Why don't I live in Canada (ref:Toronto Live)

Because I'm not Canadian, I guess.  I've been to Canada.  I've been lost in Canada.  Well, not really lost, but kind of misplaced.  I got on 99 going the wrong way and ended up in North Vancouver rather than I-5 back at the border.  But that's besides the point.  I was kicking around Facebook a little while ago and saw a neat-looking model posted to Breyer's page...

Her name is Lioness and she's a prize model for Toronto Live.  I'm not too crazy about the mold pose or the 'hole-y' mane, but the color and glossiness is what I like.  It looks so much better and more realistic than the original mold Rain, who is very cartoony and plastic-y looking

Photo by Melissa Mills

They've only done one other model on this and fortunately that one isn't plastic-y and cartoon-y.  I wouldn't mind having Lady Liberty in my stable either

photo by Sue Lehman

I wonder if you have to actually show at Toronto Live to be put in the contest to win Lioness.  I don't show anymore.  Haven't in more years than I could count, so aside from the location thing, there's also that I don't live show anymore.  Hahaha.  Well, I guess that's it, then.  I can't win the horse.  Bummer.  hahaha.  Arizona doesn't have any live shows anymore really.  Not big ones like when Arizona Live was still going.  There's still a few small ones, but nothing that could net us a special model like Lioness.  Even if there was, I probably wouldn't show.  I don't know.  When I was showing I was all about getting the ribbons and/or awards and I got rid of a bunch of models because they weren't LSQ...just gave them away.  I regret that now, but I can't do anything to change the past.

**edited** Thank you to Niki for explaining this model is part of a program Breyer has to provide a model to live model shows. And yes, only showers get to enter a chance to win it. Good luck, Niki, on getting one for yourself!

Also while looking around Facebook, I found this meme, which I thought was funny

I imagine I would be somewhere in the middle of the two mind-sets.  I don't think I'd automatically just leave because he looked mad.  I think I'd take the whole picture into consideration.  Not literally the picture shown, but the over-all picture of the horse's body language.  I've been fortunate in that I've never been bit or stepped on and I'd like to keep it that way.  hahaha.  I actually can't remember the last time I even got to TOUCH a horse.  <sigh>

On a somewhat related note...I've been having problems doing anything with my horse story.  I have tons of ideas, but I've been having trouble getting it started and keeping it going.   I had this story completely written at one point, but then decided I didn't like the rushed way it ended and decided to re-write it and that's when I started having issues.  But I've put my whale trainer story on the back burner until I can stop being upset with what Sea World California has done.  No, it has nothing to do with the movie Blackfish.  Not really.  Blackfish is based on out-dated practices and outright lies.  What Sea World has done is current and makes me very mad.  But that's besides the point.  I don't know, now, if that story will ever get finished, even though it's moving right along, so I'm setting it aside in favor of my horse story.  Anyway, I have this picture on my computer desktop at work of Manchester Farm in Lexington KY

I was looking at it yesterday and suddenly ideas started coming to me.  I haven't been able to write much yet, but it's at least a start, right?  I look forward to seeing how far I can take it.  Wish me luck that I finally will get this written.

Well, I'd better get back to work.  Happy Hump Day!

It's Saturday!

Hurray!!!! My original plan was to go out horse hunting. As the weather gets warmer, my opportunities are getting fewer, I believe. But that plan was nixed when my brother said he needs a ride somewhere. Bummer, but it's what you do for family, right? Well, today is a race through ASU for Pat Tillman, a former NFL player-turned Army Ranger who was killed by friendly fire 10 years ago and the race course affected our route home, but I'll get to that in a bit. When I saw this, I had to take a picture...

My brother was annoyed that I was "taking a picture of the effing cops" but that's too bad. It was a horse trailer and that's what I was taking a picture of. The fact that it was a police trailer was a bonus.

As we drove home from downtown Tempe, I spotted two police horses overseeing part of the race course so I dropped my brother off at home and went out to get gas and lottery tickets, but I also wanted to go back by and try to get a picture of the horses, but also just to see them again. I figured they would've moved on by the time I got back, but as I got closer to where I'd see them, I spotted the white one...

