*** FULL VIEW PLEASE ***
Click download to see details

A year to remember...
and a year to forget.
I'm with you in spirit.

This was supposed to be be New Year's manip, but as you can see, it's a little late.

I am so proud of how this turned out. This is the third attempt at trying to make this, and I almost gave up. I'm so glad I didn't!

This one's got quite a bit of an explanation. The quote is from the dedication of the Nicholas Sparks book (The Lucky One) that I got for Christmas. The second I read that I knew I had to make a manip about it. That quote sums up pretty much all my feelings for 2008. As much as I wish I could forget that year, the things that happened are always going to be with me, there's no escaping it.

All the horse pictures used in this were my own. The ghost horses are the three guys we lost this spring. Neiko is the little pony. She was my first pony and will always hold a special place in my heart. Not that the other guys weren't important to me, but Neiko was the hardest one for me to lose.

The two bays are Stanley and Replica. Stanley, the one on the left, was my mom's horse. He was one of the most gorgeous horses I had ever seen, but he was a huge wimp. He spooked at everything, even his own shadow (and dammit, I just realized I forgot the shadow again ). His picture took the most work. He was standing with the fence in front of him, surrounded by trees, so I had to clone out the fence and do a major adjustment to the lighting on him. I also drew in his tail, and fixed up his mane a bit. I wasn't 100% happy with the mane/tail job I did on him, but I think the ghostness hides the worst of it.

Replica was the most beautiful Standardbred I had ever seen. A friend of the family's had given her to me because she was too much horse for her. Reppy did have a bit of attitude under saddle, but for the most part she was a big sweetheart. She was also a huge klutz. She was always tripping over her feet and bumping into things. She even fell down a few times, but was never hurt. Despite being so clumsy, Reppy was the best jumper I have ever ridden. She loved to jump! One time she jumped 4 feet into the field (true story!).

And then there's little Elliott, whose still alive and I'm so thankful for it. Losing his friends changed him, and I hate to say it, but those changes weren't for the better. Not that he's a bad boy now, but he's so confused. He had to grow up fast. He went from resting comfortably in the second to last position in the pecking order to being second in command. Before, he was a carefree youngster who loved being with me, and now he's herd bound and constantly worried about his friends. It's nothing that can't be overcome, but it was a pretty big set back for his training.

I had to paint in most of Elliott's tail. I'm pretty proud of it, though it's a bit thicker and longer than his real tail. I tried to make his mane look nice, too, but mohawks are hard.

And yeah, that's me riding him. Please don't critique my equitation. I know my heels are up, but I study Parelli and everything about that is different from what most people are used to. At the level I'm at, heels aren't a concern.

Credits:

Grass by [link]
Mountains and sky by [link]
Horse pictures by
Quote by Nicholas Sparks