weird halloween!

As many times previously mentioned, Halloween is my favorite holiday. But this year is a bit of a (totally understandable!) bust: no going out in costume, no office decorations. But I did find this amazing pony skeleton (he is pretty big at 4-feet tall) at the home improvement store! It has glowing red eyes and makes the most high-pitched, horrible neighing sounds.

I added a bit of extra decoration and some accents of dark paint (he was too bone white) and made him creepier!

wondering why skeleton pony still has ears…

The evil pony's tack was inspired by the nazgul/ringwraith horses of Lord of the Rings. Sadly, I did not finish the matching costume I hoped to make for Major…so there is something to look forward to next year.

Happy Halloween, and now go eat the whole bag of candy all by yourself…or save one for the pony…

some say little ponies are evil…

d.i.y.: zombie skeleton horse

I love Halloween. I don't actual love scary things, no scary movies for me! But I had an inspiration while cleaning out my shed, and finding a box labeled "Horse Hospital." These old guys were well loved, broken legs, all scuffed and beat up (they did "fight" when I played with them as a kid!).

old guy, seen better days

I was going to donate them, but thought: I can make projects out of these! First up: running black appaloosa, but with broken leg and lots of scuff marks. He is "vintage," but of no value in his sad condition! You can make your own skeleton out of an Breyer, or any horse model from the thrift store (I see Barbie horses there all the time.)

I had a popsicle stick taped on his broken leg!

new leg, from Sculpey clay

First I had to fix his leg. I used some Sculpey clay I had (it only dries when you bake it, so you can work it a long time). I modeled the leg (pretty roughly) around a piece of wire. When it was done I sanded it to better shape, and drilled a small hole in the model leg. A bit of epoxy and some paint, good as new! (now this is not a perfect fix, but good enough worked for me!)

pretty simple supplies

I thought about painting the whole model flat black, but I liked the original finish, scuffs and all. I found a horse skeleton graphic online and printed it as reference. A pencil, some craft paints and small brushes, that's all that is needed.

draw, in pencil, rough skeleton

see, rough, not accurate!

I penciled in the skeleton roughly, this is not anatomically accurate, just close enough. The pencil lines can be covered with paint or erased later if needed. I did not take photos while painting, because it was pretty straight forward: apply paint inside pencil lines. I ended up doing two coats to get a solid color, and my color was white with a bit of black and brown to down it down just a bit.

accented with a bit of red

I did paint his eye red after I decided he was a zombie horse. Also a little red in his flaring nostrils, and that was it. 

final zombie horse, I love him!

He'll sit on my dining table with the warty pumpkin for the season, I think he is super fun (and easy)! Do you have any horsey Halloween decorations? If not, make this guy!

coin flip

I love horses. Since you're reading a horse blog, I'm assuming you do too. The care and time (whether that is riding, training, etc) of horses takes up many hours in the week.

But what about other interests? It is hard to make the decision sometimes! Go for a ride or a hike? Sit and read a book or watch the horses quietly munch hay? Go for an early morning swim and ride after? Most of the year that is the balance I try to find.

But every fall my interests collide, when a beautiful Sunday morning dawns, and I stay home, not riding, because football season has begun! I know for many people that is what drives them OUT of the house, but I have been pretty passionate about NFL football for many years, and have to decide on any given Sunday, horses or football?

I check the game schedules, who is playing when, and decide my game plan. If my team, the Seattle Seahawks are playing, I am for sure watching, from coin flip to final minutes. If other teams I like, or a game is supposed to be competitive, then I'm watching. The horse, and other interests, can have the other six days. 

 

 

I recently ordered a new helmet (too many whacks with tree branches!), and decided my interests needed to collide a bit more. I made some mostly subtle stickers, just black on gray (with a green hawk eye!), but enough to show my NFL spirit while riding. Just a bit, I'm sticking with orange for tack (I haven't switched our colors to Seahawks wolf gray, college navy and action green! Though I am asked in this area, in my orange and black, if I support San Francisco Giants baseball!). 

 

new logo and old school football

 The only problem is, I think Major might support the Broncos, or the Colts (but never the Cowboys)…

I support actual turf fields, no astroturf!

the wait

We were on the trail at 5:30pm. The leaves are so dry they don’t rustle, they just crack and fall into pieces. A dust trail behind us shows our slow progress. But the sky was blue for the first time in ages…

Everything WAY too crunchy…

We headed down to the trail, and on the edge of the forest Major stopped. I swear it was just to take in the blue sky and the trail stretching away in front of us. We rode along the sandy lake trail where the dust stayed behind and we enjoyed the evening air. (So did way too many boats, but I was trying to be an optimist and ignore their loud engines and bad stereos). 

pausing for the view

final view of the lake

Drafts of cool air come off the lake, and the rocks and sand combine into something wonderful in the shadows. Coming back through the forest we went slowly, to clear old smoke from our lungs and savor the time. Our shadow raced ahead, we were in no hurry to catch up this time.

shadow winning

Last month we had just started back with some walking rides when the state caught fire again, and I gave up. Hazardous air for the horses and riding, worrying about family nearer the fires, (plus, Covid, politics, etc!!!), it was just too much. So I hid from the smoke, working and reading, and just waited, again. I feel like I lost a summer. No long rides, no horse camping, not much exploring. 

I usually hate fall, with colder days, darkness coming soon, all a harbinger of winter damp darkness. But I think this year I'll be enjoying our fall rides a bit more, as a good escape from the world, maybe taking a little more time to appreciate that golden glow of the lower sun light through trees, untainted air.

are you sure we can't go back out?