Newsy Post and Happy February!

Well, I've been quite sporadic with my blog posting so far this year.  I'm hoping to turn that trend around and get back to more frequent posts.  As usual, it's not that I don't really have anything to say, it's just that there seems to be a disconnect between things happening and me sitting down to write about them.

There is a LOT happening!

I have, at last count, six people interested in giving a show home to one of my little custom horses.  (yay!)  I'm hoping to get that all going starting this month.  Some horses are already done, but I have plans for several more that are already started.  I'd like to finish some of them to have a larger pool to give away.  If you haven't contacted me yet about that, the offer is still open.

In related "paint all the horses" news, February 1st marks the official start of NaMoPaiMo, National Model Painting Month - which is a(nother) awesome idea from Jennifer Buxton, of Braymere Custom Saddlery.  After being unable to decide who I would paint until nearly the last minute (so me...), I chose Anubis.

He will be black, most likely solid black, in honor of The Black (Stallion), my earliest horsey obsession.  Also, my main reason for adding Anubis to the herd was as a costume model.  I thought about leaving him unpainted for that purpose, to allow the costumes to be the focus of future photo shoots, but I think most costumes will "pop" well on a black horse too.

(related to costume models, I've also decided that I will be buying a couple copies of a miniature version of a certain famous Traditional resin, if that's enough of a weird, vague clue...)

The decision I'm struggling with now (sigh...) is whether or not to do a tiny bit of work on his face.  He has a very "exotic", extreme profile and...  that's not really my thing.  I love the head of an Arabian horse, but usually not the ones that are SO dished.  I've gone back and forth thinking that I would leave it (I feel kind of weird about altering a resin, even though I know there are artists who routinely do way more than what I'm considering) or that I would go ahead and build it up a bit.

Currently I'm leaning towards: "just do it".  The overall impression he gives me is of a big, strong horse and, in my eyes, I'm not the sure the delicate face fits him.  I absolutely LOVE the detailing on his muzzle, so I won't be touching that if I can at all help it.

In other news, anyone who's read my blog for a bit probably knows about my struggle to let go of my "other" crafts.  At the moment I'm sort of running three businesses, or perhaps one actual business and two creative hobby-wanna be businesses.  The laser is the real thing, then I have my horse stuff, and finally - I have a crafting business where I make and sell things locally.

A couple of weeks ago I received a local inquiry, which led to my biggest order from that venture; and that's one reason for the most recent radio silence on this blog.  The order was for 6 cross-stitch signs and I've been furiously sketching patterns and stitching away ever since.  I'm underway on the last one and hoping to have them all finished up by this weekend.

That rolls into another bit of news, this weekend we are going in the trip to the famous Sapporo Snow Festival.  We'll be gone almost all of next week.  That means that for me, NaMoPaiMo is actually NaMoPai2-1/2 weeks or so.

Thankfully, I don't think Anubis needs much prep work.

Famous last words.

That's about it for the news I think.  I need to go finish up the last cross stitch sign and then, probably, start putting a bit of epoxy on a certain horse face.  *gulp*

Good Day - Bad Day

This past Saturday, I went and had a riding lesson again.  Well, I paid for a lesson, but really it was just me and Mulan in the arena, free to do whatever!  Tsukako-san took a lesson in the corner of the arena, while Mulan and I rode in big L shapes along the other two sides.  The snow was even deeper this time, so I kept her mostly to the path along the fence.

I started at a walk for a bit, then trot, then eased her into a canter.  I was warned that since it was a bigger area, she would want to RUN and I would have to hold her back.  She did want to take off at first, but she also listened well.  Still, she is a little freight train!  I hadn't really had the chance yet to see how she handled, outside of going in circles, or the one time we galloped down the Yabusame track.  I now know that she can turn quickly!  She came close to unseating me just once - as I was figuring this out - but I stayed with her.  I had a lot of fun trying out different things and I was so happy that much of what I had learned about training and riding over the years came back to me (I've been afraid I would forget everything).  Particularly, I remembered things I had learned from Buck Brannaman about opening and closing doors.  I had some neat moments with that.  Mulan is certainly "handy".  

