Niche's on Cosimo

This is one of those posts that started out innocently enough -- new horse in old costume -- but then took a completely amazing turn into deep history, astonishing me and blowing the whole thing into another dimension.  If this doesn't wind up as a vast case of intentional teasing it will be a miracle -!  Rabbit holes are just that:  wormholes through space into another place and time.  Clearly there's far more potential here;  but I'm out of time, I'm about to skip town.  We'll have to wait until I get back to see more.

When my new Cosimo arrived I was struck by his romantic Old European appearance.  He wasn't merely Baroque;  he was Medieval.  My goodness, Mink, he's a masterpiece!  I started cudgeling my brains as to what I had that would look good on him.

For my entire career I'd been telling people that I've never made an Arab costume.   In the sense that I'd never made one for a customer, that was true.  But several very intriguing and Arab-like costumes had indeed been made, ... for my own use.   

The best of them has been hanging on the top pole of my tack display racks for decades.  It had originally been created for my brindle bay John Henry, who was new in 1988 (the year I got married).  Of course, John Henry wasn't an Arab at all, which was part of the fun.  In the crazy way I name horses, I misread a local forest road.  I came up with Nichecronk and he grabbed onto it.  Cosimo, however, I liked enough to keep.

So far. 

Niche's costume had been made in the time right after my marriage, and it explored strong, new, rich colors and textures:  iridescent black, velvet red, gold.  The saddle tree was handformed from Friendly Plastic (thank you Fa Shimbo).  I followed no instructions, had no guide other than my own wishes on design.  (Maybe some carousel influence!)  It was made for the sheer fun of dressing up and exploring a tack form I hadn't done up to that point.

 The photo shoot happened at sunset in a local park I'd never visited before:  Fasick Park in Willowbrook Estates, technically Boalsburg, just south of State College.  My husband had found it during his year of intensely birding the surrounding county.

 

The costume explored velvet, bright gold, textiles and beads.  The bit was made from hammered brass wire.  The stirrups were jewelry findings.  I was well pleased at how the iridescent black worked with this horse.  Against the park landscape he looked beautifully noble.

 

 And then I started wondering exactly when this costume had been made.  Was there a photo of Niche wearing it in the photograph shoeboxes?  I didn't have a written registry of costumes (unlike the horses and the saddles, ahem, alas), but I did have the 5 shoeboxes, spanning 1978 to 2010, a full 32 years of my tack output and model horse worlds.  If it was anywhere it'd be in there.  Too early for digital of course...  I had a dim memory that the thing had been somewhere around 1992.  First place to look:  When had Nichecronk joined the herd?  Answer:  1988.  Earlier than I'd thought.  I started with the 1978 to 1992 shoebox.

 

The first real clue was Gypsy's wedding dress.  The reason this is a clue is that Gypsy is Niche's wife.  Gypsy Tintinnara, Breezing Dixie to the rest of you: 

 

 The date on her photo was March 1989.  My own wedding had been less than a year before that.  I remembered that bits of the same satin had gone into this costume.  I pawed on, forward through time:  1990, 1991, 1992.  Arab costume halters, colored Parade sets and prism tape halters showed that color and texture were important to me.  And then, at 2-92, something huge leapt out.

 

Glory be, it was the Grand Cavalcade!  

 

 Back then we'd rented a house in west State College, at 430 Airport Road.  We'd called it Niebenkirche or "near church" because there was a church next to it;  near and nearly were both true.   On special occasions I'd held these enormous assemblies of every horse in the herd, usually to celebrate weddings.  THERE THEY WERE:  Right at the head of the parade, behind King and Maria (Fighting Stallion in an enormous pom-pom-fringed blanket and Running Mare in black and green), reigning couple, flanked by Ponderosa as head Shaman and priest, joined by their own son Tesoro (behind King in blue/white) and Goldenear behind Ponderosa, since Decorators were royalty in and of themselves.

 

The costume had been for Niche's wedding, and this was their triumphal procession. 

  

 

 

The bundle of white flowers in front of Gypsy was a tiny model bouquet, sent to me by Julie Froelich as an unexpected gift upon her happening to see the picture of Gypsy's wedding dress.   The flowers were bourne upon the back of an appaloosa FAF, Cricket, who happened to be the son of Gypsy and Niche.  (Now don't let's get into timing issues,...!)

 

The procession started at the end of the couch, extended to the other end and turned back 180 degrees.  And then the Cavalcade had spread out around the rest of the house.  Niebekirche had a complete loop of a floor plan:  you could indeed walk around in a circle through the rooms.   Looks like my Eight-Horse-Hitch of Black Belgians had been involved.   That made sense:  Their harnesses had been started in 1990 and would have been just finished.  Colts in the wagon bed!   Followed by my 6 Dapple Grey Clydes, as close as they could come to the same performance,...  Er-ma-gerd, ancient old harnesses on them,... and SO much more,...

 

 Astounding to think I had enough horses and tack to circle the house three times.  But I remembered the glorious flood.  I had photographed it thoroughly.  There they all were:  Every blanket, every notable piece of tack, even the bull for the piano.  No one was left out.  It even looked like other couples, in wedding finery (I had another wedding costume from Fashion Star Fillies) had joined in the happy throng.  Good heavens, the turquoise/white/red costume, three horses behind Niche, was my other Arab costume...

  

 

Even the Stablemates got in on it!! 

Perusing all the photos, I saw that my dear old friend Gretchen's carpet herd (all 15 of them) were here too.  She must have been visiting.  That went a ways towards explaining the fuss;  Gre lived several hours away.  Oh what fun.  It had been a happy day.

 

So Niche's costume existed at this time, February of 1992.  It could not have been made earlier than 1988.  My answer lay somewhere in that window of 4 years.  Not bad, given that I had not photographed it upon completion (bad girl!) nor written any accessible notes about it.  The problem with handwritten records is it's all but impossible to search them -- !! 

 

So, you won't get to see all the parade shots.  You won't get a blow-by-blow explanation of every horse, every costume, every piece of tack.  You won't get to see Niche close up and you won't see the other happy couples, nor the previous horse marriages I have celebrated at our current house, the one after Niebenkirche (1993 on).  Not until I get back, near October 24, and take up the reins again.  By then there will be other subjects to blog on,...  I might blog from the trip, if I can figure out how to do that with a phone,...  cell phone technology is not my strong point, but I can learn,..  

But in the meantime, hasn't this rabbit hole of a parade been a happy memory!

 

Thank you Mink and Cosimo:  You have inspired me.