Better late than never!

I bought these two at the Julip Live back in October, but a combination of terrible light levels, equally bad weather and a ridiculously slow and useless computer (which will be replaced with a shiny new one this week, hooray!) have made it incredibly difficult to photograph anything.

First up is Kelpie, a gorgeous chestnut roan Welsh Cob. He was the first of the spares I spotted when I arrived, and once I picked him up, he never left my hand the whole time I was browsing! I was going to call him Pumpkin, which I think suits his colour well, but it seems more marish than geldingy so Kelpie he became!

 



He has the thickest and softest mane and tail ever, which caused its own set of problems as no matter what I did, I couldn't get the mane to lie flat and eventually had to invest in a can of hair mousse...but even then it pops up after a day or so!


He won a rosette at the show and as the colour suited him so much, I couldn't resist making him a matching headcollar! I got the ribbon from the show too, courtesy of Manda, so thank you for that!



I had some nice purple fabric knocking around so he got a nice rug made from it. (It looks quilted, but its actually a microfibre dishcloth from Poundland!)



Next up is Karliah the Arab Mare.

I've always been a bit 'meh' about this mould as its the sort of one where I like some people's models and not others. When the mould was brought back recently, I put it on my 'future order' list, but not anywhere near the top. I knew I'd want something in a more traditional colour; a bay, chestnut or grey probably, so when I spotted this girl on the spares table, all my previous misgivings vanished - she's gorgeous!

 

I'll be keeping her in this extended trotting pose rather than the more collected one they're usually posed in as it shouts 'arab' far more to me. I also flipped her mane over as I think her offside is the nicest.





 

This poor mare has also had a few issues within the first few weeks of ownership!

I fought to fit a pipecleaner dock in her tail to give it a higher carriage, which kinda works if you make sure its covered at all times by hair, but it was when I was making some tack for someone else that the biggest problem reared its ugly head!

I had her at the side of my desk while I made something else, went to move her out of the way to get something and instead knocked her over, onto her side. Not a big deal I thought, Julips are hardy and stuff, she'll be fine...ohmygodnooooooo!

She hadn't just fallen over, she'd managed to fall onto the jam jar lid with a few drops of superglue on it I'd been using as a palette and got loads of it in her tail.

 

Now, I'm usually exceptionally careful about having glue anywhere near my Julips, but she was literally the other side of my desk from it, so I thought it was safe enough but apparently not.
I was texting my friend on whatsapp at the same time so they got my full freakout when I realised what had happened. I didn't have any spare black mohair so I couldn't just redo it and I was getting myself in knots until they suggested I try using a little bit of nail varnish remover to dissolve the glue. I had some to hand, so I gave it a go, being exceptionally careful to wrap up the whole horse so only the tail was visible. It worked pretty well, with only a couple of tiny rough patches still there. I uncovered the horse to view my handwork and....oh my goooood, not agaaaaain!

The tail was now glue-free but somehow a drop of the acetone rich solution had got onto her hock and stripped the paint off completely.

 

I don't think I've ever used quite so many all caps in a text before, I was so angry at myself!

Luckily it was on a black bit and it's touched up really well - I can't imagine what might have happened if I'd got any on those glorious dapples!

She's since adopted one of the headcollars I made to sell at the show...



...and will be getting a traditional Arabian costume eventually when I can be bothered to make more tassels. (I loathe making tassels)







Seeing as the blue and red suited her so much, she got a matching rug too.




I'm so glad I can finally introduce them! (and hopefully they can remain disaster-free for the rest of their days!)