OT Friday FAIL

Slightly off topic, but such a major FAIL, it had to be shown.

A friend's dad is a truck driver and he sometimes takes photos of bizarre sights on his routes. Yesterday, he sent her this one. This rig was traveling down interstate 40 in Arkansas. It is from a cell phone, so it is sort of blurry, but I think you can make out what it is.





If you can't make it out, it is 2 horses in a flatbed trailer meant for hauling lawn equipment or tires. It has a 4 foot high "cage" built on it and the owners have added some cattle panels to extend the height. The horses are not secured and the rear "gate" is another section of cow panel.

Sigh, the things people will haul a horse on.

The Shame of the TWH

I wish to briefly speak about a subject near and dear to me. The plight of the TWH. Of all the horse industries, this one seems to contain the most barbaric practices. From bits that look like medieval torture devices, to ankle chains, tail sets, pressure shoeing and soring, this industry supports more cruelty than most other breeds.

Some of the common bits used on TWHs, most are used on horses of all ages, including 2 year olds! Gosh, let's not start them in a SNAFFLE or anything! Several of these are marketed as TRAINING bits.

Many walking horse trainers and owners will argue that these practices are not cruel and that the horses do not suffer for it. Do the horses in these next photos look like they are not suffering, do they look happy?

Check out those shanks and his poor mouth. Look at his eyes. Does this image convey a proud, energetic, powerful horse? Or does it show a horse in pain?

Another "proud" Walker. Look at the hyperflexion of the front leg. Look at his eyes. What do you see there?

Hmm, I guess I would look like I was in pain too if this was what my shoes looked like. Barbaric.

Gosh, doesn't this fellow look comfortable? This horse is in PAIN people, those wraps are covering a caustic substance applied to make action chains "work better". I guess if my skin were burned and raw, I would try to fling off a heavy chain too.

I think people who practice this barbaric tradition should be forced to spend their lives in shoes like the ones pictured above. They should be a couple of sized too small, their ankles should be rubbed raw, and they should have to carry a 50 pound backpack around too.

To me, this is the tackiest practice of all. The infliction of pain and discomfort to achieve the desired gait/look/headset, whatever.

EEEK! It keeps getting WORSE!!

Every day I am confronted with a fresh horror at the unthinkable things people will do to tack.

I give you the MOST HIDEOUS ENGLISH SADDLE EVER...

It has rhinestones all over it and silver metallic piping! Will it never end?

Tacky on Parade

Many thanks to the readers who brought this to my attention. Parade saddles have been popular since the days of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. We are all familiar with beautiful horses decked out in silver laden saddles prancing down the road during the Rose Parade and other large festival parades. These saddles are works of art, intricately detailed with carving and engraved silver plates. They are used almost exclusively for parades and in classes at some shows. Most are antiques and they are expensive and difficult to obtain. This one was on eBay awhile back.

Here is a lovely ASB in a silver parade saddle...

A well turned out parade horse should create a classy and memorable picture.

There are, like everything, the examples that just stick in your mind because of the sheer tackiness...

My eyes hurt.

More Patriotic Tacky Tack

Am I the only one who thinks it's kind of disrespectful to make such hideous tack using our flag
as inspiration?

The white patches instead of silver plates just make the outfit don't they?

Friday Fave

So, what is your favorite tack/accessory accent color on a given horse color? Here are mine...


Black - bold primary colors, red or royal blue depending on the hue of the horse

Bay - hunter green

Gray - lavender or soft blue tends to look nice, or black is always acceptable

Buckskin - black or a dark green

Palomino - not too sure on this one, probably cream

Chestnut - black

With paints and appies, I have a hard time deciding, it really depends on the horse's base color. Nothing patterened though, too busy already!

There is this neato color wheel that has all the horse colors and all the accent colors. You use it to determine which color would best compliment your horse. There is also an interactive application that allows you to try different colors on different horse colors.

So, what's your preference?

In honor of the upcoming holiday...

Saddles to show your patriotism...

Tack to show your support of our Armed Forces...

And now, some painkillers for the monster headache looking at all this Tack has given you!!

Scary "training" device

A reader sent me this, it is supposedly a showmanship training halter.








I think it is some sort of medieval torture device.





WHY for Pete's sake would you need this? A twisted wire crownpiece, a lariat noseband and a stud chain under the chin to complete the picture. That's great, just rip at their head from all directions. I can just picture this on some delicate little Arab's head. *shakes head and walks away*

Now, to add to the horror...

Here are a couple of other saddles from the same seller of the pink monstrosity from yesterday.









PURPLE!!







BLUE!!



