Slow to update

Not much updating happening for the next while. We had a break-in and the computers were stolen. We did have backups but some things were lost anyways. Most importantly, the machine that did all the graphics work? Gone. It was replaced with a Mac but Corel doesn't run on a Mac without some tweaking, I learned. So first thing will be to figure out how to get Corel to run on a Mac OR figure out how to use something else to do the job. Until then, even simple updates have to wait.

Tiny Horse Icons

I just made these itty bitty icons for my boarding stable's website... they'll also be going onto the Snafflez site as emblems for the Horsemaker, and also as icons for the content. You know, the content that doesn't exist anywhere but in my head.

But come on, look how cute these tiny icons are!

Idea Dump

I'm still working on getting the website switched over to a real content management system to better suit its intended use. By "working on" I mean "thinking about while driving all over the Greater Toronto Area" and combined with impeding major deadlines for work, yeah, nothing's going to happen for a while. But when it does, it will be very well thought-out!

A few thoughts in the meantime...

During my exile from horses, I've been trying out some horse computer games. Notably, Atari's My Horse and Me 1 for the Wii, Dancing Dots' The Equestrian (aka Ride!) for the PC, and UbiSoft's Pippa Funnell Take the Reins for the PC. In the past, usually in desperation to stay awake while waiting for something at night, I've also poked at some so-called "free" online games like Howrse, Horseland, Horse Isle. And I've made a few observations and come to a few conclusions about good games, bad games, and what video game designers may want to consider for future game concepts and improvements... and sales.

And I really do think they should look at the Wii balance board. Anybody who doesn't see how you could use that in a horse simulation doesn't understand how to ride. (And yes, that does include seeing this video of a kid controlling "Need for Speed" on a wii-enabled toy horse.)

But for the website, possibly even just via the blog, I plan to write up my reviews and summarize them for everyone out there who has ever googled for "any horse game that's actually good"... or maybe that's just me.

Other things happening lately... I've finally seen the inside of Tandy Leather Warehouse and promptly tried to bring the entire inside home with me. My credit card denied me this privilege, and that's a good thing given the above looming work-related deadlines. But instead I came home with some fun ideas to play with in my head, and if they work I'm going to share them.

I've also been watching a lot of satellite television during my exile, including long chinese historical dramas, and short bits of RFD-TV. And when I couldn't handle the historical dramas anymore (they aren't subtitled), I turned to YouTube. Result? Total rekindled fascination with how things have developed overseas in terms of many things, horsemanship included.

And, the one horsie indulgence I've really had out here hasn't been much fun. I've been shopping for a new saddle. But in doing so, I've had to learn an awful lot about saddles. And the sad part is, it really shouldn't be this hard to learn.

So lots of ideas of things I may eventually include on this website, including new ideas for the horsemakers, some of which may be made into Flash dress up games.

And now that it's all written down, I can stop thinking about it, focus on my deadlines, and still have this "to-do" list to come back to when I need a break. :)

Fixed issue.

Whoops. I somehow deleted a critical bit of code from the "Original Horsemaker"... aka the one with the western and english stuff on the same page and the old saddlepad drawings. The original. Basically. And it stopped working. And nobody told me.

Thank goodness for Google Translate and a bunch of Dutch-speaking forum-chatters... problem solved! And wow, they put together some stunning colour combinations. I'm going to wait and see if they send me any... if not, I'll just have to duplicate.

Think like... yellow on a gold palomino. It sounds like it wouldn't work... but it worked! And the light pastel green on the black horse... nice.

...so I guess you could say I had a bit of trouble with loading horses... only, not in the usual way. Speaking of which, I still have to work on that with a certain mare when I get home. I'm hoping she'll just march on like it's no big deal even without big brother around.

