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Thursday, May 10, 2018

conversations with major: birthday

Happy birthday Major! Damn, where's that birthday hat...I can’t find your birthday hat.
What a tragedy…
I remember using it last year...
Gee darn, let’s move along to the grass now.

Oh wait, here it is!
I’m thrilled, can’t you tell?

Pose and smile for your birthday hat photo!
This is my birthday smile. 


Major: this is my birthday smile

Me: please, try a bit harder?

Hey, it's not all bad. Look, some presents! A new, clean 12 foot lead rope!
That’s not very exciting, but at least it’s orange.
Look what else you got! A new saddle pad. It’s so nice and clean and fluffy…
Not for long.
OK Major, you could at least pretend to be happier on your birthday, maybe grateful?
Fine. What else did I get?
What else do you need? You have a nice pasture, and friends, and don't work very hard…

fluffy new pad and bright leadrope

photo outtakes: awkward, too close, crabby, distracted: being a model is hard!

Oh, I made you a new stall sign!
But everyone already knows who I am.
They do?
Yeah, I’m hard to forget.
Gee Major, and so humble.
Yeah, whatever that is, I’m that too. 

hmm, I can't chew on this one…

Are you sure that all I get? 
Well, maybe there is one more thing…
OMG, carrots! A whole bucket, all for me!
Well, no Major, you have to share with the stable.
What? I couldn’t hear you, I was chewing MY crunchy carrots!

bucket o'carrots!

I'm 15, I should eat them all!

Happy 15th birthday, Majestik Mirage!

13 comments:

  1. Ok. I need to know the brand of the saddle pad and if it is sheepskin. I am currently using a sheepskin half-pad, which doesn't cover the flaps. That one looks like it would work better for my sensitive Arab guy.

    Happy Birthday, Major!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Toklat Matrix - Am I right? 350$ for a saddle pad, yikes.

      https://www.toklat.com/Products/BP/27-8403

      I just splurged on the Toklat T3 girth - wool with memory foam - it's soooo cushy: )

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    2. Yes, a Matrix endurance sport. Wool, though not sheepskin. Since I already had inserts, and bought at a 20% off sale from Riding Warehouse( my favorite!) it was $160. Still an investment, but I buy almost no horse gear, so that is my splurge...I mean, it's for Major, not me!

      I love this pad, it's pretty easy to hose down/wash, and dries surprisingly quickly. I also have the same pad in coolback, their synthetic wool, that I bought used, but it really is not as great as the wool.

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    3. Irish, please educate me - what is the difference between wool and sheepskin? I currently own three "lambs-wool" pads but they were only 120Euros each, not quite Mattes Wool quality, but a bargain, and they make them to order, to fit my saddle perfectly. Curious about the Matrix. BTW, I need to tell Toklat that their memory foam girth is so thick it reduces in length.

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    4. I may be wrong, but I think of wool as the fiber removed from the sheep, and then spun, sewn, etc into the needed format. In this case, fluffy wool adhered to a saddle pad.

      A sheepskin is the whole creature: skin and wool attached, so it has a leather back. Like a sheepskin seat protector.

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    5. That makes sense. I guess Toklat does some sort of processing to the fibers, whereas my saddle pads seem to be sheep pelts with leather still attached.

      Delete
  2. Love the too close outtake of your shiny, shiny birthday boy. And that stall sign is AMAZING! Super interested in how you made it... <3 <3 <3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! The sign is just a piece of galvanized metal, it was actually from the halloween section of the discount store, and had spider designs on it. I sanded it down to rough up the surface and take off the spiders, and then used sharpie permanent marker and an orange paint pen to draw the design (I designed it on the computer and then copied that design onto the metal by making a stencil of the printout).

      My wood stall sign got really faded quickly (I used old, crummy polyurethane sealer), and someone had chewed on it a bit...I'll see how this new project holds up!

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    2. Thought it might be something along those lines... are you in graphic design by chance? That's what I went to school for.

      I won a cute wooden stall sign in an online contest and haven't even put it up in the barn because it will suck watching it deteriorate in the humidity here. Would you mind if I shamelessly stole your idea?! ;D

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    3. guilty, graphic designer by trade! You can totally steal my idea, and if you find a way to seal the metal, let me know!

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  3. Happy birthday, Major! I love the dialogue and his unamused face.

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  4. 15?!!! Wasn't he just 6, like, last week? :-)

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