From Myself Two Years Ago

    July 17, 2020

Hello future me! Today is July 17, 2020. I am 13 years old, and I am a rising 7th grader. I hope that you are still collecting model horses, and making tack. Have you been to model horse shows, and/ or Breyerfest? ( I hope so! ) Right now my blog has 374 views, are you a successful tack maker? Are you still blogging? Right now I have about 20 model horses, not including the stablemates. Right now it is the coronavirus pandemic. I have been SO bored! Next year I will only be going to school two days of the week.

    Right now I ride at Mulford horse farm, do you still ride there? I have sewn one rider a jacket, and I have rerooted her hair and customized her arms. It didn't come out very well... but I hope that you customize a lot more dolls and model horses. Do you have any artist resins or peter stones? I have always wanted an artist resin, they are so pretty!

    Right now I read Braymere Custom Saddlery and Field Of Dolls Studio. I love to read about these two awesome tack makers. I want to be just like them when I grow up. Have you won any nan cards? I can't wait to go to a model horse live show. Are they as fun as they sound? 

    So that is all that I have to say. Good luck at high school! I will now set the publish date to two years from now.

Bye!

13 year old Jamie Choe

First Day of School

      Yesterday was my first day of 8th grade. It’s really my first time in middle school as I was 100% virtual last year. My first impression of middle school, is that it’s quite hectic. There are so many people in the halls, and I have to constantly worry about what class to go to next. On the plus side, I met a lot of my old friends. The classes are also a lot more fun, especially my electives. 

My picture made it into the yearbook!

     I’m especially excited about science. I can’t wait to try some hands on experiments and learn all about animals and the world. 

     This year, my school decided not to use lockers. So I have to carry my backpack to each class and let me just say, my backpack is HEAVY! I need every book, pencil supplies, my computer, not to mention a binder for each class. 

     Even though I’ve been busy with starting school this week, I managed to make a model horse bridle. Notice anything different about it?

     I added buckle tongues! Adding buckle tongues has always been on my check list and now I’ve done it! I think from now on I’ll only use buckles with tongues as it makes tacking up much easier. (In my opinion) 

    It feels great to start off the school year with a clean slate, I can’t wait to learn new things! 

     

My Busy Life

      I guess you could say that I live a very busy life. I’ve always been the kind of kid that has some kind of after school activity every day, if not twice a day. You guys don’t know this, but I have ALOT of other hobbies. I have singing lessons twice a week, cello once a week, volunteer work once a week, and math, a whopping three times a week. So I’m very busy. In fact I’m so used to being busy that whenever I don’t do anything it just feels weird.

     You also don’t know this, but I’m really into Musical theater. I’ve been in musicals (Be More Chill, Bring It On, Lion King, Big Bad Musical, and more.) so singing is a big part of my life. I love to perform, and challenge myself to learn new things. 

     Recently I won second place in two categories in the international American Protégé competition, and I’m going to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York. So yeah, I’m kind of nervous about that…

     About the math, I’ve been going to math three times a week. I like it, so it’s not that big of a deal, but it does take up a lot of time. Somehow I find time to make model horse tack! (Usually after dinner). I love making model horse stuff, it’s like my happy place. I like sitting in my quiet craft room and making whatever I want. My ears are really messed up, I’m sensitive to loud noises and lots of other things, so being in a quiet room is really calming. 

     Oh, and I have to talk about pets. Animals are a big deal to me. I’ve loved animals since I could talk, so it makes sense that I have a lot of pets. In total, my family’s has 1 dog, 2 guinea pigs, and 2 gerbils. We also always have foster animals around because I like to help out the animal shelter. I take care of all of them so it sometimes feels like doing farm chores!

My gerbils, Toasty and Cookie.

     Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. School is starting next week and I’ve been busy studying and doing other things. But I promise, I’m writing a horsey post right now!

     

Model Horse Friend

 Ever since I’ve started this hobby I’ve always wanted a friend that shares my love of Breyer horses and tack making. To most people, model horses seem like such a silly hobby, so I’ve ALWAYS wanted a person to chat about model horses with. Well, there are not that many people into model horse showing and tack making where I live. (I live basically in a city.) So it’s always been my dream to become an equine veterinarian in the countryside somewhere. 

Well, I met my person last week! I was at horse camp and I mentioned that I collect model horses. Then this girl, Addie added that she collects model horses too! We soon started chatting and I learned that she’s just like me. She has lots of Breyer horses, she performance shows, makes tack, rides at the same barn as me, and she’s been to Breyerfest.  

Even better, she lives 5 minutes away !! So, yesterday she came over to my house and we had lots of fun. We mostly chatted about different Breyer models, and I showed her how I make my saddles. There aren’t many people into model horse showing, (not as much as other hobbies) so I’m glad that I found someone to talk with. 

4th Of July Parade

     Hello! Yesterday was Fourth of July! This year my dad and I went to the annual Great Falls parade. It was really fun! We mostly went because on Saturday my mom and I were working on the horses costumes and I really wanted to see them at the parade. My mom couldn’t come so me and my dad went instead.

