Sad but true story, you guys.

The first thing you need to know is that I am really bad with dates, which is ironic for someone who makes a living in history. Epically bad. I can barely remember my own birthday.

So my fifth anniversary with my boyfriend was coming up, and I sort of knew it was in the beginning of January somewhere? I was pretty sure it was in the first week, anyway.

Then I thought aha! It’s on the second!

Then he said “So, on the fifth, what do you want to do?”

Whoops.

January 2 is my anniversary with Tristan…not with the boyfriend.

So, happy anniversary, Tristan my love! To be fair – 2014 makes eight years, which is far longer than any boy has ever lasted.

Ridiculous photo from a few minutes after he arrived late at night – already stuffing his face with hay.

I hope everyone had a lovely few days – and if you were the recipient of any great horse-related Christmas presents, please share!

I got my first and one of my favorites before Christmas, from Hannah:

Not the saddle – that is very old and has been mine for many years, and will be the subject of a future post. No: the brand new rack underneath! I had posted that I didn’t have one yet, and then one arrived at my door. Awesome. 🙂 I can’t wait to take it everywhere this summer.

I spent Christmas down in the Boston area with my family, and managed to catch some kind of nasty bug that I am still recovering from; I spent Christmas Eve & Day nauseated, weak, and feverish, with occasional interludes of congestion. I still haven’t quite kicked it, which means I am very out of it at work this morning, trying to nibble on graham crackers as my first real food since Monday, and might not make it to the barn tonight. Yay.

A very Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and happy holidays/winter solstice/Wednesday to those who do not. 🙂

Our Christmas tree has four main themes: geeky (Back to the Future, Star Trek, Doctor Who), Swedish (tre kronor, “God Jul,” flags, Dala horses), Boston sports (Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and the infamous Rene Rancournament) and…equestrian.

Here are some of my favorite equestrian ornaments, from a collection built over the last few years.

Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story
(available for purchase on Amazon.com)

You are a great champion. When you ran, the ground shook, the sky opened and mere mortals parted. Parted the way to victory, where you’ll meet me in the winner’s circle, where I’ll put a blanket of flowers on your back.

Cale Crane and her family rediscover each other as they nurse a broken down racehorse back to greatness. It’s a pretty standard plot: girl meets horse, horse is injured, girl believes in horse, horse proves girl right all along.

If Racing Stripes was the underdog race movie done wrong, Dreamer is that movie done right. They have more than their fair share of similarities; both fathers aren’t following their dreams, both daughters find a connection with a horse (er, equine) that allows them to reconnect with their fathers, both duos prove everyone wrong.

The devil is in the details, though. This movie really is a loving homage to the horse racing industry, or at least a highly idealized version of it. (It is Hollywood, after all.) Many of the small things are just right, from the way Sonya’s fracture is described to the guest appearances by Giant’s Causeway and Fusaichi Pegasus, from the way Ben mixes up fly spray in a beat-up bottle to the realities of race entrance fees and the rivalry between two Middle Eastern brothers as they throw about huge sums of money. They even do a nice call-out to the “Inspired by a True Story” subtitle of the movie when they explicitly reference Mariah’s Storm, her injury, and her return to racing.

Sure, it tips too far into wish fulfillment at times, and sure, Cale is played a bit too cutesy especially as regards her ownership of the horse – sometimes her father’s trusting of her reads less as parenting and more as abdicating responsibility – but it actually hits the right notes when it needs to. It also does the final race scene really, really well, which is harder to do than you would think (I’m looking at you, Secretariat).

In all, I’d definitely recommend it. It’s a nice Sunday morning watch, it will hit the right sentimental buttons without getting too treacly, and enough of the horse details are right to keep a knowledgeable horse person in the movie.

I did a post previously on some gorgeous vintage horse items on Etsy, and now I want to focus on three different shops. I know the owners of each shop, and like them enormously as people AND as artists. Win-win. So if you’re still searching for something horsey for your trainer, barn owner, or best riding buddy, check these three shops out.

Bright Strange Things

Mackenzie is so wildly talented, I can’t even fathom it. We first met actually through fandom but quickly realized that we both owned roan mustangs with independent streaks. She’s since rehomed her mare Juno, but she still blogs at Bright Strange Things and takes the most amazing photographs. She also continues to produce astounding equestrian art, including this series of eventing ink drawings that I commissioned from her a few years back.

She makes these lovely wire ornaments, seen at left, and really lovely jewelry. She’s always working on something interesting and new, so check back regularly. Even the things that aren’t to my taste are beautiful!

