Posts Tagged ‘trick pony
Saturday at Ludwigs
On Saturday and Sunday I took Minnow & Ammo the Dachshund to the Ludwigs Corner Horse Show. We’ve been going to this event for the past 3 years now, but this was the first year we were invited to come for 2 days. As the years have passed Minnow & Ammo have become a much larger attraction – drawing some pretty big crowds this year.
It’s always fun to meet new people and even connect with people who have been fans of Ammo & Minnow over the years.
One of my favorite parts of the day was when a group of little girls spotted Ammo – and realized they knew him from our Youtube Videos. One of the little girls shouted “It’s Ammo, he’s from the videos! He’s so Epic!”. I’m pretty sure it went straight to Ammo’s head as he licked the little girl’s faces.
Minnow painted 3 new paintings on Saturday: Chincoteague Blooms, Surf’s Up, and Raspberry Blush – all of which are available in the SHOP.
"Raspberry Blush" by Chincoteague Minnow
"Surf's Up" by Chincoteague Minnow
- “Chincoteague Blooms” by Chincoteague Minnow
Overall it was a really fun day and we were excited to come back on Sunday for round 2!
Tomorrow we’ll have some more pictures from our adventuresome weekend, and you can check out Ammo’s recap of the day on his Blog. And don’t forget to check out the SHOP to see all of Minnow’s wonderful new paintings.
Performances this Weekend
Come meet Minnow the Painting Pony (and his sidekick Ammo the Dachshund) in person – and get your big sloppy kiss! (Or for the faint of heart – just shake his hoof!)
We’re going to have a booth at the Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show on Saturday AND Sunday! Minnow & Ammo are going to be doing tricks all day long, and they’re both bringing some of their famous paintings that will be available to purchase. We even have Christmas cards!
You can catch them on Saturday from 10 – 2pm (Minnow will do a special painting at 11am, 12pm, and 1pm) and on Sunday from 11 – 4pm (Minnow will do a special painting at 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm).
We hope to see you there!
Painting, Laughter, and Dachshunds
On Monday we took advantage of the BEAUTIFUL day and broke out the paints.
Minnow was really excited (if you can’t tell by the look on his face).
Even Ammo enjoys our “painting days”, especially since he always gets to be designated cheerio clean-up dog.
Minnow painted two amazing paintings, one of which I fell in love with and decided to add to my personal collection.
- “Fluttering By” by Chincoteague Minnow
- “From the Mountain to the Sea” by Chincoteague Minnow (personal collection)
Of course I couldn’t leave out Minnow’s brothers, Blitz and Boomer, when it came time to paint.
Blitz had a blast throwing around the paint this time, and got in touch with the messier side of his artistic creativity.
I think his newest painting really reflected his “messy artist” mood that day.
- “Chincoteague Waves” by Chesapeake Lightning (Blitz)
And after patently waiting his turn at the easel Boomerang was ready for some fun.
Boomer is definitely the goofball of the bunch – always making paintings filled with laughter.
His smile is always contagious.
- “Dancing Feathers” by Chesapeake Boomerang (Boomer)
After 4 plus hours each of the ponies had had their turn at the easel.
As per usual, by the end of the day everyone was covered in paint, including me.
Check out all of the ponies’ available paintings in their SHOP.
2011 Pony Penning Recap: July 29
This was our last day on the island, so we had breakfast and then headed into town for some shopping. I was on a search for the book “The Field Guide to the Chincoteague Wild Ponies” by Kelly Lidard, a book that has photographs and documentation of all of the current ponies that make up the wild herd on Assateague Island. It’s a really cool book – and a must for anyone who is coming to the island for the first time or wants to learn more about the existing herd. I was able to locate Surfer Dude, Boomerang’s maternal grandfather, and Witch Doctor, Boomerang & Blitz’s paternal grandfather in the book. The rest of their ancestors have since passed away. I’m excited to read more about the herd in this book, and I’m hoping to someday contact Kelly to see if she might perhaps have any documentation of when Minnow was a foal on the island. That would be so cool if I could find out who his parents were – or maybe even find a photo of him as a foal.
After a day of shopping we grabbed ice cream at Mr. Whippy and then headed back early to the Pony Centre. A bunch of the girls wanted Minnow to make them some special paintings before he headed home after the Pony Show.
Minnow painting "Flowers for Susan"
"Flowers for Susan" painted by Minnow - pony penning 2011
Minnow painting "The Lonely Oat"
"The Lonely Oat" by Minnow - pony penning 2011
Minnow & Kyley with "The Lonely Oat"
Minnow painting "Rogue Wave"
"Rogue Wave" by Minnow - pony penning 2011
Minnow was more the happy to offer up his painting skills as he painted away behind the Pony Centre.
Later he did one last performance to end out his week on the island, and his final painting sold after the performance.
"Seaside Happiness" by Minnow - pony penning 2011
Here are some shots of Minnow performing on his last day…
Since my dad and sister came down for the last two days of Pony Penning, I was able to get some video of Minnow while he was painting and performing. Here are some of my favorites:
Below is Minnow’s brand-new performance, which I call “Super Pony Picnic”, that he debuted at the Pony Centre.
When we begin learning a new routine we practice it over and over in the order that it is supposed to be performed (after Minnow has learned each individual trick). We practice it so much that Minnow learns what comes next – so much so that sometimes he starts performing the next trick before I’m even ready.
