Turning Sibling Rivalry Into Harmony?

The Major General, Don Pecos du Cheval and Chevals Topp Mentor are half brothers.  I have wanted to put together a show pair for almost a decade and just can't find a fit with these three.  This is my dilemma:

Major
Confirmation: Round
Way of Going: More Hock than Knee Action
Height: 14.2HH
Color: Black

Ace
Confirmation: Angular
Way of Going: More Float than Bounce
Height: 14.3HH
Color: Brown

Don Pecos
Confirmation: Very Round
Way of Going: Supercharged on all Four
Height: 14 & 1/2HH [the half is important!]
Color: Applevale Orange

Maybe I'm splitting hairs.  They all look pretty round in the above photos.  But I know them.  They don't look, move or match each other.  But, this is what I have and I want a pair.

Major and Ace match the best in size and color.  Major is a stud.  Ace hates him.  Ace kicks and bites and generally beats the snot out of Major.  Major just wants to be friends.  Ace does not.  Oh, well, color is the last determination for a pair.

Major and Don Pecos grew up in adjoining paddocks.  They sort of get along.  Don Pecos tolerates Major. Just.  Pecos clocks Major with both hind feet when Major pushes his buttons too far.  They match in conformation.  Sort of.  Pecos is just so bloody short.  But we don't tell him that.  Ever.  Major has a longer stride because of his extreme hock action.  Pecos can keep up, though.  They just don't match.

I've been working Major and Don Pecos together, free lounging in the indoor arena.  This works out well about three quarters of the time.  Until Major's AD/HD clicks in and he leaves the tandem formation they have assumed and runs off to the far corner of the arena to sniff some sweet smelling something.  I run after him and Don Pecos stops, rolls his eyes and waits for me to herd Major back behind him.  

We get the whole thing going again and I study them.  I watch them move.  I do a lot of observing horses movement to determine how I can adjust the conditioning regime to get the best performance from the horse's potential.  After about 20 minutes, I see their cadence beginning to match.  After some sprinting, I can see their strides balancing.

Maybe.  Just maybe...

When we finished today, they decided to groom each other.  Major got a little too enthusiastic and Don Pecos wheeled and plowed him in the gut.

Brothers.

Kind Regards,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www.hossbiz.com

Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

The Yorkshire (Carriage) Driving Club 2

Again, many thanks to Mr & Mrs F C Greenwood of Halifax for this wonderful archive of the Yorkshire Carriage Driving Club.  Ditto to whomever copied it to disk and put it on youtube!  If anyone knows anything about Mr & Mrs. F C Greenwood of Halifax, please let me know!

And how many people are in that Governess Cart!?!

Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

The Yorkshire (Carriage) Driving Club

I am so happy that  Mr & Mrs F C Greenwood of Halifax took the responsibility of getting out the moving picture camera and preserving this super footage for us.  There is so much to love about this. Especially because there is more: Part 2 tomorrow.

Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

Eras Ago: Equestrian Haberdashery

In my insatiable quest to find purveyors of all things over the top, I find an article about Swaine, Adeney, Briggs & Son of London and just take a gander at what they sold circa 1982.  Why, oh why can't we bring some of those equestrian accessories back into fashion?

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/02/travel/outdoor-gear-for-milord-and-lady.html

Alas!  Where am I ever going to find a child's christening hunting whip now?  If only I had an elegant silver box designed for cucumber sandwiches, surely the picnic class would be mine!?!  Woe is me.  Swaine, Adeney, Briggs & Son: We still need holly driving whips and glove shampoo. After 250 years, why do you only stock unisex hunt shirts and stocks?  Unisex?  Seriously?

To visit what they sell nowadays without the trip to Piccadilly:  http://www.swaineadeney.co.uk/  It is still worth a look.  The umbrella I chose online- the Ladies' London Tan with hand stitched saddle leather handle runs a mere $860. If I added up all the money I spent on umbrellas that I consequently left on the Tube, a back of a chair in a bistro or in a dumpster because the wind caught and shredded them, I could maybe have bought 1/2 of this umbrella.  The Swaine, Adeney, Briggs & Sons umbrellas keep the rain off Kate Middleton's silly little clip on hats, after all.  And, I suppose, if you can spend $860 on an umbrella, you probably won't have to worry about leaving it on the Tube as much as forgetting it in the Roller. In which case you send Carson or Branson to fetch it.

Take some time for a day dream today.

Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

Major Quality Time

The Major General and I at Columbus Carriage Classic where we were Open Horse Division Champions in 2002.

After a considerable period of time, I am now reunited with The Major General, my beloved black Morgan god.  With a nod and a wink to his long time foster family, I am happy to have him back in my daily life.  Major gives you a reason to stop in wonder everyday, and often more than once.  Not all these wonders are the most pleasant, but many of them are.

We were doing some serious barbershop the other day.  Major has this foot long forelock, which I have secretly always detested.  But it keeps the flies out of his eyes and lends him a rock star air.  He has rubbed out almost all of his once shoulder length mane and so we pulled it to be even.  Which Major did not one bit appreciate.  Maybe that will teach him to rub out his lovely mane.