Taping Eventing Boots

I was putzing around, trying to use my own horsemaker game to create replicas of the top horses from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Why did I start with boring old dressage? Salinero, Satchmo, and Ravel horses were kinda easy: bay, bay, and black -- do I need to add white padded nosebands? Hrm. Pop Art was fun, and because of this you can now use brown braids. I ran into trouble with Russian Alexandra Korelova's mount, the Orlov Trotter, Balagur, and his somewhat unusual grey/cream/white colouring -- oh dear, where would I fit another horse body colour! I gave Eric Lamaze/Hickstead and Ian Millar/In Style their due, which was quick and made me seriously consider adding riders (one day! one day!).

Then I turned to the eventers, usually the most colourful and fun. I searched for my personal hero, Hinrich Romeike (he's a dentist! I'm not! But, same idea!), and his grey horse Marius. And found some lovely pictures of Marius over some jumps. But wait! What is this colourful taping around his boots, so beautifully German in their bright red and yellow colours? Is that... is it... electrical tape?

Later, I bought my annual copy of Gabrielle Boiselle's beautiful "Fahren" calendar featuring 24 gorgeous images of driving horses. And because they were on sale, the Dressur (dressage) one as well. But it is the driving one that we always get, to decorate our living room. In looking at some of the cross-country driving photos, I noticed... yes! Coloured electrical tape, again, this time binding all the joints and tongues in driving tack. Hmm!

Because I spy on the referrals I get, I also found someone who had (hurray!) found my horsemaker game useful in dressing up her own eventing horse. But, she took the time to add her own white stripes across his boots: she called it duct tape. Duct tape, electric tape, the idea is the same.

I am no stranger to electric tape (or duct tape, but this isn't duct tape). Besides using it on, say, electrical stuff, the Snafflez Team keeps a couple rolls of it in the tack toolbox, for labelling everything from buckets to brushes to tack. We keep five colours on hand, and correspondingly usually have about that many horses in our care. Each horse has its own colour... sometimes, two, in stripes. Colour coding, it's your best friend! Black or white can be used to tape braids, if you're into that. We also always bring a roll along to shows or clinics, for just-in-case rapid fixes... well, we try to, anyways. And, apparently, I'm not the only one with this idea.

And, of course, you can just buy vinyl electrical tape at your local hardware store or Canadian Tire. The usual 3M brand ("35 tape") comes in black, white, red, green, blue, yellow, and if you look hard enough you can find it in grey, purple, orange, brown, and pink. Other brands make even more colours, but unless you know where to look you may need to order them from an equestrian supply company. Like $1.25/roll (Legacy Tack, Texas) or $9/10 rolls (KYHorse.com, USA). Sometimes, colours matter! When looking for it, note that I've also seen it referred to as PVC or vinyl tape, insulation tape, and hardware tape.

I learned something new. I read about it on all the usual forums and discussion boards, blogs about eventing percherons, in the oracle (Wikipedia article on Eventing) saw it in this article by Gillian Rolton and inferred it from this ad for Clarendon Eventing boots that claims you don't need to overtape. And, lo, there it was in the rules for Pony Club Association of the North Territories:

Section 5.08 BOOTS
Boots must have buckles or Velcro fastenings. Bellboots are permitted. Boots are not permitted for dressage (except in the warm-up area) or hack/rider classes. All boots must be taped for Cross Country and Eventing.
--(source)

Turns out this isn't just decorative. It is a tactic used by those who gallop across open fields, through water, long grass, and over jumps (obviously, the last point doesn't apply to the carriage derby.) If you are using wraps, then tape or sew the wraps in place -- makes sense, though I don't know anybody who would use wrapped bandages (polos) in these sports. Instead, its brushing boots or gallop boots... but folks tape those too, right across the velcro straps. The super sticky tape, theoretically, helps prevent accidental boot loss due to velcro failure. It could even be called a safety feature -- preventing boot slippage, or a horse snagging itself on a loose boot. Or, in the driving harness, it prevents loose ends from flapping or snagging.

