Rugs, saddles, jumps and more!

These are some of the things that I have made for our Schleich horses. The first photo is of a saddle that I made out of some felt, brown material, elastic (for the girth), and a button.

Number two is  a giraff paterned rug made out of giraff paterned material and the same brown material that I used for the saddle. The next is another rug that was made from orange material and some other yellow stuff that I don't know the name of.

The last photos are of two jumps that I made out of four blocks, two skewers (for the red one), two bits of this wood that we have which is all ready in a poll shape, and some paint. I have also made heaps of other things that I just havn't got round to finishing yet! You can buy things a bit like this on trade me and also from Toy world, but why buy it when you can make it?!

 (The bridal on the horse in photo number one is just made from two rubber bands)

My horse drawing

This is a picture I drew about a month ago of a pinto that I found in one of my many horse books. I drew it for an art exhibit for kids at an art gallery in Invercargill. It was lot's of fun, although a bit frustrateing to start of with because I was trying to put in to much detail at the start. Drawing would have to be one of my favourite things to do besides reading, sport, and riding. =)

Our story's, Lilly and Ben

 These are our two pet dogs called Lilly (top) and Ben. We got Lilly ( a labrador ) from a rescue center just out of Palmerston north about nine years ago. The person who bred her and her 11 brothers and sisters was going away soon so she had no choice but to drop them of at the SPCA. But when we  came looking for a puppy, there was one problem, Lilly and her siblings looked exactly the same. So in the end Mum and Dad ( I was only about two or three at the time ) decided to have the one that came up to them when they opened the cage. So the door was opened and out came Lilly to meet them. And as you will have guessed, we chose her ( well Mum and Dad did, I was to busy making sure that ginormous pig didn't get me! ). So after that, one of the staff put some spray paint on her back so we could tell them apart  when we came again the next day to collect her. In her puppy days she did every thing and more you would expect, like chasing us up and down the couches, snuggling up to us during sleepy time, and also destroying a great  many things, such as when we came home one day only to find that it had been snowing in our yard with her bean bag bed torn open.
 So while Lilly was a rescue doggy, Ben's story is completely different....
 After giving away our other dog, Jack last year, we had all been begging for a puppy to replace him. One day me and Abbi were looking on Trade Me at dogs when I saw an advertisment for two free German short haired pionter x Border collie x Labrador puppy's, a little black boy with huge floppy ears, and a golden coloured girl. We showed Mum and Dad and eventually, they agreed. That sunday we went and 'just have a look' at them and came back with the black boy. When we got home, and went inside, everyone wanted to see him. And with all of the excitement of traveling in the car, leaving his mum and his sister, and finally being surrounded by people, dad was the unfortunate person who was holding him and got piddled on.
 His first outing in our yard was very exciting for him, and  chasing cabbage tree leaves was soon found to be great fun! Ben and Lilly got on really well to, if you left him alone in the lounge or something then he would whine until someone came to cuddle him or put Lilly in the lounge or where ever he was with him.
 Ben has just turned one this year but we still call him puppy ( not to mention all the other names he has, Benji, Benjaman, Benji boo boo....)!



Our dogs are both very special to us and I highly recommend you go to a shelter if you are ever looking  for a dog. : )

Tiny Falabellas

 
The Falabella is the smallest horse in the world, being 7 hands high (about 70 centimeters) at the biggest. They are any colour, but black and bay are the most common. Their average life span isn't any higher then 30 years old, just a bit below that. 
 There are two story's about their origin, but the more likely one is that a family with the last name Falabella owned a ranch in Buenos Aires, Argentina, called the Recreode Roca Ranch. They bred some really small Shetlands with a very small Thoroughbred they owned. The result was a almost perfect horse type miniature with a thick mane and tail and a large head compared to it's body. 
 One of the smallest Falabellas was a mare called Sugar Dumpling who was only about 20 centimeters high at her withers!

Bashkir Curly horse?!

 Bashkir curly horses are genraly  about 14.2-15.1 hands high but can be all sorts of shapes and sizes including  pony sized. They come in any colour such as pinto, spotted/appaloosa, palimino (left) etc, and live for about 25 to 35 years. The curlys origin, like the Arabian, is completly unknown but there are 7 totally different story's that can't be proved. Their history is a bit more clear though, with the first officail sighting and breeding don by the Damele family. John Damele and his family lived in Eureka, in the middle of Nevada, and it was him and his sons who first saw 7 curly horses running amongst some wild mustangs. In spring, 1931 they caught one of the curly horses and took it back to their ranch where they broke it in and later sold it. The winter of 1931/1932 was one of the roughest in American history, and all of the Dameles horses were completly wiped out, but the curly coated horse lived. Afterwards they started catching more of them and trained them to be cow horses that could be relied on in the cold Nevada winters.
 They are very tough and can survive all sorts of crazy cold weather conditions, which, added to their good temperments, health, and  the fact that  they are pretty much good in all disaplins, makes them very good alround mounts.
Some interesting facts about them are that there are less then 5000 curlys left in the world, about 10 percent of them have a special additional gait (such as the Fox Trot, Indian Shuffle, Running Walk, etc) , and some people say they SMELL diferent to other horses??

He he he! I love the snow! : )

The Arabian horse

Arabians are said to be some of the most beautiful horses in the world, and stand at about 14.1-15.1 hands high. They are genraly grey, black, roan, chestnut, or bay, with bay, grey, and chestnut being the most common. For years Arabs lived in the desert with people, and for protection from being stolen, prized war mares were sometimes kept in their owners tents, where they were close to children and everyday family life. Only horses with good temperments were allowed to have foals. And because of this, they are some of the few breeds that the United States Equestrian Federation (do not ask me what that is!) allows children to exhibit stallions at nearly all show classes including those for riders under 18.
People don't really know anything about the Arabs origin, but records show that the breed has been around for about 5000 years.
Also, they have quite dished faces and the photo above is a good example. A dished face means that from about it's eyes and down to it's muzzle is kind of scooped in so it's a bit like a banana, although some have this more or less then others. And last of all the most a Arab has been sold for (on record) was a stallion called Comegeto who feched $350,000 in 1977!!!