At the end of the ride, Bandi-san asked me to join her and Tsukako-san in their corner.  She took pictures of us with her phone and when I handed her mine, she asked if I'd like pictures of us running.  Yes!  So, Mulan and I took off and did a wonderful "hot lap" of the whole arena.  Bandi-san took a lot of pictures.

...

Where are they?

Well, that brings us to the bad day part of the post.

I had carried my phone in my coat pocket during last week's lesson and did it again this time.  At some point during my ride, I realized it was gone; it had fallen out of my pocket.  My concern was being able to find it in the deep snow.  Luckily, I found it.  Unluckily. it had been stepped on.  It was *bent*.  It worked long enough for Bandi-san to take pictures and I hoped that meant all was well, but it wasn't.

Jeff and I went into our cell phone provider and they gave me a loaner phone while sending mine off for either repairs or replacement.  They asked if I wanted to back up anything from it, but at that point it was stuck in a constant restart cycle and that wasn't an option.  I was fairly confident that my auto backup would have all of the pictures saved.

I just checked and...  yes, all of my pictures, video, etc. are preserved...  except the pictures of me on Mulan this past Saturday.  :(  I guess the backup didn't get a chance to happen before the phone went into it's death throes.

Sigh.

It was still a good day, afterward riding we hung out in the office for a while, having a snack, some hot tea, and good conversation,  I met a new horse-loving friend named Hana and we talked quite a bit, mostly about horses!  As we were all leaving, she shook my hand and then gave me a hug.  :)

Killed phone and all, it really was another good day.

Since I have no pictures of the day, here's a picture of my cat.  Cat pictures are always good, right?

She was passed out in between us on the couch last night, while I cross stitched and Jeff worked on one of his R/C controllers.

No Excuses

I'm good at making excuses.

There.  I said it.

I have SO many projects and things I want to do, but it seems I'm much better at preparing than doing.  Then come the excuses.

I have an Arabian costume started for Stablemate scale.  It's been "started" for a bit now and I've been feeling like I want to work on it lately.  One thing holding me up is that I don't have a saddle tree made for that scale.  I'm at the stage where I can't go much further without one.  So that was my excuse every time the creative bug has said, "hey, you should work on that".

I don't think I can make THAT particular excuse anymore.

Here's what I made last night:

I am SO happy with how they turned out!

MUCH Needed Ride

Yesterday I went out to the Misawa Horse Park again.  My new friend, Tsukako-san, told me she would be going out to take a lesson.  I didn't feel up to taking an actual Yabusame lesson; I told her I was embarrassed that I haven't been doing the "hundreds of squats" that I'd declared I needed to do after my first attempt to ride Yabusame style.  I did want to ride though and thought maybe I could pay for a "free ride session" and just cruise around for a bit while she had her lesson.

I ended up taking a lesson with Tsukako-san, we both rode together and Banri-san (the instructor) gave us a basic riding lesson.  My mount was Mulan, the horse that I've ridden each time out there.  Turns out she is the boss of the herd and she is also much faster than Orphee, Tsukako-san's mount.  We started with me following, but Mulan was a horrible tailgater, being much faster in her gaits, and I had a hard time keeping her from being up Orphee's rump.  So we switched and I was our front leading the laps, but then I had to listen for changes from walk to trot, and also when Banri-san called out for circles and change of direction.  It went fairly well, Mulan was much happier to be out on the lead.

After we trotted around and around for what seemed like forever (I was made aware that I'm not in tip-top riding shape anymore!), we took turns having laps at the canter.  Mulan and I went first and did a bunch of laps at the canter.  It was SO much fun and certainly a much needed ride.

As Tsukako-san took her turn at the canter laps, Mulan and I hung out in the center.  I fished out my phone and snapped a picture to remember the ride.

We walked a few more laps, then rode back to the barn.  Before I hopped down, I asked Banri-san if she would get some pictures with my phone.

Another thing of note: you might notice the snow on Mulan's legs.  We did the entire lesson in almost knee-deep snow!  It was also quite cold, but riding kept us warm.