However, an interesting fact about Minnow is that usually during Pony Penning week he decides at some point to make up his own order of go – sometimes even adding his own tricks. I think he does this because he gets bored with the “routine” as we have it, so inevitably he decides to add on some of his favorites – and sometimes even taking out ones he doesn’t like as much.
One of these instances can be seen in the above video. Typically after I put on Minnow’s “scarf” he’s supposed to take it off – something that later in the week he decided not to do – instead he decided it would look much better if he got onto the pedestal (which was actually not in the performance at all until the end). When Minnow ad-libs I end up having to go with the flow too, opting to let him drink his hero juice while standing on his pedestal. We ended up using this adaptation to our performance for about half of the shows, and I actually liked it a little better. Minnow certainly keeps me on my toes!
And for our last video of the week, here’s a fun performance done by the World’s only Chincoteague Pony Drill Team – isn’t it fun?
And now the countdown begins all over again for Pony Penning 2012!
Check out all of our Pony Swim Pictures at Green Horse Studios!
2011 Pony Penning Recap: July 28
Thursday was Auction Day! We got up early and headed over to the Carnival Grounds where we had already left our lawn chairs a few days earlier. I was smart this year and remembered where the sun rose the year before – so I made sure to position my chair on the right side of the wooden awning so I’d still be shaded long after the sun rose. It wasn’t the “most” ideal spot to take pictures, as I was a couple rows behind people – which meant to get a clear shot I had to stand up (and block the people behind me). But I tried to do so quickly so everyone could see.
The prices for foals this year were still way down from previous years (even though last year was even lower). It really makes me wish I was in a position to buy a foal. But alas, it costs much more than the price to buy the foal at auction – you have to then feed/hay them, pay for vet and farrier bills, and boarding. Someday I dream of buying one at the auction (Minnow came from the auction in 1993, but I did not buy him then).
The highest priced foal was a buy back foal that sold for $6,700 to the buy back babes. The buy back babes are a group of people that pool together their money to buy foals that are buy backs meaning they will be sent back to the island to live for the rest of their lives.
One of the most exciting parts of the auction was when one of the foals nearly escaped. See the foals are brought out into the auction arena by several people who try to hold the foal from escaping. For most of them this is their first contact with a human – resulting in many bucking/rearing ponies.
And this is exactly why one of the ponies was able to wiggle free from it’s handlers and made a mad dash towards one of the exits.
This is the only shot of the “escape” I was able to get (it happened really fast) but as you can see one of the Saltwater Cowboys was able to grab the foal by the tail before he was able to make it all the way out of the exit. I’m not sure what they would have done had he gotten all the way out – which also made me wonder why there is open chutes to the auction pen. Any “rogue” pony could escape into the fairgrounds – which is also not completely fenced in.
The rest of the auction was rather tame – well as tame as you can get with a bunch of feisty wild foals. I’ve always wondered why the cowboys try to hold the foals, it would probably be a lot easier for them if they just corralled them into a holding pen in front of the auction crowd. Although I get the impression that this method is tradition – and it’s actually pretty entertaining.
A family sitting in front of me at the auction decided to buy one of the buy back foals – spur of the moment. I watched the kids all day long begging their dad to buy them a buy back pony (his wife was begging too). I think it was their first time at the auction, but they must have been swayed by the moment, because their dad ended up buying one of the buy back foals for about $4,500 (I forget the actual price).
After the auction we grabbed some lunch at the fairgrounds and then headed to mainstreet to meet Cezanne. Cezanne’s claim to fame is that he was the highest priced foal sold at the 1989 Chincoteague Pony Auction at $2,500 (Sold to Kevin McBride, the famous Chincoteague Artist). He has gone on to sire many Misty family ponies over the years and continues to do so where he lives now in Ridgely, MD at Hawkeye Stables.
Across the street at the Library I stopped in to see Misty’s Heart of the Storm visiting with her public. Heart of the Storm is Misty’s Great Great Granddaughter and is helping to continue on with her legacy.
Then we headed back to the Pony Centre for the Pony Shows.
"Chincoteague Wildflowers" by Minnow - Pony Penning 2011
Minnow’s first painting was reminiscent of Wildflowers! And thankfully my dad and sister decided to come down for a few days – which means I was able to get some pictures/video of Minnow performing.
The lighting inside the Pony Centre wasn’t ideal, but they were still able to get a few action shots of Minnow performing his new skit.
In between shows Minnow painted “Raindrop” for one of the girls at the Pony Centre – she named it after her Misty descendant Chincoteague Pony, Raindrop.
"Raindrop" by Minnow - pony penning 2011
We also spent a little time watching the ponies out front in the corral, mostly this pony, Miss B.
We discovered that Miss B was Blitz & Boomer’s little sister! She shares the same stallion (Chesapeake Powhattan’s Promise) that our boys do. We thought she really took a resemblance to Blitz, including the “lightning strike” on her rump.
Miss B is 3 years old, and has already taken to pony rides like she was an old pro.
Isn’t she sweet!?
Then in the evening show Minnow painted one of my favorites, Chincoteague Island Sorbet – doesn’t it remind you of ice cream?
"Chincoteague Island Sorbet" by Minnow - pony penning 2011
Which after the evening show I headed promptly to the Island Creamery to get my fill of ice cream! Yum!
Tomorrow I hope to have our final recap of Pony Penning 2011, complete with VIDEOS of Minnow painting and performing. So check back soon!
Check out all of our Pony Swim Pictures at Green Horse Studios!
