I have a problem

I made a stop at Stablemates Inc, my local tack shop and the source of most of my Breyers.

Two new models Empres and EZ To Spot were just calling my name...I couldn't ignore them

Alborozo came in the mail today from Russia, I have never fallen in love with a model on sight, he is a true beauty.

So today I added another three 1:9 scale horses to my collection. Whoops

Family Portrait

This morning I confirmed a trade I am doing with Zoja Makovec, a very talented young artist I had seen resculpt a marwari for NaMoPaiMo. She is getting two sets of medieval tack for turning my customized foundation stallion into an Australian Stock Horse.

Keri is getting two saddles and boots

Kaylee is getting two horseisle sets


At the moment my BreyerFest tack list is as follows...

• x2 Black Dressage Sets
• x1 Brown Dressage Set
• x3 Black Jumping Sets
• x3 Light/Dark Brown Jumping Sets
• x3 Chocolate Jumping Sets
• x2 Chocolate with Color Jumping Sets
• x2 Black with Color Jumping Sets

This totals to be 16 saddle sets. Wish me luck! 

Good thing models don't need stalls

Five, yes FIVE (5) new horses entered the Hatgi household today.

Who knows where they'll be "sleeping" once I need that space again

Good thing they do not need stalls/hay/water/etc.

Valegro, Rhapsody in Black, Paint me a Pepto, and two surprise Stablemates

NaMoPaiMo Party; a meeting of the minds

Howdy!

This last week has been very eventful; a new part time job, school, and most excitingly I got to meet Kristian Beverly of Five Paws Studios!

I'll go through in order of appearance above..

Part time job involves riding horses and teaching lessons when the occasion arises. I am very excited to ride with this barn. They import horses from Canada often, and focus on Jumpers. Maybe I will find my next competition horse with them :)

School is going on, not much to say on the topic other than I am taking full advantage of the printers in the library to print reference images and blog tutorials LOL

Lastly I attended Kristian Beverly's NaMoPaiMo party this weekend, and have been bitten with the customizing bug (and arguably the showing bug!! eek!).

I was first to arrive, Susan Young of Timaru Star II arrived not long after me, and of course when three tack makers are together in the same room, tack seems to bubble up. Susan had brought a bag of tack from her collection, Hannah Bear's alligator saddle, the elk saddle, an Erin Corbette saddle, mostly pieces I had only seen online. I brought three completed saddles and one work in progress, none are my favorite nor my best pieces, but I was happy to have a trained eye to inspect it and give me some feedback. Kristian of course had heaps of tack for us to drool over, her western saddles make me almost want to try one (I still refuse to get the kit I had started back out, I convince myself I'm too busy), and of course her english tack is superb.

I met Susan Young, Elizabeth (Lizzy) Mace, and Maddie Klein, we had a grand time making a mess in Kristian's dedicated craft area which is a room I have decided I need.

A young grey, unnamed as of right now

My reference picture, photo credit to Google (true source unknown)

This makes 3 completed NaMoPaiMo horses, all Trad scale. I have a feeling I will continue to tweak the shading and continue to "play" with his color. 

Now that I have three horses done, I'm going to bring my focus back to tack and finish my custom orders so I can get onto making BreyerFest tack. 

NaMoPaiMo is HERE

It's finally February, or the month better known as NaMoPaiMo (National Model Painting Month), this will be my first year participating.

My Jacy has been prepped, primed, and pastelled too quickly, so I'm headed back to the prepping and priming phases. On January 30th I decided to add one of my two Cortes C models from BreyerFest last year into my project pile. Jacy will be done as a chestnut paint, though it is looking to be more of an apricot dun color now, and Cortes will be a blue roan. 

Cortes as of last night

School started up this week, and time to ride is becoming scarce between tack orders and homework, but I managed to ride Ziggy once, Montana once, and Lily twice. For a six year old Lily has done well with her two weeks off due to a minor tendon injury, and we haven't lost any ground due to it. If finances and her physical soundness permit I will try to take her to USPC championships in Tryon NC this year. 

I bought my ticket to BreyerFest 2018 AND an Alborozo who is my first wishlist horse. I plan to bring some English tack sets (Saddle/Bridle/Pad/Girth/Breastplate) to BreyerFest to be sold for $175 a set. I will bring some halters, bridles, and breastplates as well if you are not in the market for a full set of tack.

I am doing my pricing a bit backwards where the pre-made things are more expensive than the custom orders, but if you want an item now, you can have it for a premium, whereas a custom set may take longer so I will be a bit less rushed and charge less for it. 

My list of tack to be made is shrinking slowly but surely, to find out what I am currently working on, check out my Facebook page under ZHTack! 

Next week will be a bit more intense, but I think with enough coffee I can handle it.

Busy January

I started school at the local community college this week, I have 3 classes left until I am DONE with my associates.

I have also started my latest Horseisle tack set order.

Pegasus Saddle

Those photos were from before I got the piping, rear pads, feathers, and stirrups added. The saddle looks a bit more like this now...

(Notice my desk is still a mess)

I hope to have the netting and the tassels added by sometime this week, I may do the girth tonight and start work on the bridle. 

One set a week seems to be my new norm! It's fun to be busy, mostly because it doesn't interfere with my school work for now.

Best Dressed Pony

This month Newsworthy has been my resident "saddle stand", and winner of biggest closet.

I have made two fairly identical sets of tack for the little grey pony, both in two-tone brown, one as an eventing/jumper set, and another as a hunter/eq set.

The latter is nearing completion, and I am VERY pleased with how it is turning out, the saddle in particular. There are a lot of firsts for my tack on this set; stirrup leather keepers, piping around the skirting, piping on the pommel, and pinning of the skirting through the tree in lieu of glue.

This is my first time making stirrup leather keepers

I pinned the skirting through the tree with a head pin tucked neatly under the panels (first time doing so!)

I absolutely love the profile and "look" this saddle has. 

The bridle is even cuter (in my opinion)

This will be my first successful split crown piece, padded noseband/browband/crown, first successful raised noseband and browband, and probably the nicest bridle I've made to date.

Newsworthy is definitely my best dressed (sometimes the only dressed...) pony!

Little Things

   There was no pun intended when I titled this blog post, but it seems fitting enough to keep. All of the little things in my life feel like they are falling into (and some out of) place.

   I have one more semester until I am done with my associates, which feels great, but leaves some uncertainty about what I will be doing this fall.

   Lily, my lease horse, has had a tendon injury. It's early in the season, so I won't count us out for shows later on in the season, but it does put a damper on our progress. However, I do have a new horse Montana and two free ride horses (Ziggy and Eddie) in addition to Liam my mom's horse that I can go ride anytime. I'm trying to not let Lily's injury get me down, and stay focused on those other horses.

   I have completed two full tack sets, and taken a few more tack set orders in my books, it feels great to have some business. My tack sales profit will stay in my PayPal account until I decide what I will be doing with it this summer; USPC Championships at Tryon or Breyerfest at the KHP. I would be thrilled to go for either, and given Lily's injury, if it ends up recurring, I may be more inclined to go to BF 2018. I will be bringing as much tack with me to BF and to USPC Champs either way.

   This will be my first time participating in NaMoPaiMo, and I have selected a TSC Jacy to be my model to hold the portrait of the newest herd member at the Hatgi house, Montana. Known to us as "tana" now, she is an 11 year old mare of unknown breeding, and perhaps the sanest horse I have had the privilege to own.

She went to the local McDonald's without any problems!

 This might be the most sufficiently whelming two months of the year between school, tack making, real horses, and NaMoPaiMo