Sunday, July 12, 2009

Sunday Stills Challenge - Textures

I'm back after missing last week's SSC. I was bummed too! I've got plenty of wild flowers to take pictures of and even had tons in my archives, but I just did not have time to sit down and actually put a post together. Oh well, I'm back this week with textures! I decided to do the different textures on my saddles. Please excuse the dirt, I'm not very good at keeping my saddles clean.

This is my favorite saddle, my Reinsman. Unfortunately my horse doesn't like it so much and it's kind of heavy and the stirrups don't go short enough for me now that I'm riding with cutter length stirrups (much shorter then, say, the equitation length stirrups I used to ride with).


It has these very pretty and different conchos on it with a hand carved acorn leaf and very unique basket weave type pattern. It's also the softee leather that I love so much and is an incredibly comfortable and secure saddle. It was my "investment" saddle, after getting a cheaper one before it, but I hardly use it. Very sad.



Next up is my old show saddle. It's a Circle Y and I love this one too. It's got a flower pattern on it and just a little bit of silver and is the older "good" Cirle Y's that also had the softee leather. I got this saddle when I was showing 4-H for one of my birthday's, maybe my 15th? I don't remember. It was a collaborative effort with all of my family and friends chipping in on it so it has some sentimental value.

This next saddle and I have a LOT of history. We've had hundreds, probably even thousands of hours together. It's my "antique". It's the saddle I learned to ride in, when I wasn't riding bareback. I "barrel raced" in it (hahaha), jumped, played in the lake, spent hours upon hours on trails...so many memories.

Funny story of the day: My best friend who I used to do all of that riding with had this exact same saddle. I have never seen another one like it, but what a small world that we both had this particular saddle.


It's very simple, plain, smooth leather with the checker board stamped on it with a few little flowers on the corners. It's not nice leather at all and hasn't been very well taken care of. It spent many a winter out in the barn getting damp and moldy, but it survived and earned itself a nice retirement being decoration in my house.
Check out this seat...

It is rock hard and evil. I cannot believe I spent as much time in it as I did. Evil. The last time I rode in it, I think I opted to go bareback after a whole 3 minutes. Evil.

Anyways, those are my different textures for the day. My other "cheapy" Circle Y saddle is in my trailer. It's my every day rider and is currently under a quarter inch thick layer of dust from the dry arena we practiced in last weekend. I didn't feel like cleaning it so you could see the textures on it. ;) It's got the same Circle Y flowers as the other one, just no silver.

To check out more textures go here and click through the links in the comments.

17 comments:

Ed said...

Those are cool shots, lots of textures in one subject, very nice..:-)

flowerweaver said...

Very neat selection and subject! I've always loved the tooling on Western saddlery. Great shots and stories!

CTG Ponies said...

Cool shots of your saddle!

Ebie said...

Such beautiful collection of textures. And I also love the stories and memories that came along with them. Funny, because, I notice that the older the leather is, the shinny and prettier they get.
P.S. I read down the posts below, and the kitties look so cute and lovely. I am not an expert in cats, but sure are they a delight. We adopted an abused cat some 2 months ago, and we named her Twilight, and call her Twyla. Enjoy them cause I am with mine. Have a great week.

MudMapImages said...

What a beautiful saddle.

Jessica said...

I still can't believe you rode on that piece of wood!!! I remember when you first showed me that saddle and my butt hurt just looking at it! Awesome pics...really great idea for the challenge. :)

Anonymous said...

great detail in these shots, i agree with ed the lots of textures in one subject is very neat :)

J9 said...

You are right, the acorn leaf and basket weave are very striking. I like how you wove a personal history into your shots.

Pony Girl said...

Great pics, love the saddles. That last one looked familiar! I only have one saddle to ride in, maybe next year I can afford a new one that is a little more comfy for the trail!

restoration42 said...

What a great subject!! Love your photos along with the story for each saddle.

Anonymous said...

Great choice of texture, and beautiful tooling too.

gtyyup said...

Oh, I love your old saddle...what memories. You've put together an excellent post here...well done!

Paint Girl said...

I had to laugh at your old saddle, I remember when I got my first saddle, I just rode bareback before that. It had a seat just like that! HARD! So uncomfortable, and I am sure it was way too big for me and my pony! I do remember it weighed a ton!
Great pictures of textures!

Unknown said...

Cool cool shots of the furry, hairy txtures. All are great. Thanks for the visit on my SS.

Irene said...

Wow, what great saddles! full of texture.

Kelly said...

Great post and incorporating the texture photos!

Mom said...

Very fun pics, loved these. Is that Jingles saddle? The one Daddy picked up at the Shamrock tack shop? Too fun. Evil, eh? I never shopped around & knew that there were soft ones? Ha.... Love ya, Mom