Crystalline Horse

I am biased in this recommendation as well: Lindsey used to be the barn manager of my former boarding barn. She’s now doing the pottery thing more or less full time, and you can see why. She is talented and hardworking and she produces unique, wonderful things. Her horse mugs are really terrific: beautiful, functional, and artistic. I have a dressage mug and a jumping mug that are in regular rotation for my morning tea, and my preferred choice for evening tea. They hold a lot of liquid, they stay hot, and they are beautiful.

Lindsey also makes Raku horses; an example is at right. Raku is a specific type of glaze and way of firing that creates the beautiful shiny style. I have a Raku from Lindsey that looks like Tristan and is one of my most treasured possessions. They are expensive but absolutely stunning – photos doesn’t convey how wonderful they are.

Polar Square Designs

Kate makes really, really lovely stuff. I also own one of her signature pieces. In fact, it’s the one featured on  her custom saddle pad order page. It’s pictured left in all its glory on my roan pony’s butt. I. Love. It. People notice it wherever we go. It reminds me to be bad ass on cross country. It’s a quality saddle pad and the design is just phenomenal. The picture doesn’t really convey the subtleties and shading and intricacy of it. I feel confident in saying that she could pull off any design you wanted.

She also does portraits, photo shoots, and these adorable ornaments, customized to look like your horse – and, of course, she blogs at The Adventures of Lucy.

I signed up for Tracy @ Fly on Over‘s horse blogger gift exchange and waited on pins and needles to get my gift…and it arrived yesterday!

It’s a gorgeous fleece turtleneck with “heat tech” technology and I can’t even tell you how delicious it feels just wearing it around my apartment. Here I am wearing it after I opened the box; please excuse the idiot grin and helmet hair (I had just gotten back from the barn):

Racing Stripes (2005)
(available to rent or buy at Amazon.com)

Whoo boy. I hit play thinking why not? This could be good cheesy fun.

I did not expect the sheer level of crack on display in this movie. I stopped counting or making notes of the ridiculous moments less than halfway through. There are just too many. The real heart of the problem, though, is that the movie can’t agree on its own internal fantasy logic. Is this horse world or people world? Whyfor are the flies comic relief? Do horses behave like horses or like adolescents in horse clothing? So many questions.

If you haven’t heard of this movie, the premise is that a zebra foal falls off the back of a circus truck and is raised on a Kentucky farm adjacent to a racetrack. He grows up thinking he’s a racehorse. The father (Captain Pike from the new Star Trek movies, which was a fun little AU imagining for me) and daughter that raise him used to be in the racing business – he was the Best Trainer Ever – until the mother had an accident on a young horse and was killed. They have angst! But not enough angst to prevent them from doing insanely stupid things like, oh, hitching a zebra to a plow when he’s never been handled…letting the girl ride him to work when he’s never worn a saddle…training him for the Big Race in two weeks using a “gate” made out of two outhouses.

But never mind that. A certain amount of magical realism is inherent in these things. This movie really tries to push it too hard, though. There’s the human world, full of human reasons to win the race, and the horse world, complete with moonlight secret races and bizarro sexual politics and never the twain shall meet. Stripes could care less about his people; his people could care less about Stripes.

Anyway. I have a pretty high tolerance for cracktastic horse movies, and this one left me cold, bored, and disdainful rather than even lightly amused.

I’d never heard the phrase “stick season” until about a month ago, despite a cumulative 7 years now of living in Vermont. I think it really describes beautifully that long, held breath between the end of fall and the beginning of winter.

After a few early wintry days with overnight lows in the single digits or below zero, we’re back in proper fall weather: 30s during the day, fog in the valleys, and bare trees (hence the “stick) outlined against gray skies.

Part of me hates this weather; it is, after all, cold and wet and gray and dreary. It’s too cold to really spend a lot of time outside, but too warm to really dig in to winter activities.

But part of me loves the feel of nature on hold, paused, and mustering energy for its next big show. My favorite stories are origin stories, and I love that glimpse of normal life we get before the hero’s world is changed forever because it feels like setting a baseline.

It’s stick season for me at work right now, too, and I’m trying to translate that calm new baseline to my horse work as well: getting into some better habits by spending just a few minutes cleaning tack, or organizing my trunk, or picking through his tail each visit, so when it’s so cold I can hardly breathe I’ll have that rhythm down.

Here’s to the calm before the storm.

I’ve been feeling for a little while now like I want to do a holiday gift exchange with horse people, and Fly On Over has answered that need for me!

So go, sign up for her gift exchange and perhaps I will draw your name. 🙂