If you look at the 'no left turn' sign you'll see a guy in a blue shirt and a girl in a yellow shirt to his left (right in the picture) in between them you can see the white horse. Trust me, he's there.   You may have to click on the image to see it larger.  Why didn't I wait a few seconds before taking the picture, you may ask? I'll tell you. I took this picture and was going to try to get a closer shot, but when the light changed, the horses crossed the road to the other side and I couldn't get a shot. Bummer. Oh well.

On my way home, I considered calling home to say I was going horse hunting. The weather is 'perfect'. Heavily overcast. Breezy. Less than 70 degrees. But it was also 9am and, on a weekend, that means more people around and less likely of a chance to see them.  Oh well.  I have a few days off in mid-may so I'll go look then.

Weather-wise, today is definitely unusual for late April.  It's snowing at the higher elevation and chilly and overcast and cooler here.  The sun just peaked through, though.  Grrrr.  It's making me want to be outside or near and open window and work on one of my stories.  The ideas are spinning in my head.  If I had a horse or was able to ride I'd be out Doug that.  It's a perfect day for that.  Heck, in my opinion, EVERY day is a good day to go for a ride or just hang out at a barn.

Well, I guess that's it for now.  Have a good weekend.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Have you ever been sitting on news so exciting that you feel you'll bust with wanting to tell someone? That's how I feel right now. I found out some information about a local zoo about potential animal acquisitions, but because it's not public knowledge yet, I'm not really allowed to tell what it is. Not publicly anyway. I have a co-worker who is a zoo nut almost as much as I am and I told her on Monday about potential news and just needing to wait to find out what it was and then I'd tell her what it was. Well, I found out Monday night what the news was and I promised the person who told me that I wouldn't post anything publicly about it, which is hard enough. But then yesterday I had to take an unexpected day off to help my brother. He needed a ride to a couple of medical appointments. His arm is broken and possibly so is his foot and he can't drive a stick shift right now, but that's besides the point. Because of that, I was unable to pass my exciting news onto my co-worker, so this morning I asked one of the people in her unit to let her know I needed to see her when she came in. Well, a few minutes later "G" told me that "GA" wouldn't be in today. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I'm going to go nuts with this information and not being able to tell anyone who'll find it interesting. I could tell my mom, but it wouldn't be all that interesting to her. I could send "GA" a message through Facebook, but this news is too exciting to share through email. I want to tell her in person. hahaha. Hopefully she'll be in tomorrow. I don't know how much longer I can sit on this and not tell someone. hahahaha. I do, however, feel a little better posting about it here even if it isn't specifics and I can't wait until I can post the news.

On Monday I bought a mini grail of mine and at a great price. He was mailed out yesterday and hopefully will be here by the weekend. I don't really have grails as far as model horses go. There's models I'd really like to have and some that are nice to have, but none I really actively seek out and must have. I think Kalahkaari was an exception to that. Anyway, Bright Zip, who was a Special Run at Breyerfest in 1994, has been on my radar kind of since I saw in JAH (I *think*) that he was one of the models available, but I never really worked to get one. Within the past 6 months I have been casually looking for one, but nothing serious. Most of them were going for $80 or more. Well, on Monday I decided to look on MH$P and there were two available. One for $80 that was described as a "shelf sitter" (not show quality) and one for $40 that wasn't LSQ either but also not described as a "shelf sitter". Well, I emailed the owner of the $40 one and quickly made plans to buy it. I'm excited to get him and will take pictures and show him here when he arrives. I don't know where I'll put him, though, since the shelf with my other San Domingos is full. I think the Great Spirir Horse will be my next "casual search" in the San Domingo mold. We shall see. I also wouldn't mind a "Mustang Lady", but there don't seem to be too many of those out there. Stablemates were made of both Mustang Lady and Bright Zip and I might try to find those, but, again, we shall see.

Well, with being out yesterday I have a lot to do today that is due today so I'd best get to it, huh? Happy Wednesday.

Some new additions...

