hoofers!!!!

[Starbreeze]

I’ve always wanted to go to breyerfest. Maybe next trip we can time it so I can go.

If I lived there, I’d have HP passes too!!! My grandparents lived in Lexington and we visited them a lot. Also, we lived there for a year when I was 11, so I know the area, although I can’t believe how much its grown!!! 😯

[Lori]

starbreeze wrote:

I’m sure you’ve posted this elsewhere, but when and how did you first become interested in equines, both real and sculpted? 😕

Nawp, not posted it anywhere, but a subject I can definately dig. 😆

When …. real? My joke is, “My first words were, in this order, Mommy, Daddy, Horsie!!”

I was born loving horses.
I was born knowing how to ride them.
I learned later how to fall off of them. 😎
And I even have the bowed legs as proof I grew up on them. 😳

My father, the one that raised me, fed my addiction of horses from the moment he heard me baby talk the word, ‘horsie.’ Which was very easy for him, since he was an ole timer from North Dakota and the oldest boy in a large Irish Catholic, cattle family. He not only fed my addiction (my drug of choice, I like to refer to it as), he taught me so much, feeding, maintaining equipment, training, hoof care …. he really was an amazing man.

As for sculptures and/or anything horse related. I was (am still) a voracious reader. I was fueled by any author who wrote about them as the subject of their stories. As I grew and my reading material became more educational, I became intrigued with history. Which again, was a direct result of and fueled by my love of horses, since they’ve been a part of our history for so many centuries.

As for fantasy equine. I have always preferred the Pegasi. I can recall back to elementary school (either 2nd or 3rd grade) when one of the higher level reading study books had a picture of a Pegasus on it. As a result, I dove into the current study book with the sole intent to reach the level of study book that had the picture of the Pegasus on it. My teacher thought I was brilliant as I kept asking for the next level of book, only because she didn’t understand my true motivation. 😎

As a young child, I had some horse models here and there, my most favorite one was Silver, the Lone Rangers horse, because he was very posable. I did have a few hand me down Breyers. I really didn’t collect them or anything like that. I was to busy with chores and the responsibilities of being a kid on a small farm in Hickville. So all the money I earned from outside sources usually went to things I would buy for my horses and/or ponies, dependent on the time period.

I saw my first, “Oh my, I would LOVE to have one of those!”, which of course was the Male Pegasus in one of the Windstone catalogues. I never saw them in the stores, only the Unicorns. So I really had no idea of the price and since I already knew I couldn’t afford one of the Unicorns, I figured it was safe to assume that I couldn’t afford the Male Pegasus either, so I never really inquired.

The statues I did manage to acquire here and there were all gifts, but none of them were M. Pena horses. The only thing of M. Pena that I did manage to acquire through the years were some of her catalogues, what I always referred to as, ‘my whittle wish books.’ 😉

Hers were the first and only equine sculptures I ever wanted to collect. Since I’m such a diehard Pegasus fan, I’d like to say that my first M. Pena sculpture was the Male Pegasus, but it wasn’t, I was gifted the Mother Unicorn, which completely reaffirmed why they first caught my eye all those years ago. After a few years of staring at her, I began to wonder about that Male Pegasus again …..

~Hoofer and her musings

[Shandi]

I rode before I walked. My mother was a sulky jockey. I grew up on race tracks and slept in tack rooms on piles of horse blankets. The grooms all taught me and would drag up crates so I could help brush.
When I was 10 I moved in with my father who had gotten my older sister a huge buckskin mare. I loved riding her but she was so big I couldn’t saddle her myself my father told me if you can’t saddle her you can’t ride her. That mare was close to 16 hands.The saddle weighed more then me. So I decided to teach myself to ride bareback. I ended up on the road out cold where my father found me when he came home from work. Cuncusion and near death, he felt guilty and took me to get a saddle from a inlaw and when we got there, they had this gray dapple pony tied to a horse trailer. My father bought the saddle for 10 dollars and then told my dad that he had to take the pony to. So I got Cloudy a welsh pony. Hadn’t be ridden in years and yet he and I where made for each other. I learned alot about balance and falling on that boy. He loved to dump me and then stay 10 feet ahead of me all the way home and I’m talking miles!
I learned to ride bareback better then in saddle. I taught him to rear on comand and walk. The first time I showd my father the cool trick 🙂 Cloudly slipped in wet grass and fell over with me pinned under him and I ended up with another cuncussion, my father just keep standing there till I got up and said “nice trick Girl, DON”T do it again”
I rode everyday I’d ride before school and go to school with horse hair and sweat on my jeans. I’d stash my bridle in the mail box and ride as soon as I got off the bus. I lived breathed and ate with those horses. When I was 15 I ran away from home to live with my real mother. There was a huge gap in there where I had no horses in my life and how I missed them I’d dream of the wonderful feeling of freedom and the way they smell on cold mornings and thier sweet breath. I’d cry when I’d watch shows about horses I longed for them and to them….
Come to 2004 and we move here to the country and I get my deam horse a black and white paint, it’s been a bummpy road regaining my seat and balance and Cowboy has hurt me a few times,cracked head,busted tail bone,broke wrist and thumb…but I love him. He’s almost 17 now and he’s maturing,and we’ve leaned to work togeather but he still throws in a occasional buck.
He wraps his head around my body and hugs me and he licks my hands when I’m sad and lonely. He’s pulled off the screens of the house and puts his head through the windows looking for me he’s evenyanked the mini blinds down, he’s stuck his head through the dog door. He stands on the porch and tries the door knob.
He is trully my joy and my love and I am free when I am with him. I am closest to God when I ride and spend time with my horse.
I love every thing about them, thier smell and the way the hair feels when it’s brushed and washed, I love the way they can smell of dust and sunlight. I love the way they move and the way they can dance. I love the look of mischief that Cowboy can get in his eye when he’s being saddled, I love the way he loves water and mud and takes me swimming with him whe ever he finds a pond or puddle 🙂
I hope to never not have them in my life and I will never give up Cowboy I’ll live in a tent or on the ground before I’d give him or or see him do with out. Same goes for my dogs.

[Author]

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