While I wasn't excited about getting another Tiger, I suddenly can't decide what to do with him. There are several Tiger's for sale online right now so I feel like adding another one isn't going to help. And if I really wanted it gone I would have to mark it lower than the other horses and I don't really feel like losing money on something like that. I have been kicking around the idea of painting him and then listing him. I might bring him to the shows and see how he does. Again, I haven't decided.
Little Miss Fancy Prance was a horse that I had thought about getting for a while. She is one of those horses that I could take or leave. I like her pose and her personality, but I'm not in love with it. I was at the point where if I got one for a good price, fine but I wasn't going out of my way to get one. There is a nice painted one for sale online right now, but it's a little more than I'm willing to spend on a painted horse. Plus its in a color I don't really find appealing. I'm still on the fence about her, if I keep her she will be a black and white tobiano saddlebred. I might paint her and see how I feel about her after.
I opened Megaboom last and my first response was foul language and shock. I had no idea how big he really was!! I figured that the rearing horses were going to be bigger in the sense that they are taller, but I never thought he would be as big as he turned out to be. But I will say, I am in love with him. There are a few micros that I have no problem owning several of and he is definitely one of them. I'm hoping that he will be sent off to paint here in the next week since my other windswept hasn't arrived yet. He doesn't really fit any particular breed so I'm at a loss for what he should be painted as. I was thinking North American Spotted Draft horse, but haven't picked a color. I have a little time before I decide since he needs to have his leg fixed. I'm not sure what happened to him but he needs some help. I wasn't sure he was going to stand after looking at the photos but luckily he does. But he has a rather large chunk missing from the break and the glue is EVERYWHERE!!!! They used super glue, which works, but they must have spread it around with their finger because it covers just about all of his gaskin. Plus he has some nasty seems, all things that I can fix but not things I want to fix now.
On the show front, things are finally starting to move. I got most of my performance classes picked and ready. Not I just have to make references and props for just about every class. Plus make references for the 15ish horses that need Halter info. I have about 60 days to get it all done. I'm going to start with the horses that are finished or close to finished and not worry about getting the others done until I hear that they are finished or close to it.
On the painting front I finally got the 4 original horses finished. I am super pleased with 3 out of 4. Windswept, Tiger and Devil turned our really nice. Windswept is the best bay I have ever done, the white markings aren't prefect but he suppose to be a wild range horse. Tiger still needs black show hooves but I love how his shading turned out. It took a ton of blending layers but it was so worth it in the end. Devil went in a slightly different direction than I was planning. I was going for a mid-range dapple grey but she ended up going darker. I still love how she turned out, I added a sock for a splash of color and ombre in the mane. I wasn't planning on having much white on her but the white in the mane and tail were worth it. Sahir is kinda hit or miss. I like him but I'm just not sure about him. I like his chestnut color but I don't feel like his pattern is where I want it to be. I can always go back and add if I want since he only has 1 layer of sealer.
I was looking at the calendar the other day and had a minor Oops moment. I thought the 2 October shows had a weekend in between them, I was wrong. They are the 1st and 2nd weekends in October. It works out because the weather should still be decent the first half of October, but it also means that I have to take the weekend off of work. Hopefully it won't matter in the ling run because I won't be there anymore and won't have to work weekends anymore. I also keep kicking around the idea of which show I want to do performance at. I feel like I'm going to be too rushed at the WI show but I'm on the same number of classes at the IA show too. I volunteered to judge at WI so that changes it a little, but I know the show in WI better and feel like I can ask for a few more seconds at that one. I did decide to only show 1 performance horse, that isn't going to change. I keep going back and forth about showing 2 horses: 1 western and 1 english. But I like have one horse and knowing my changes better than having to think about switching horses. The plus is that I can have the second horse tacked up while the other one is showing and just set the first horse aside when I move to the second one. But I like the challenge of having 1 horse do it all.
After looking at the sizes of a few of these micros, I have decided that I need to rethink my show tote a little. Kahlua and Megaboom are awkward sizes, so they need a different type of space. I thought I could get away with changing one of the wells for Kahlua but now with Megaboom I don't think I'm going to have space for them all in 1 tote. I plan on going through everyone that I have and making a master 'seating chart' for everyone to see if I can make it work. Right now I have the unpainted ones in there too but they would come out for the show, maybe.
Until next time, Happy August!