The original title for this post was Palomino Relief, intended to go with my earlier post Palomino Insatiety. The more time that goes by, the more I feel the need to share all those pix taken on June 5 -- the day she arrived -- and the less I need to gripe about how late that arrival was. While she reinforced all my reasons to buy a Stone "only when in the hand," I spent her first day here blazing away. The result was a huge trove of shots with many splendid pieces of headgear, accumulated over decades, to show off. What better place to start catching up on blogging?! above: Maximilian's Bridle, headstall by Heather Moreton and reins by S. B. Young/TSII.
The amazing thing about this horse is she's better on camera than in person. Spielberg sums it up with his realization that he didn't believe something was true until he saw it on film.
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| TSII Dry's Orange Hackamore |
The name on my folder of pix is Sassy Round One. It is a thing of Stone's to name every horse. Tawny can never be rid of this association. But in my herd and in my heart, each individual has their own name, built up out of multiple adventures and journeys and experiences unique unto themselves. From now on, the more I call her by that name, the more she is my own and not Stone's, a true member of King's Herd, looking forward to her own tack, her own stallion and foal and other model-y rewards. My original name for her was Tawny Gold. At least for now, given my gripes, she's just Tawny... and that is a good name.
We'll start with two pieces profiled in my new book. (The book covers how to make them.) The first is Fancy's Hackamore. The rider is one of Anne Field's dolls; I named her Chalif. The turquoises just set each other off gloriously.
Fancy's Hackamore goes well with the Elk.
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| TSII #432, the Elk |
Another thoroughly-covered bridle is the TSII's Peach Rose. There really is something about pink on palominos! This might be a chance to get a glimpse of the Peach Rose saddle too.
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| TSII Peach Rose |
Of course, Sassy was designed in honor of Tiffany Purdy, one of the founders of Volo Artem. Pink is a natural for her.
This next bridle is by Danielle Hart. I'm restraining myself to just one pic here,... and just one pun. That Arab head really is small.
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| Purple Hart |
This particular saddle and bridle set is by Erin Corbett. I thought the brown, cream and gold tones would look fantastic with Tawny. I made the blanket. Turn the horse around and the head isn't small anymore; instead, that near fore lengthens quite a bit.
Erin used translucent beads for the earpiece and tinted glass jewels on the saddle. There is a natural coordination with Tawny's colors. I'm finding out that delicacy is called for with this head.
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| Erin Corbett saddle, bridle |
With delicacy as my guiding light, I reached for one of the more interesting bridle/breastcollar sets in my collection. This is a piece by Australian Rebecca Dunne of Griffyndoon. She had a blaze of popularity around 2007 - 2010, and then vanished, as tackmakers often do.
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| Griffyndoon 2007 |
Finally a piece that really suits this gracile-headed horse! You can forgive the heavy saddle.
For contrast, here is a most delightful but almost too heavy bridle for her. This piece was designed by me and built by Jacquee Gillespie of NM, who also did the silver. I'm showing the whole horse so you can see the tassel ends of the reins.
This is a fantastic braided bridle. It's important enough to be my cell phone wallpaper.
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| Jacquee Gillespie braidwork & silver |
Note how the two cheeks have different fastening and adjusting methods. One is a foldover ring and the other is buckled, a unique design.
Here's an old, old piece, dating back to 1997. I made this out of dental floss. To this day it's our only white fully braided rawhide bridle created. White is not really a good color for braided tack because it picks up dirt so well. Again I'm showing the whole body shot so you can see the end tassels on the reins.
It's not as heavy as it could be on her, both because of color and from the material size. She looks rather noble here!
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| TSII (Susan Bensema Young) 1997 |
There's just something about the touches of red that really pop on a palomino.
This next one I am also granting 3 pictures to, showing as much detail as possible. It's a bridle I seldom display at all. It was made by Kim Smith of Florida circa 2009. The reins are by Vicky Norris.
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| Kim Smith 2009, Norris reins |
In this view the face drop is clearly visible. Clever design!
Here I've turned her even further, and gotten an angle rarely seen on this mold -- rarely even in this post. Can't get bored here!
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| Kim Smith headstall |
In finishing this first round of photos of Tawny, we drift towards what was originally planned after all the headgear: saddles and harness. This final bridle is not technically braidwork. The jewels in the silver plates simply sold me on the set; I could not resist them. There is a blog post from 2017 on this saddle: Gilfoyle (Not!) on Copperfox.
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| Kelda Goerte saddle & bridle, TSII blanket |
Alas, the jewels on the saddle don't really show in these photos. The colors of the blanket suggest them; that's the best I can do here. I thought the set's overall smoothness and level of detail would be good on this horse, and I was right.
Having seen every possible combo of this model, let's end on an intimate moment between man and mount. These two trust each other, and that's what counts.
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What's next? It will be a while before I sit down to Round Two of tack on this horse. I'm much more likely to blog about real tack I own, the flat braid set I just finished, the fabulous prince of a silver saddle I was given in TX, or my plans for my next 2 parade sets. Or any other random subject, if I know me,... NaMo is coming, and even though I won't be here for its entire month, I still entertain visions of painting a palomino Stone ASB then. We have the body. His name is Cotinga and he will be husband to Tawny here,...
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