While I was trying to clip his whiskers, unable to see anything, I lamented to him about how old we'd become.  "Ten years ago, Old Man, we were in our prime," I said.  "And now look at us.  I am flabby, mostly blind and desperately trying to hold on to the final remnants of beauty.  You are losing your mane, and really out of condition."  He let out a sigh.  A tear fell down my cheek.  "But you are still beautiful, Laddie.  And I'm so glad to have you back."

He looked at me, raised his eyelids and pricked those tiny little ears forward.  "Maybe we could make a comeback. Together,"  I offered.  His eyes brightened and he brought his front feet forward, dropped his croup and parked.

"Lets Go!"  Was the voice I heard.

Lets go, Black Horse.  Lets go.

Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

Period Drama and Vintage Carriage Traffic in London

I watched the last episode in series one of Downton Abbey on Sunday.  This is British period drama at its finest and series two cannot come soon enough for me. If you missed it, here is a link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/index.html

On a modeling assignment in London, circa 1990.  A friend calls this photo, "Wherefore art thou, Mr. Darcy?"

 Feeling a little homesick for my surrogate city, London, I trawled through some vintage footage from the British Film Institute and found these street scenes shot over 100 years ago.  I was shocked to see double decker buses pulled by a team of horses.  I spent a lot of time on double decker buses during my time in London, but was completely unaware that they were originally pulled by just two horses.



It seems the adverts that cover every available inch of public transport is not a new idea by Madmen.  Think how little has changed in 100 years- Nestle chocolate, Lipton tea, and what has: Kodak.  Traffic hasn't got much worse, either, and only a little bit faster. Traffic in present day London moves at about 11 mph along the same routes in the vintage footage: the Strand, Pall Mall, and Hyde Park Corner.

In addition to the double decker buses, handsome cabs, drays and commercial vehicles, I think I spotted quite a few broughams, a demi-mail phaeton, an omnibus and a park phaeton.  Then, of course there was the single motor car.  Driving a car in London is difficult enough, but I don't know if I would have had the mettle to handle a team in that turn of the century congestion.  Methinks, I'd have wanted a coachman.  And an Earl with an estate...just like Downton Abbey.

Quite.

Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

The Artful Animal Portraits of Lisa Jewell

A Jewell by Lisa Jewell: "Gracie" 40" x 30" Acrylic on box canvass.  On sale at "A Gallery of the Arts", Claremore, OK.

Some people play beautiful music by ear.  Others cook delectable dishes without recipes.  Lisa Jewell paints animals by instinct.  One look in the eyes of the subjects in her paintings and you know that animal.  Her brush imprints the essence of the individual.  To say she is painting or even producing art of our beloved horses, dogs and cats is a misnomer.  Jewell is a portrait painter, and even that doesn't do her justice.  We will call her a portraiturist.

Beretta on canvass and...

...in Real Life with Jewell.

The portrait succeeds where the photo fails...capturing the personality and inherent beauty of the horse.

Jewell paints from photographs, often very poor ones, and produces the likeliness of the animal with spooky perfection.  I received the gift of a Jewell Christmas ornament with Ace's portrait on it.  When I looked at it, I cried.  I remembered the day the photo was taken: damp, leaden sky, cold, but there was my Bijou looking brightly back at me as he always does, "Hello, My Human!" from a glass bulb.  Jewell has never met Ace.  The photo was of a black horse without any benefit from the natural light.  But there he was, in miniature, in all his sweetness and individuality: a gift of Jewell's brush.

My Precious on a Christmas Tree Ornament: Ace is on the bottom left.

Jewell's gift began to manifest itself when she was five years old, but she only picked up a canvass and some paints full time 3 years ago, with help from a benevolent and supportive hubby.  Jewell's talent now flourishes from the couple's acreage in Oklahoma.  Her modern and minimalist style uses bold, tertiary background colors which augment the beauty of the subject.  The placement and angle of the subject lend further interest to the works.  You do not look at a Jewell portrait and say to yourself, "I could have painted that."

"Medicine Hat" 18" x 24", Acrylic on canvass,  "I had the idea to do a painting with a little Southwest or Indian twist to it," Jewell said.  She was inspired by Medicine Hat paints of Native American lore.

The title of Jewell's blog is Mateo Painting.  Very fitting as 'mateo' means 'gift from God'.  Follow the life of a painting from inception to completion via her blog:
http://www.artbylisajewell.blogspot.com/
For more information on portrait commissions, paintings for sale and other Jewell artworks, visit her website:
https://artbyjewell.com/Home_Page.html

"Sunny Dressage Horse" 30" x 40" Acrylic on box canvass, for sale at "A Gallery of the Arts, Claremore, OK. 

If you are considering a portrait of your horse, dog, cat, longhorn [yep, she's done one!] or any other animal, your search for the artist is over, you've discovered the amazing instinctual art of Lisa Jewell.

Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.