Well, now that I have the "wild horses" out of the way, I can finally post pictures of my new (model) horses.  Sorry it's taken 'so long'.  I can get real lazy sometimes.

As promised, here are better pictures of my Stone DAH Arabian, including his face markings...

Sorry for the shadow in the 2nd picture, but I don't have a light where the cloth is set up for picture-taking.  I keep meaning to move it over when I'm getting ready to shoot, but I have yet to do so.  I'm quite happy with this guy, but I doubt I'll deviate much from my ISH obsession.  hahaha.

Next are a couple of re-purchases.  I had both at one time, but it was quite awhile ago and I gave them away.  I got them both for about $16 each and they're in great shape for their age.  They're 2 of my favorite molds:  Lady Phase and Stud Spider

And finally, I was able to secure a Moon Pie SM from someone who went to the Big Easy Bash last month.  I don't like that I spent so much money on her considering she's only a SM, but since they only made 200 of them, they won't be very plentiful on the secondary market.  I don't know how much they cost at BEB, but the amount I paid seemed to be the average price and I'll just say it was not in the triple digits for the cost.  hahaha.   I am planning to conga the mold so I had to get this one. 

And even though I'm going to conga the Chrome mold as well, I think I can live without the even more limited purple one they had there.

Not much is going on right now.  My brother was in a motorcycle accident last night and walked away from it with only some bumps and bruises, thank goodness.  He was changing lanes and the car that was ahead of him in the lane he was switching to stopped and he hit her.  I'm just glad he was wearing a helmet.  I think he was planning to go look to adopt a dog today because on Wednesday he asked my mom if she wanted to "go looking" and I know they've talked about it a couple of times in the past, but now it's probably not going to happen because of this accident.  It's going to cost him a "few dollars".  But I'm glad and thankful he's okay and I hope like heck he doesn't plan on going out and getting another motorcycle.  He just paid this one off a few weeks ago.  Ugh!  Tomorrow is laundry day and Sunday is grocery shopping.  Tomorrow I also need to go to the post office to mail my package for the Blab Spring Stablemate Swap thing.  I had to alter my plans a couple of times because I'm not a very good artist.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Horses...Plastic and real...

So, Breyerfest has started amping up their Breyerfest release models. Yesterday it was the Silver Filigree Sherman Morgan model

and today it's a Classic size decorator, a Silver Anniversary Plush

 Plus a resin of unknown size and a cute little Stablemate

I really like the plush and the Stablemate, but likely will only look to buy the SM.  I went ahead and bought a Child's 3 Day Ticket for Breyerfest in case they have the post BF sale on the Breyer web site.  I really wish I were going, but I'm not going to dwell on it.

So.  Yesterday.  Boy.   Where do I start?  As mentioned in a previous blog post, I had intended to not just do "drive throughs" where I keep going if I don't see any horses in any of my usual spots and that's what I did.  When I reached my first location that wasn't right on the side of the road, I parked my car so it faced the spot I've seen them at several times and ate my breakfast while I waited for something to happen.  To get to that particular spot, the horses pretty much have to go over a hill or two, depending on where they are and after 10 minutes of seeing no movement other than vehicles driving by (and looking at me, wondering what I was doing) and the occasional bird, I moved on out to my 2nd location.  Now, this place I've never done anything more than drive through the parking lot and turn back around.  It's near water and I'm not a fan really of walking far distances, but since I was doing things differently this time, I actually got out of my car and walked down to the beach area and guess what I saw?

