Today’s match pits two Western icons against each other, one movie star v one literary star. Who will keep going, and who will go home? (If it’s Hidalgo, someone make sure his shoes get pulled before he’s let loose on the range this time, ok?)
Round 1 was really difficult. Let’s reflect for a moment on the horses who were left behind.
The Colt from Old Regret Artax from The Neverending Story Joey from War Horse Sleipnir from Norse mythology Pegasus from Greek mythology Merrylegs from Black Beauty Angus from Brave The Flame from The Island Stallion
In the meantime, we have our first match of our second round.
Round 2, Match 1
The Pie v Flicka
Round 2 is going to be really hard, folks.
This first match pits two beloved literary horses against each other, and one of them has to go home.
Who will it be? When you’ve voted, make sure you enter the Rafflecopter for this round.
Some of our battles were hard-fought; some of them were total blowouts.
One or two really surprised me, honestly. Some I’m kind of sad about. But that’s how it works, right?
Our biggest upset was #12 Smoky, who unseated #5 Sleipnir, but #10 Brego also beat out #7 Merrylegs. Just goes to show that nothing is guaranteed!
Here’s what our bracket will look like for Round 2.
Aaaaaaand, without further ado, the winner of our Round 1 drawing for a Riding Warehouse gift card + saddle pad is…
Erin O.!
Check your email, Erin – and if you have a blog, let me know so I can link to it!
Round 2 will start tomorrow, with the Pie facing off against Flicka. There are no easy matches in this round, and I’m honestly no longer sure who’s going to advance. Stay tuned!
I’ve made good progress in distributing the crap that you can see in this picture, taken almost exactly a year ago.
That picture makes me twitch, actually.
Here’s what it looks like right now.
Slightly closer picture & different angle but you’ll have to trust me – all that crap is gone! The shelving behind our lawn furniture is also mostly empty.
So, what’s next?
That shelving is going away this weekend! I’ll do a combination of things to it: cut it up for scrap/burn pile; cut it up to transform into new, more useful, more sturdy shelving; and cut it up to set aside as useful scraps for other potential future projects.
Eventually, I want a project corner: somewhere I can do woodworking, painting, cellar-type things on a usable flat surface with tools to hand. (All of our tools are stored on shelving that is just to the right of this photo. That shelving is deeply meh but is just fine for now.)
First step will be to take the quite nice plywood top off the left side of that shelving and – in a perfect coincidence – fit it without cutting or modification to some hardware my dad gave me to create a work table.
The very last mach of Round 1 of March Madness 2017, pitting Flame against Ashleigh’s Wonder, is tight and will run until midnight tonight – it’s your last chance to vote and to enter the contest for a Riding Warehouse gift card + saddle pad.
Myths of Horse Hay from Stable Management Good facts about hay, backed up by science from the University of Kentucky.
12 Days Old from The Reeling SQUEEEEEEE BABY PICTURES
FEH Clinic Recap from The $900 Facebook Pony Totally fascinating with lots of useful information.
Squeezing Knowledge into a Turnip from Viva Carlos I’m thinking a lot about how to get into a lesson frame of mind, and this post was helpful.
The non-horsey read of the week: Welcome to Pleistocene Park, about scientists in Russia working to recreate an Ice Age biome, complete with woolly mammoths.
Round 1, Match 6 produced our closest race yet, but Brego just nudged out Merrylegs to advance.
Today, the last match of Round 1, and it’s a doozy. I honestly don’t know which one I’ll choose, personally.
Round 1, Match 8
Flame v Ashleigh’s Wonder
Two literary chestnuts…that’s about all they’ve got in common.
Flame is the Island Stallion, a counterpart and rival to the Black Stallion, has a completely incoherent backstory but is completely badass nonetheless. (Also, it continued incoherent – aliens? vampire bats? wtf?)
Ashleigh’s Wonder is the original star of the Thoroughbred series: raised by Ashleigh Griffin, she becomes a superlative racehorse and the foundation mare for the book series’ racing stars.
Flame in his secret island valley
Ashleigh and the foal Wonder
My heart can’t even take this, but one of these two redheads will stay home, and one will advance.
ALSO: it’s your very last chance to vote, share, and enter the Rafflecopter for the Round 1 prize, a $10 Riding Warehouse gift certificate + saddle pad.
Two hunky black horses for us today, but…not much in common other than that.
The Black is famously untamable, answerable only to Alec, a stallion who survived shipwreck and a deserted island and is the fastest horse of all time.
Angus is a brave, loyal Shire who carries Merida through danger; he has sass, but is ultimately obedient and trained.
Who will it be?
this picture never ever gets old: Alec and the Black
Jessica Chastain cosplaying Merida with a big Shire cosplaying as Angus
First, the results from Round 1, Match 4, Smoky v Sleipnir:
Smoky!
I have to say, that was the first one that really surprised me. Possibly because I have never read the Smoky books and I’m married to a Swede.
Round 1, Match 5, Beauty v Pegasus, is still going on and it’s not terribly tight but you still have time to get your vote in!
Here’s today’s match.
Round 1, Match 6
Brego v Merrylegs
Not a ton in common between these two!
In Brego, we have our first purely cinematic horse. Created by Peter Jackson for his film trilogy, Brego belonged to the prince of Rohan, Theodred, before he was killed. After a period wild with grief, he chooses to become Aragorn’s horse, and carries the King of Gondor through to the end of the story.
[please note the egregious error I made in not including Shadowfax in the initial seeding round; Brego will have to stand in for him as well as other LOTR horses like Bill, Asofel, etc., hi, I’m a dork.]
Merrylegs, from Black Beauty, is the quintessential children’s pony. Steady, cheerful, wise, and with just enough sass to keep everyone on their toes.
Who will advance?
I mean we could just do a “horses ridden in a sexy manner by Viggo Mortensen” tournament next year and give me loads of excuses to post pictures like this.
If memory serves, those kids get dumped two seconds later.
beljoeor.com 