Old Friends With New Lives

    It's an inevitable truth that the only thing constant in life is change.  Calvin is a youth show horse, which means his life's work is to take care of young riders as they learn the art of showing horses.  Because Calvin is so good at his job he has been blessed to have good homes.   As Calvin patiently teaches his young riders they begin to grow into experienced horsemen.  In time his riders need to move on to horses that are more challenging, giving them a chance to build their skills on the foundation of confidence that was Calvin's gift to them. Then it is Calvin's time to move on to help his next young rider.
  Recently, Calvin has made such a move to teach a new rider, but as a final farewell the mother of his former rider had a bracelet made from a few of his tail hairs to commemorate the time spent together as horse and rider.  I was only given the instructions "match the copper colours in his coat".  Below is the resulting bracelet.

Louisiana Style's First Win

   Cathy, has been a professional horse trainer for over twenty years, and I know first hand she has both a real knowledge of the horse industry and great talent/skill when it comes to training.  Her latest project is Louisiana Style, or "Dotti" as she is known around the barn, it is amazing what she has been able to do with Dotti.  Dotti was born on Cathy's ranch, she was bred and trained to be a race horse, she didn't do too badly on the track either, but fearing the rigours of racing would break Dotti down at a young age Cathy decided to change her career from race horse to western pleasure horse, two jobs that couldn't be more different!  Dotti has been up to the challenge and after only a year of retraining she will be entering her first schooling show next weekend.   I predict a lot of ribbons the future, Cathy and Dotti make a great team.
   It was less than two years ago that Dotti won her first race, and it was that occasion Cathy decided to commemorate with a bracelet made from Dotti's tail hair.  She had a bracelet made from rawhide that she had purchased at a horse show and worn for many years, before the clasp broke. She had been very fond of the rawhide bracelet so she asked me to use the beads with Dotti's hair to make a new bracelet as a memento of Dotti's first win on the track. Below are the before and after pictures of that bracelet.

                                      The Original Rawhide Bracelet

                                   The Bracelet Made From Dotti's Tail