Terrible, you say? Well, it gets worse...








Blue OSTRICH print! Gag.









Purple OSTRICH print!



Gosh, this really doesn't help the migraine, and I am wearing polarized sunglasses (really).

Oh, no they did not...

Oh...my...gosh.

There are no words to describe this crime against those of us in the equestrian community that are not colorblind.

It's true folks, they have made an ENTIRE leather English saddle PINK.

Cheap, crappy leather, "dyed" pink. The WHOLE SADDLE.




Is there nothing sacred?

Friday Faves Links

Taking a page from Kathy over at FHOTD, I am posting links to some of my favorite websites featuring one of my favorite subjects, equine color genetics. It truly irks me that a large number of people seem to have no idea what color their horse is! I see gray advertised as silver dapple, chestnut as palomino, roan as cremello (yes really, I have), and chestnut as bay. Here are some helpful and fascinating sites.

Equine Color Genetics

The Horse Color Site

Horse Color Genetics

http://www.ultimatehorsesite.com/colors/index.html

http://www.newdilutions.com/

http://www.morgancolors.com/

http://www.animalgenetics.us/CCalculator1.asp This one is NEAT!


http://www.duncentralstation.com/



The following photos are of a rescue horse that was brought to the Vet Tech school that I graduated from. This is the most interesting coat color combination I have personally seen. He is a palomino pintaloosa, and I wish I had been able to take him home!

Have a great weekend!

I don't believe this...

This poor pony looks absolutely thrilled (sarcasm) with her little getup. Whoever did this should be shot, or at least kicked.




Thanks to a reader for sending this!




Hmmm, the logos on those fenders look familiar.

Added 10:00 am HOLY COW! On closer inspection this poor fellow is, well, a FELLOW! They dressed a GELDING up like a princess!

It just never seems to end...

The invasion of the rhinestones never ends!!

Gak! It's the Purple People Eater!!

Gosh, you think it could BE more purple? Also it doesn't help that the bridle and breastcollar are a completely different SHADE of purple than the saddle. I am not sure what the little black things on the skirt and fender are, but the yellow and red do not compliment the overall package in any way. Nasty.

The horses say hi!

Snapped some pics this weekend of our babies. Just wanted to share with you guys!!

Fatima says "Hi mom!"

Twilight

Darlin, still looking good at 27!!

Fatima and her mother, Darlin. No, we won't win any halter classes, but mom loves us anyway!!

What will they think of next?

A reader sent me this. All I can think is, "Dang, what next? Silver plates on English tack?" Then I ran across the second saddle. I give up, there is nothing sacred, what is the world coming to?

Friday Favorite

Today I want to show you folks one of my favorite things. As some of you know already, I customize model horses as well as show them. Yes, model horses, the Breyers we played with as kids are big business. There are thousands of adults that collect, show, customize, sculpt and cast small runs of artist pieces. They can cost anywhere from a few to a few thousand dollars. There are many super talented artists out there both customizing existing production run plastic ponies and sculpting original pieces and casting them in limited run resins to be sold unpainted. They range from less than 2 inches tall to over 12 inches tall. I know several artists that paint horses so realistically, they look as if they could breathe. Most paint with acrylics, though some use oils or pastels and colored pencils.


Here are some of my favorite artists...


Sarah Rose - Sculptor and Painter, you can see her work here http://www.rosehorse.com/


This is Deseoso, one of her sculptures, incidentally painted by one of the best painters in the hobby, Danielle Feldman.




I also greatly admire Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig. Her work is so full of life and fire. My absolute holy grail is Orinocco, I would give vital body parts for one of these guys.




I also have a great deal of respect for Chris Nandell of Beau Cheveaux. She paints in oils, and the patience it and talent it takes are amazing. Here is just one example of her fantastic work.





I could go on and on about the amazing artists in this hobby. I also want to show some of my work. This is Firareth, he won Reserve Champion Other Mixed/Pure breeds at his first show. You can see more of my work on my website linked at the top left of the blog.





There is a ton more information online, here is a list of several interesting websites to check out.



North American Model Horse Show Assoc.

Model Horse Sales Pages

Resins by Randy

Model Horse Gallery

Green with...um not envy.

Thank you to a couple of dedicated Tacky hunters for sending me these two positively putrid examples of Tack. I really cannot for the life of me, figure out why anyone in the world would want this first specimen. Not only is it considerably fugly, it looks cheaply made too. How much you want to bet the "dye" will rub right off?





This one is a lovely example as well. It would be a fairly nice used saddle if it weren't for the seat and jockeys being such a nice shade of puke green. Yuck.