Horse Day Memories

Recently, myself and long time friends Lizz, Linda and Judy have been sharing memories of our horse and pony club days from our youth. We all lived in the same area of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and went to horse shows together, trail rides, sometimes boarding together at the same stables, and so on. We did so many crazy things - some of which were quite dangerous on looking back.

Today Lizz shared this hilarious memory - she’s a great writer. You can visualize the scene just by reading her words. Comments in square brackets are mine.

“The Claassen family that lived across the street from Woodburns [a farm where we boarded our horses] managed that farm of milking cows. They were from Holland and were all, or at least some of them, artists by night. Especially Hans, I think. There seemed to be lots of dudes, not so many gals, although the ladies could have been interested in other things.

At that time they were working on how to add light to rocks in a river [on one of their paintings]. Diana had something she wished to convey to Hans, so since we were already mounted she decided we would simply ride over. Which we did. Becky and Fred [Becky was my horse, Lizz owned Fred] had previously been there a gazillion times. When we arrived I just sort of reached for Becky's reins, but Di casually tied them to the push lawn mower. Now if there was a horse on this planet that you could tie to a push lawn mower, Becky was this horse.

Alas, apparently there is not.

Something set her off as Diana, having completed her mission, emerged from the house in conversation with Hans. Becky’s head flew up. She darted this way. She darted that way. She ran around a tree. Fred's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. I hastily backed him out of what seemed to be Becky’s circle of panic and he went back to sleep. Really.

Becky got herself wound up into a western spin, where the butt remains planted and the rest flys around. She had the mower flying horizontally sideways.

It was actually hilarious. Diana and Hans and I mesmerized by the low flying machinery, Becky apparently pleased with herself that could create such a fuss, and Fred snoozing on the sidelines. What a scene that must have seemed to a casual observer.

Saturday night at the farm...”

A memory photo courtesy of Lizz - me on the left front on my horse Drum - Ottawa Valley Hunt.

Some of My Art

I've been painting horses and cattle for a long time. My art web page is here.

What do you do when you do not like a painting that you have created? This one, for example, I was never happy with it. I did not like the harsh bit, the overextension of the neck, the green color of the background ..... 

 

You do this ... cover it over with gesso and start again!

 

Painting in Costa Rica

"Simbolico de Atenas"
ⓒ 2012 Diana Miskell 

Atenas, Costa Rica, is the perfect place for me to be because I paint and specialize in portraits of horses and cattle. Atenas is surrounded by fields of cattle and horses and, what with all the topes (horse parades) and oxcart parades, I have no end of images to capture.

Camara de Turismo y Comercio de Atenas (Chamber of Tourism & Commerce in Atenas), Marietta Arce, publisher of  "Atenas Today", and Parrot Eyes Maps Costa Rica are producing a new 2012 map of Atenas.

An image for the front cover of the map was required and local artists were asked to submit an image that was emblematic of Atenas. These images were voted on and the image with the most votes was the one that would be used on the front of the new map.

I submitted my painting, "Simbolico de Atenas", because to me the oxen, oxcarts and their boyeros symbolize Atenas more than anything else. The old oxcart trail (camino del carretas) ran through Atenas and trains of oxcarts carrying coffee beans travelled down highway 3 to Puntarenas on the Pacific Coast.

I am pleased to say my painting was chosen for the cover of the new 2012 Atenas map. It is acrylic on canvas board, 18x24 inches. Other horse and cattle art that I have created can be seen on my art website at www.dianamiskell.com.

Jose and His Horses

We received a special invitation to visit Jose's finca just down the road from where we are staying. Yesterday, we walked down the road to see his horses and his farm. He has a lovely property - house, horse barn, all kinds of fruit trees, and fields for the horses.

I believe the breed is what is called Paso Fino - I don't know a lot about them except they do have a distinct gait and they are a small breed.

We were privileged to be exposed to Tico hospitality - we were shown each and every horse, some with foals, picked fruit fresh from the trees - you haven't lived until you've peeled and eaten an orange two seconds off a tree branch - and Jose loaded up a big potato sack for us filled with mangoes, limes, oranges, and other fruit that I've never tasted or seen before. I was in heaven petting horses, stepping in horse poop and generally getting smelly and dirty.

We walked down the street to the local pulparia (spelling?) which is like a small mum 'n pop corner store.  Jose insisted on buying us some soft drinks and I also picked up a few items for our kitchen. Now that I know where this little shop is, I can walk down there myself when we need to pick up a few things.

Right now, we are sitting outside on our patio in the dark and the Ticas who have the cabina next to us started laughing so hard they had to run inside. We fear it was because Lance is taking photos of the big toads that come out at night!!

I'm using Lance's computer tonight because of my crappy keyboard which is gradually losing all it's keys, so I can't post any photos of Jose but will do so tomorrow on my own computer. Jose just stopped by and taught us how to say "big toad", "medium toad" and "small toad" in Spanish.

We are trying to find a new keyboard for my old Mac.