Birds.  Herons, Egrets and Vultures.  Oh boy!  Hahaha.  So, I turned around and headed back to the parking lot.  As I was walking, I noticed an older man walking towards me so I started to "swing wide" to avoid him, but he followed my path.  I wasn't super concerned given our size difference, but nobody knew I was out there so it's not a situation I really want to be in.  Anyway, when he got closer he called out "birds or horses?"  Turns out, he was there looking for the horses, too.  He'd seen then there yesterday and sees them almost daily because he goes out almost daily.  He gave me some tips on where to look for them at this particular spot and showed me some pictures he'd taken in the past.  He also said he'd just come from another of my spots and the horses were there, including a young foal.  He did say, though, that there was a guy there with a camera who was following them and they were moving away from him so they may not be in the same place.  He also mentioned the guy had a tent.  It's a campground and that's a reason why I don't usually get out of my car, but if there were horses around, I'd think of something.  So, we parted ways and I headed for my next spot and he went in the opposite direction.  At the campground, I spotted the guy with the tent so I decided to take my new scanner with me.  It looks like a regular 2 way radio so I figured I could act like it was and if the tent dude looked at me strangely, I could pretend like I was talking into it about the horses and maybe he would assume I was with Fish & Game or somehow affiliated with the wild horse management.  So, I walked over to the edge where you can see the river and...nothing.  Well, I wouldn't say nothing.  I saw another Heron

and some squirrels

and even evidence that the horses had been through there recently (I didn't photograph the "fresh" evidence hahahaha)

but no signs of the horses themselves, which was probably good since I was having problems with my camera.  It kept flashing "busy" at me and not working properly, but I got it working.  I was bummed at the lack of horses of course, but it was still early.  I started back towards the parking lot, but something caught my attention to the right.  At first I thought it was another restroom, but then I saw a lady over near it and walking this way and that.  When I got a few more steps toward the parking lot I realized...

The Stallion

And then there was the baby...

None of them seemed too concerned with my presence.  Several of the mares were lying down, including the foal's mama.  The rest were eating.  I probably could have gotten closer than I did, but I didn't want to scare them.  I worry, though, that they're getting too used to humans being around.  I took a lot of pictures of the foal.

Some of the others were difficult to photograph because they were lying down or were too far away.

  At least one of the mares looked like she was near giving birth.  At first I thought it was another stallion, but then I realized it was udders I was seeing.  hahaha.  I *think* the foal is a female, but I wouldn't swear to it.  It still has the umbillical stump, which could be mistaken for male genitalia.  The guy who told me they were there kept calling it a colt, but again with the umbillical stump, he could've confused it for a boy.  Hard to say.


Anyway, thank you to Larry M from "Dakota Territory" for telling me where to find them.

Stay tuned ...!

I had a great morning with the horses thanks to a chance encounter with a real nice Snowbird from the 'Dakota Territory'. Pictures will be forthcoming, hopefully tomorrow. Enjoy your Monday!

Less than 90 days now...

Breyer put up their countdown clock for Breyerfest on their website and it's now less than 90 days away.  They did it last year as well, and probably the year before that and the year before that etc etc, but this year it makes me sad because I was really hoping to go for the first time.    They've put up some good-looking models to tempt us with and the latest is a mother bear and her cub

I like bears and I have bear statue things, but I don't have any of the ones by Breyer and I like the coloring of this pair.  Even though I'm not going this year, I will probably still buy a ticket since twice   they have offered 'overstock' from BF 2013 but you could only access it if you were a ticket holder.

If I REALLY wanted to go, I could.  I have money for it.  But I know that as soon as I commit money to going, my car will break down and I'll be screwed.  So I can't go.  Well, I won't go.  I don't want to take that chance.  Maybe I'll try to plan for 2015, I don't know.  Maybe I should just give up all thoughts of ever going.  I don't know.  The Early Bird special ends on April 15th so I should probably buy my ticket before then.  We will see.  But it still saddens me to see the countdown clock.  And it's not like I can avoid it...it's on every page of the website so I'd have to avoid the entire website between now and BF, which isn't very practical since I'll have to visit it in June to pay for Rajah and what if they have another exclusive model to enter for?  Or another warehouse sale?  So I can't just avoid the website.  Oh well.  There's plenty of people out there who collect Breyer and have never gone to BF.  

I'm in the midst of several distractions right now so I'm not sure...I don't remember what else I was going to say.  So I guess I'll stop here.  I did end up getting Monday off so I'm going to try to find some horses.  It's my intention to go to an area I've seen them in the past and just hang out for awhile instead of doing a 'drive thru'.  I need to work on my Spring Swap SM so I can get them mailed off.  Anyway, I'll be back.