Horse Riding in all Seasons in Scotland

It has been a bit of a month for me behind the scenes here, and life has thrown me an interesting 'opportunity' and with it everything that seemed part of my normal life has been temporarily sucked up into a vortex of application forms, legals and business admin. None of this has anything to do with horses of course, or art, which is quite my point. It's just not the sort of stuff that I think any of you tune in for, so I went uncharacteristically 'quiet'. Me, the out and out blether I am........not a peep. SShhhhh!So, this is my backfill with photos post....

.....hello Merlyn! My last ride on Merlyn was weeks ago, he has had a cut leg ever since, but we will see each other again tomorrow. Such a sweet face when he is in a nice mood. I only ever take a photo after we ride, he is much less grumpy then....

....and it was, your absolutely typical Scottish miserable driech day.....tell me how are you supposed to find a horse in a field that you can't even see to the other side of?

......we could hardly see 20 feet infront of ourselves, frankly a little bit daft as we had no high vis gear on at all. I have mentioned before he is so black it is like a cloak of invisibilty.....big wet black ears and a mane blowing in the wild wind. And to think Ali called me a fair weather rider....

.....here is the view from Merlyn's stable. Yes, I know, he is a lucky horse to live in bonny Scotland with a view like that. You are thinking "It even looks beautiful in the rain"....look out at it every day and your perception will start to change....

...aaah, now this is more like it, may you all have weather like this when you visit Scotland. Fantastic day.....a three hour hack at Craigengellan in glorious September sunshine the whole way....

 

....three hours is a long time....we go over the hills and far away

 

....gate locked......ah, which way now?

  



....if we could just bottle up the sunshine....is this even on the same planet as my earlier photo?

.....idyllic..... looking out over the water....

....on the road back home, all happy and tired....

 

.....last photo opportunities ...



......and home, big stretch Trio!

What a hack, but guess what, you guys are going to freak.......I never took a photo of the Minature Shetland mare and foal! Ooops. 



Horse sketched on a lunchbreak, and inspiration at Trongate 103

A horse sketch, copyright http://www.equineatrportraits.com/

I had a little wander on yesterday morning to Trongate 103, which is a collaborative arts venue in Glasgow which houses gallery space, artists studios and the Glasgow Print Studio for a little creative distraction from life in general,which quite frankly had been more than a little confusing that morning.

While there stumbled across some things that caught my eye. They are a very random lot, some horse related and others, I don't know, just things that caught my eye which I like track of somewhere as I know they are somehow important, but don't yet know why, if that makes any sense at all.

The first item was a sketch in the Project Ability gallery, which is a visual arts organisation based at Trongate 103 which enables and encourages those with disabilites to use artistic expression and practice to achieve their creative potential. I don't know anything about the artist, other than they were clearly prolific as there was a great big folder of their loose, fluid line art for sale in the shop which raises funds to support the work they do. It was a portrait 2 horses titled 'Mother and Son' and apart from the sketch itself, I warmed to the simplicity of the title.

Mother & Son, H.W.B Davis A.B
on show in the Project Ability shop at Trongate 103
http://www.project-ability.co.uk/

On my mind while there was the fact that I think I would like to work with the people in this organisation, I like what it is about. A few years ago considered postgraduate study in Art Therapy although I wasn't sure if it might get a little too deep, I suspected that undergoing therapy yourself might be a prerequisite and I wasn't at all sure that what I wanted to do. Added to this the only institution I found in Scotland where you could do the course was in Edinburgh which with a young family living in Glasgow is more than a bit of an inconvenience, and so I parked it for the time being. It is still in me somewhere, as one of those 'what if' questions.....I might enquire with this group about volunteering to see if I can answer it. 

I had a look in the Glasgow Print Studio Gallery, where some canvases by caught my eye, a lot of intensity and depth to them, organic and quite breathtaking, artist Sam Ainsley.

Then to the Print Studio shop where I leafed through the work, pausing over a few, but today it was Rachel Duckhouse, whose work you can see here, but somehow the website images don't do these visual feasts any justice, but you light like them anyhow.

