Along with organizing my herd (figuring out who all I have), I'd like to give them all proper names. At the last several live shows I've found myself with nameless horses, leading me to now have NAN-qualified horses with names like "Jake" and "Sarah"... also "Salt" and "Pepper"... When I was younger, I used to put a lot of thought into my names. I had pages of name ideas, song titles, places, etc., and I'd use them to name horses. There's nothing wrong with short names I suppose, but "Fool's Game" and "Prince of Thieves" just sound so much cooler.
I'm also thinking it would be fun to make things for each of my horses, like say a stable halter (with nameplate??) and a blanket. I've come across things lately where people made a blanket for each of their horses or have a halter for each horse. That just sounds cool and would be a(nother) fun project to chip away at. Plus, in the case of the halter making, it would give me an excuse to further my budding leather working skills. As a result of a big lace sale at Tandy a while back, I have a TON of leather lace to play with. May as well start cranking out some halters! Along the way, once I get good at it, I'd like to offer some for giveaway/trade/sell.
I've never done the halter nameplates, but I know there are different ways to do them. Mainly though, I'm thinking I'll use our LASER to make them and who knows, maybe that is another product we could offer in the future if I can get some neat ones made. We can do etching on metal, though we haven't tried it yet. Again, making a halter for each of my models would be a perfect excuse to practice that!
As for the blankets, I used to make those when I was younger too. I still use one of them on one of my Pacers, since I don't trust them to stand well.
It was made from felt and I use it as a pullover type. It does have buckles on the chest straps, no belly straps. I'd like to make ones that are fancier than this, it was made a loooong time ago in the era of my duct tape tack.
My other Pacer wears an old Breyer blanket.
In preparation for the move, Jeff and I have been going though our clothes lately and deciding to get rid of a lot of them. I have a LOT of fabric to choose from if I want to repurpose it (always something I think is good to do). Of course we are planning to get RID of the clothes, but I see no harm in hanging onto some of the material for my now planned blanket-making crusade.. ha!
So, that's about it. I thought it would be fun to share one of my recent brainstorms.
Does anyone else have a neat idea for something I might make for each of my horses?
I'm currently on my quest for making each horse it's own halter. I also try to make sure every horse has it's own tack set. Some horses have three different sets, one horse has a presentation set, vaulting set and a harness. Good luck with the nameplates, mine I blogged about didn't work at all. If you get good at them I will defiantly buy some from you.
ReplyDeleteTack sets would be cool, maybe I'll add that to the list - at least for my favorite horses. I don't have a ton of horses, but it would still take a looooong time to make tack for each of them! Presentation sets sound fun, I've been wanting to do some of those. I'll let you know how the nameplates turn out, it might be a little while until I get them figured out, but I've got ideas... :)
DeleteMaking a halter for every horse in my herd is a goal of mine. It's... slow going, ha! I've also wanted to make tack sets for each horse. :)
ReplyDeleteThere was a time where I was coming up with back-stories and personalities for each horse too... in a storytelling kind of way I guess? It probably sounds silly but part of me wants to go back and finish that. I still haven't come up with names and breeds for all of them! XD
Hey, I don't think coming up with back-stories and personalities is silly at all! I used to do that too. At one point I was actually writing a story of a horse ranch in the Old West and I had turned several of my models into characters for the story. :) I think that kind of thing is really fun.
DeleteI also used to do pedigree assignment and had a lot of fun with that. I'd like to dabble in that again too, even if it's only with some of my own horses. The ones in my herd that have done well at the last few live shows need some foals I'm thinking... ;)