After the lesson, I was invited to stay and have lunch.  They were having a get together and cooking what seemed to be the Japanese version of gumbo - all sorts of things thrown into a pot - cooked over a log on end with a fire in the middle.  It was very good and I tried some crazy stuff - fish parts that I won't mention.  Thankfully, I'm not a very picky eater and was brave enough to try all of the "scary food" (as someone joked).  Then we went and hung out for a little bit in their office type building, with a kerosene heater running, had coffee and tea, and a good chat about learning Nihongo (Japanese language) and English.  I made new friends and had a wonderful time.

It was the best day.

Updates and A Wonderful New Tool

I decided to take a bit of a studio break after launching my Patreon page, the building of which has taken up a lot of my time and brainpower, particularly over the past couple of weeks.  I'm SO excited to have my first patron on there already (Thank you again so very much, Katherine!) and I'm having fun getting my blog and picture sharing going over there.

One of the challenges I was having was to make a cool banner picture.  I had a vision, but was really struggling to make it work.  I stumbled across this site which has a FREE photo collage builder!  They have other photo editing tools as well, but the Collage Maker was the only one I tried.  It was an awesome find and without much trouble at all, I created this:

(another tip: the center image is actually another collage that I made, saved, and inserted into the one with the larger Japanese horse pictures)

Afterwards I went on to make a collage of pictures to advertise one of our laser products (with lots of options) and I will be going back to make many more collages I'm thinking.

Also in the update department, the response to my custom horse giveaway/incentive program is promising and exciting.  I already have a few people offering show homes to my creations and I'm very much looking forward to getting all of that up and running!

If you are interested in participating, feel free to send me an e-mail (horsetender@gmail.com), or message me on my Facebook page.

Aside from taking a minor studio break, yesterday I went back into "laser mode" for our laser cutting/engraving business, which is my "day job".  Worked on some orders, did some design work and ran the machine for a little while.  I'm still trying to work out a schedule to fit in ALL of the things.  I had thought I'd do a few hours of each (ie: laser and studio) every day, but it seems to work out better if I devote most of a day to one or the other, really get into the zone.  So maybe I'll alternate days and see how that works.

In the travel department: We have two trips coming up.  In early February we are going to the Sapporo Snow Festival.  It should be quite an adventure!  We'll be riding an "overnight ferry" to get up there, a first for me for sure.  Sapporo is on the island of Hokkaido, north of the main island, Honshu, which we are on.  I've been wanting to go to Hokkaido for quite some time, as that's where most of the Thoroughbred breeding farms are, including Big Red Farm - home of Kentucky Derby winner, I'll Have Another.  Alas, on this trip there will be no horses, since it is a guided tour we are going on.  I suppose winter is not the best time to visit anyhow.

In April we will be going back to the U.S. for a visit!  It promises to be a whirlwind tour of most of the country.  We are quite spread out, having family, friends, places to be, in just about all four corners, plus the middle - I'm talking to you, Colorado and South Dakota!

I think that about covers all of the updates on the goings on here.

Oh, yeah...  it's been SNOWING!  :D

THE NEWS

Okay *gulp* here we go!

First up, a few days ago I posted asking "Do you show?"  I've always been curious about that, but it also ties in with my first announcement.

That is:

FREE CUSTOM HORSES TO GOOD SHOW HOMES

I am going to be giving some horses away.  That's right: FREE.  I'll even pay the shipping to you.  It's not a contest or drawing and there are no strings attached, but a few small conditions.

Basically, I'm looking to get more of my custom work out there in the world, and showing.  I had planned to do that myself, after coming back from my hobby hiatus, but, then, well...  Japan.  So I've decided that I'd like to give some of my work away, with some conditions:

1 - I'm looking for people who show and will show the horse that they get.  You don't to be hardcore, I don't even have a "minimum" number of shows in mind or anything like that, but since I'm doing this to get my creations out there, at least some shows would be good.  I would prefer them to go to live shows, but if you are active in photo showing and will add them to your string, that's good too.