As with everything, there is always... debate! On the issue of taping boots in eventing... sometimes, velcro was meant to come off. I found at least one mention of a horse's boot snagging causing a wreck -- and, from what I understand, serious if not permanent (if not fatal) injury. If the boot had NOT been taped, would the velcro have given way and the horse, thus, freed, with less injury? It's a thought. (Couldn't find the original story I read, but this one in Horse & Hound sounds very similar).

In fact, although there are plenty of references to taping boots in the Australian Pony Club being required to get through tack checks, there are also references to it having changed when modern boots are used. I found a 2004 Gear Check Manual that stated that,

for boots with only one metal loop to thread the velcro fastener through, taping is optional.
--( Source)

Check with your local rules, and make sure you check with the top level if there is any ambiguity.

And with that... I have now uploaded "tapes" for the boots. They are currently only in the "English" horsemaker, for you crazy crazy cross country eventers. But will likely end up on the Western one as well (oh I know you drill team riders and you polebenders love this stuff too, don't try to deny it). But I have another western boot bling to add.

And seriously. Balagur. Ponies. Drafts. Riders. Driving harness. More drill. More bling. More bang. I hear ya. Working on it.

Keep sending the suggestions!

The recent unplanned lull in updates to the Horse Maker may soon end. A new version of CorelDRAW is on its way, one that can be better used on this Vista laptop I am stuck with, and so when the nights are quiet at work and I am also stuck in no-net-land, drawing may occur.

First order of business will be finishing the conversion of the wrap tape images from cpt to gif. They're drawn, just not converted.

I think the request box is full with requests for more tack, ribbon browbands, black saddles, two more horse body colours (sorrel leopard and light fleabitten grey), more body white options, and for some big projects: ponies, drafts, and riders. Sounds like fun! So. Watch this space!

First post

This is a test of the Snafflez blog system.

First, who am I? I'm a post-graduate professional-in-training in one of the more grueling lines of work -- at least, that's what they say on TV. I needed a way to blow off steam. So, I started riding, something I had done casually in the past but never formally -- and my husband, the ex-ponyclubber, really wanted to get back in the saddle. In a very short period of time I've gone from hanging off the rails, admiring the horses and pretending to know something about them, to owning three, cherishing two more as much as if I owned them, and devouring every small scrap of information I could find. Like many late learners and "re-riders", I went through the same periods of self-doubt and that disconcerting feeling that girls 10-20 years younger than me are laughing at my ineptitude... talk about being back in high school. I hated not knowing what people meant by words like "volte" and "pelham" and "pastern." I soon discovered two things which I will share right now:
1. Nobody important actually cares that you don't know the lingo: if anything, they think its cute when you ask for help.
2. It's not that hard to learn, if only you can find the right explanations.
3. One's husband might throw a fit if, while riding and asking what a fetlock is, you lean over and use your crop to tap your horse on the fetlock. While riding. Apparently, that's not how you should do it.

Ah, but those darned explanations, so hard to come by. So many books on riding were tossed aside because, on the first few pages, they assumed the reader knew how to correct a lead, and this reader wanted to know what a lead was.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned husband was started to dig through old boxes looking for a long lost collection of original questions based on the material for Pony Club Quiz. We started to talk about websites.

Snafflez is a project website, a scrapbook of sorts, which is intended to be a small collection of useful information and utilities related to horses. Each time I find something that's good to know but hard to learn when you're doing this solo, I plan to get it up there, eventually anyways.

It currently is home to the Horse Maker, a tool that lets you design a horse (body colour, mane and tail, and white markings) and then dress it up in various colours and styles of tack and equipment. The idea was conceived when, silly me, I had somehow bought a buckskin, buck naked, and needed to buy tack, because I didn't have any AND I was thousands of km away from the horse I had just bought... AND surrounded by Boxing Day Sales in tack shops and so many pretty colours. Clearly, the best solution was to make paper dolls. Or, virtual horse dollz.

The plan for this here blog, then, is to be a place to post updates about the website, horsemaker, and other tools and articles as they become available. It will also serve as a blog about the cool things we find, learn, and discover about horses that nobody ever told us about before.

As well as the occasional not-so-horsey thing.