TCJpart90 Painting & Fashion

RACHEL WILLIAMS DESIGN

I had a birthday card which had been designed by and artist Rachel Williams (a friend of Jess, our Junior Designer). 

 

 

 

 

 

It was the head of an Arab horse and I asked her to paint Tom & Henry.

 

I chose my favourite photo of the boys taken by John C Brown.  You will of course recognise the picture...and later on I'll let you in on a sneak preview of what else this photo got used for...

Rachel involved me in every step of the way and even painted another to exhibit as part of her degree show.

Here are a few of the sketches and working drawings, some of the final draft paintings and a final mounted piece hanging on our living room wall.

M&S WOMAN:

 ...and this photo is my screen saver at work and here's a sneak preview of the Tom & Henry tops for Autumn12 M&SWoman:

'Top' secret...xxx

...keep your eyes peeled, on-line is easiest, but be quick, I'll be buying most of them for my friends and family!!

Sensational Saturday

...saw this and thought of you...x

Horse Sense

John Wayne Quotes:

TCJpart89 2-in-1 second part

TWO-IN-ONE:

Ever wondered what your horse gets up to when you're not with him?  I did, but not since the 'PonyCam' was installed at WW.  Added benefit of having a geek-genius for a husband is he can set all this up for me, and I have really enjoyed watching them too.

Tom & Henry have repeatedly done this all summer, but I still don't tire of being amused by their antics.  Who'd have thought 2 large horses would be happy doing this....but this they do:

Here you can see John getting the shots, and I am watching on the PonyCam inside the cottage.

TCJpart88 Sharing first part

NOTICE ANYTHING ODD HERE?
...you may not believe it...but it's true...

...Tom & Henry sharing Henry's stable, it's hot, and they're indoors in the cooler air, away from the flies, swatting eachother when some manage to find them.  All is calm and quiet, and doesn't this make a great picture?

You just wouldn't believe 2 large horses would be happy confined in one stable, but they clearly trust eachother implicitly, can step around eachother and come away at any time.  Above is an old photo and some from today, but it shows they've been doing this for a long time!

Horses do unexpected things, they are so wonderful.

Wednesday's Whimsy

...saw this and thought of you...xxxx

Special Edition: Getting Wet

GETTING WET&CLEAN:

 
What better way to relieve boredom for 'hot and bothered by flies' horses, than to get the hose out, attach a gentle sprinkler end, grab the shampoo and get everyone absolutely soaking wet!

Including myself.

Remember Shelley's first Law of Grub Transferance: Grub is neither lost nor created, merely transfered from horse to his butler...ME!

So, after all the scratching and rubbing from those pesky midges and biting mosquito's, I can give some fleeting relief to those boys with some medicated horse shampoo and a complete soaking.  I can wet them all, but I do their heads by hand, never a hose and never shampoo, just incase it's gets in their eyes.

I use a special tentacle covered sponge (noodle sponge BUT not a pink one!), and add the shampoo to the water, never directly onto the horse, it would take forever to completely rinse out any soap added to their coats directly, and I absolutely MUST get all the suds out, it's better for their skin that way.

I rub the coats all over with the soapy sponge including their manes and sheath area,  their tails I do separately because they often need a good scrub.

Then I hose them off very very carefully, I make certain all the soap is out of their coats and away from their skin.  And their coats will be shiny and clean.

 
I sweat scrape the most of the water off their bodies then leave them standing in the sunshine whilst I towel them off.  I wipe over their faces and around their ears with the rinsed sponge and wipe their eyes and nose with just clean water and a flannel.

I brush through their manes and tails with a hairbrush being careful not to break any hairs,  then I go over their already drying bodies with a very soft brush I bought specially for their faces.

An hour later, the boys are clean and no longer worried by the flies,  they smell gorgeous and clean and they shine very brightly.

Henry's mud fever is almost completely gone, and since all I have been doing is applying creams and scrubs to the area since he got it, it felt very nice to wash the area completely of any residue.  The pastern is now clean and healthy looking.

Tom loves his chest washed, the little midges queue up to bite him there and it must be a relief to finally get rid of them, if only for a short time.

The boys have a great time, and then the go out and roll, and that's when all the pleasured grunting begins, then there's squealing and usually galloping too.