2 - You have to let me know how they do at the shows!  I'm wanting to get better and better with my work, so I would welcome any feedback, good or bad - as long as it's constructive.  And of course I'd love to brag about them if they do well.  ;)

3 - If you ever decide to sell them, please offer them back to me first.  I'd like to keep track of them and I'm not doing this so that someone can "flip" a free horse.  I'll have quite a bit of time into each one of them and I'd like to keep track of them if I can.  At the end of the day though, they will be your horse, to do with whatever you'd like.

That's it!

Overall the horse will be "artist's choice", but I would like to match everyone up with horses they are interested in - and more eager to show! - so I plan to at least ask what type of horse you'd like and if there are any that you don't want.  As far as more details on what is offered: for now they will be Stablemates, repaints only or possibly repaint/hair if you are interested in that sort of thing.  (I still enjoy doing them, but I realize they are apparently "SO ___ years ago"... haha)  I have many Stablemate remodels too and eventually might add some of them to the program.

I really have no idea how much interest there will be in this, so I don't have a limit set right now on how many I will give away or when this ends, but you might want to act fast in case the response is bigger than I'm expecting!  ;)

For now I am ONLY offering this to the followers on my blog and Facebook page.  I don't plan to "go public" (if I do at all) until you guys get a chance at this first.

I'm still gathering some of my thoughts for down the road with this.  I'd like to turn it into some sort of incentive club.  Possibly after you show the horse X number of times, you can have another horse if you like.  Also, anyone in the "club" would get a discount on any horses that I might sell in the future.  Things like that.  It will be evolving over time, but for now: let me know if you are interested, and willing to commit to showing your new horse.  Then I'll start playing matchmaker.  ;)

I aim for LSQ with my work, which is a subjective term, so I won't jump up and down and say that I absolutely do LSQ work.  However, before my hiatus, I had man NAN-qualified custom horses, as well as a small handful of Champions and Reserves in limited showing.  I'm a bit rusty now getting back into the swing of things, but still managed to get fresh NAN cards on a bunch of my horses (old and new) before our big move.

My herd of custom minis with their winnings at a live show in March 2015

That's announcement number one.

*deep breath*


Number two is:

I NOW HAVE A PATREON PAGE


What is Patreon?  In a nutshell, it's a platform that allows creators and those who wish to support them to get together.  I learned about it several months ago and thought it sounded like a really fun thing to try and, well, I'm finally doing it.  It took me a while to decide what I'd like to focus on there and I settled on, no surprise: horses.  My page will be a fusion of photography - focusing on horses and events here in Japan - along with my model horse projects.

What does all of this mean for my blog?

Nothing, really.  I still plan to post here regularly (aiming for everyday, or as close as I can to that) and I will still be sharing a lot of things from Japan on here, just like I always have.  More tutorials are also in the works.  However, I've got some really big plans for my creative and horse-loving journey, starting this year, and I thought it'd be fun to explore Patreon as a platform to develop and share some of them.

It's uncomfortable to "ask for money" and that is something I certainly don't enjoy doing.  That's the number one reason why it's taken me so long to launch my own page on there.  I certainly don't want anyone to feel like they *have* to pay me anything, but if you'd like to support what I'm doing and what I have planned, that's great.  Either way, I will still be creating a lot of free content, like I always have - but I thought I'd give a try to a new platform that puts a lot of emphasis on community building and growth between creator and patrons.

Please take a look at my page here:  Horse Tender Studio on Patreon

I've put a lot of work into it and I'd love to know what you think!


And now I'm going to take a nap.

The very first picture I put up on my new page, appropriate for new beginnings.

Tomorrow Is The Day

Okay, I'm committing myself.  (to the loony bin?  maybe I should...  ha!)

In tomorrow's post, I will be spilling ALL of the beans on my "big plans" - ready or not.

A glimpse of some of the craziness going on today in my last rush before "launch":

I am going to make a video of myself.

Oh my.

I am NOT an "on camera" person.  However, it's good to get out of your comfort zone, right?  Right...?

Excuse me, while I go take a dive out of it.