After all that browsing I returned to my desk with a 20 minutes to spare and so sketched a horse  on some tracing paper before returning to a more to returning just a little altered, to the day in hand.

Love is in the air

If you live in Glasgow and are looking to get hitched there is something funny going on at Hazelden Equitation Centre! Love is in the air, as there have been 3 engagements over the last few months.  It was a beaming Sheena's turn this week, who rides with us on a Thursday night. Well, if the smell of horse doesn't put your man off, then I say he is most definitely a keeper....

A Tour of the Burns Country

I took a notion for a wee drive in the country, so hot-footed on the M77 to Ayrshire for a bit of a riding related tour with two things in mind: the first was that I could well benefit from a little local promotion of my art; the second that I am on a quest to find some good hacking within easy reach of the south side of Glasgow. City (and suburban) riding stables offering hacking  can be few and far between and even in those that do it can be seasonal with a lot of road work really limiting the opportunities to get out safely.

And so, my grand tour of Burns Country started at Kilmarnock  and took in Cumnock, Prestwick and Dundonald  enjoying the rolling countryside, which can look a bit bleak on some days, but in the sunshine, quite lovely.

I had all manner of Sat Nav related near disasters along the way, such as being routed through a river with depth sign basically reading 'cross at your peril' - seriously, it did, and I didn't. I wished I had taken a picture but I was too shocked at the road running into the water and how I was going to get out of that pickle. I found it on Google Maps, Street View (my those people have been everywhere) and I have to ask, would anyone in their right mind drive through this?

Link to road though a river on Google

I had a good 15 minutes reversing up a narrow single track road, but I didn't let it spoil my fun!

I got some good recommendations for where to go for a hack from the lovely folk I met along the way, with Craigengillan and the Shanter in Maidens but getting recommendations.

I even had an offer from a lovely lady called Laura that I could come and hack her horse if I liked.  He was a gorgeous boy, an eventer and one of her three horses, so it is a bit of a logistical for her hacking them all  - she probably detected a hint or nervousness in my reaction as I had a momentary flashback to my broken arm brought about by taking on a horse a little beyond me some years back!

All around a nice day, and some yards were kind enough to say they would pop my flyer in their tack room, which was pleasing. That said, as social as it was I don't think that was the 'greenest' approach to promoting my artistic ventures, so with regret I will turn to good old Royal Mail.

Came home and read a bit Tam O Shanter to my boy before bed....all Ayshire and horses all round then.

Hacking in Scotland in January...

I haven't yet got back into the way of realising that I currently only ride once a week, which is not enough.

I was thinking that perhaps it is time for a hack, and wondering whether to head across the city to my old riding ground of Easterton Stables in Mugdock Country Park, or should it be down the coast to Ayrshire Equitation Centre.

Then I checked the weekend forecast for Glasgow .....25mph winds and rain. Fair weather rider that I am, that idea is going on ice for a couple of weeks!

Horse Portrait of the month: Dee Dee

 "He is terrific....You are very talented"

Elaine Stevenson, of the Portrait of her Daughters Horse Dee Dee



Copyright remains with Artist, Antonia Cairns 2011



Dee Dee is a livery horse up at Hazelden Equestrian Centre in Glasgow, where I ride. I was lucky enough to take some framed work to the stables just at the moment that Elaine was thinking about commissioning a portrait as a Christmas gift for Abigail........  as ever in life, timing is everything!

It was tricky to find a time to visit and photograph him, as Abigail was never away from the stables. When I met him I could understand why....he had the most beautiful face and such a curious nature, with his ears pricked up in the snow. What a lucky girl!

 Elaine and I had some discussion about which photo to use, he looked so nice in all of them.

We settled on this one as he looked very sweet in it, which Elaine felt suited his lovely nature.

To my delight, Elaine tells me Abigail loves the artwork and has taken it to the yard to show it off......Dee Dee was a joy to meet and to draw, and working on him brightened up the days of the most ferocious cold snap in December!