I haven't seen the West Coast since I was a kid. Now I'm coming up to one of those hallmark birth dates that serves as a reminder that sooner or later, we all have more days behind us than we probably do ahead. So it's about time to go back, and this time, among peers and friends who share that same commitment to an animal and industry that compels us to choose this career.

Not that I'm forgetting to bring along my inner child. I've collected horse models for almost 50 years. I still have about 350 of the original herd. So of course I asked to join in on the paint-a-model contest. I'm making time this weekend to start painting my Reeves/Breyer horse. I've got a beach theme all picked out. Oh yes I do. But you'll have to wait to see what it is. And I'll find out if I still have a tenth of the eq artist in me now that I did back when I drew mustangs and Arabian heads at the top of my elementary school homework notebook paper...

Guess we'll find out together. If you've bought the ticket, let's start the ride.