Misty Memorabilia
Misty of Chincoteague was a book I read as a child, but my love of Misty and the wild Chincoteague Ponies really emerged when I was gifted my first Chincoteague Pony, Minnow.
Minnow started my obsession with the book and the history behind his amazing breed. So when I came across a tattered book page from a 1947 First Edition of Misty of Chincoteague, I knew I had to have this little ode to Misty hanging on my wall.
Wesley Dennis’ beautiful illustration of Misty running free was the perfect little addition to my office wall once I had it all framed up.
Hands-free Target Stick
One of my top items on my Christmas List this year was a retractable key chain for my target stick. When I’m performing with the ponies I’m constantly scrambling to keep my target stick with me. Stuffing it through my belt loops, holding it under my arm, sometimes sprinting across the arena to grab it after it was left behind. It really was becoming quite difficult to perform with it. So the solution for me was a heavy duty retractable key chain – but the next problem was how to get the stick to stay on the key chain.
So I was all ready to rig something up to attach the stick to the key chain – I had snaps and elastic and I even set up my sewing machine.
But then my little sidekick Ammo heard the click of my camera shutter and he came sprinting from across the house to help.
We played with the target stick.
And I took pictures of Ammo, always the camera hog.
I’m pretty sure Ammo thinks he’s a famous super model.
Then Ammo convinced me to take a break on the bed with him – although pretty much the only thing I had done was take a photo of said target stick and retractable key chain. But in the end, Ammo was right, I had plenty of time to play with him because I was completely over thinking my engineering efforts – when all I really needed was a hair tie.
Now we’re ready for some serious clicker training! Let the fun begin!
Which Color?
One of the number one questions I always get is – do you let the pony pick the colors?
Most of the time, no, because lets be honest – we’d have millions of paintings that were apple green and carrot orange. 🙂 In actuality, Minnow has no problem choosing paint colors, but really there is no rhyme or reason to what he chooses – and honestly he’d much rather be wielding the brush anyway. So the task of paint color selection usually falls upon my shoulders.
Choosing paint colors is not an easy task. Sometimes I mull for hours over the right shade of blue to paint a canvas. A lot of times I doubt my color selection all together – which ironically these sometimes turn out the best in the end. Sometimes where we are painting influences my choice of colors.
When painting on Chincoteague during the summers we gravitate towards bright island colors and ocean hues. When painting at home on the farm in the fall we sometimes have deep reds and rich brown tones.
In the beginning of our painting adventure I gravitated a lot towards browns and earthy tones, now I much prefer the bright and vibrant colors. Ultimately color preference is in the eye of the beholder and there really is no right or wrong answer. However, sometimes I just can’t help but feel “stuck” when it comes time to fill the boy’s brushes with paint.
But while browsing through Pinterest the other day (which by the way this is by far my new favorite website – you can follow us here), I came across the mecca of color selection websites, Design Seed.
With millions of color pallets I’m suddenly inspired to provide the boys with a whole new arsenal of paint colors this year. It’s also a wonderful selection tool if you just can’t decide what colors for your custom pony painting.
Now if the 20 degree weather would just disappear so we could get back to painting!
A Piece of the Island
These two tomato sauce jars filled with sand might not look like much to you, but to me they hold much significance. See back when I visited Assateague Island at the end of October (2011) with all three of my Chincoteague Ponies – I took a little piece of the island with me. I collected these jars of sand from the beach – as a way to always keep a little part of the island with me.
My little jars of sand weren’t much to look at these past few months, but a little visit to the antique shop, and $5 later they had a pretty (beach worthy) glass jar to call home.
Now my Assateague sand sits happily on my shelf at home with my jars of sand from Belize and Nicaragua and everytime I look at it I’m reminded of the special trip I took with all three of my boys!
A Visit from the Dentist
Yesterday we got a visit from the horse dentist at the farm.
Scary tools and all – the ponies are quite relaxed about the whole situation.
I’m always so proud when my three little Chincoteague ponies (even wild-born Minnow) stand quietly while the dentist does his thing to clean their teeth. None of them are ever sedated.
All the ponies got an A++ on their teeth as the dentist remarked what great teeth the Chincoteagues on the farm had (even 19 year old Minnow).
The dogs of course were very glad that this dentist didn’t also do canine teeth.
And everyone was very relieved when Minnow returned back to his normal looking self (without the scary robot mask)!