This is Titan. The instructor that I work with cut his hair on Saturday so it looked nice and sharp. I watched her carefully trim away at his mane. With Fjords, the black line in the center of the mane should be a bit taller. This makes it standout! 

There was also this horse in the parade. They weren’t part of LMU but I loved the tinsel!

This is Maggie. She’s a beautiful flea bitten grey. Her owner, Abigail rode her.  

There were also so many ponies! This pony’s name was Hercules and he looked awesome in a headband!

Pony herd!

And to finish it all off, a fellow volunteer drove the tractor behind all the horses! She was in charge of poop control.

There were also other people in the parade. Superheroes,

Spider-Man,

A GIANT truck,

Fire trucks,

Other floats,

And more! My dad and I had so much fun seeing the LMU horses and all the other people in the parade. 

For the rest of the day, we had my friends family over and we watched firework together. I was thinking, next year I should make 4th of July model horse halters!

Camping

 Hello! We just came back from a long camping trip. Sorry for the silence I didn't have my computer, hmm maybe I could do pre-written posts? Anyways we just got back from point lookout state park in Maryland. It was about a two hour drive away. I'm so sorry that this post isn't going to have many pictures... I just never had my phone on me. 

    My family went camping in a tent, and there was no electricity, or wifi. Let me just say, when you don't have an outlet to charge your iPad and the bathroom is a long walk away, you start to really appreciate the things that you have in life. 

     It was really fun, except it rained a lot. We had to wear ponchos and sometimes when the wind picked up I felt like I was going to blow away!

    When the rain stopped we went fishing. I've never been fishing before but my dad knew how to fish so he taught me. It was really fun! I only caught one tiny fish but it was still very entertaining. 

    Now onto horses! I was going to bring my models to take photos, but looking at the weather forecast, I decided to leave them at home. I wanted to go trail riding, but due to COVID-19 they were closed.

     In the end, our camping trip was really fun, it’s always great to spend a few nights outdoors!   

Trail Riding

Today I went trail riding!

So since I’ve been playing Softball, I had to take a break from horseback riding. (I’m going to start again soon) I REALLY missed being on the back of a horse so my mom took me, two of my friends, and my brother trail riding. It was partially her ,late, birthday present to me. 

Where I ride they don’t have any trails so we got to go to a different stable. It was great! I already forgot my horse’s name, but he was a good boy and very easy to ride.

While the trail riding was fun, walking around the barn was just as fun. To our surprise there were many animals just roaming around, how do they not run away? There was this mare with her foal just walking around the parking lot, It was the cutest thing ever! 

Did you know that gray horses are born black or dark brown and as they age they turn white? 

It was a pretty hot day so most of the animals were sleeping or finding shade like this donkey.

Have you ever seen a goat play with a dog? Well I never had until I saw

this goat wrestling with a dog. Is was obviously not trying to hurt the dog, as the goat could of hit a lot harder with its horns. Instead the dog was tugging on the goats horns and the goat was running after it!

This lama was just staring back at us as we walked to the car.

So this trail ride was really fun. It felt so good to be on the back of a horse again.

 

It’s My Birthday

It’s my birthday today! I’m turning 14, can you believe that I started this blog when I was only 12?! For my birthday I had lots of cake, my parents also gave me the black beauty Breyer web special. I love her/him so much (it’s a bit weird that Black Beauty was a mare, but this model appears to be a stallion?) Anyway I love this mold and I think that she adds to my whole collection.

Look at this saddle set that I finished today! It was my first time making a dual colored saddle, a breastplate, and a martingale, so many firsts! I’m definitely going to keep this one, I love it too much!

 

Horses on Display

Hello! Yesterday afternoon we just finished our kitchen. My parents decided to add display cabinets along the ceiling and I put two of my model horses in there! I think it adds the finishing touch to our kitchen. The good news is that once coronavirus is over, whenever people come over they can see my model horses on display!

Another thing is to make sure to be careful with sharp objects. I was opening my tacky glue bottle with a needle, and I stabbed my self. It hurt but I’m okay. I guess you could say that my tack really is made out my own blood, sweat, and tears!

 

Horse Lovers A Compendium

My cello teacher recently gave me a Barns and Nobels gift card for Christmas. I saw that they had this horse book for sale, and I had to get it. I only read the first few pages, but so far it’s great! 

It’s full of cute horse pictures and information about every horse breed. This is especially great when I’m trying to come up with a breed for my model horses.

When I was quickly scanning through the pages, I found that it even has info on the different horse .This is awesome because I can use the photos as good references.

It’s officially 2021! This will be a great year! I can’t wait to read the rest of this book.

 

Saddle in Progress

Today I worked on a new jumping saddle. I didn't like my old pattern so I tweaked it a little bit by adding a shorter and rounder seat and longer girth.

For the girth I wanted to try and make it look more detailed so I followed the tutorial by Jennifer from Braymare Custom Saddlery. If you don't already, I really recommend taking a look at her blog, she's such a talented tackmaker and I want to be just like her when I grow up!

Here's how it came out. I think that I'm going to make another one with neater edges and stitches.

 I know I'm going off topic but I carved a pumpkin for Halloween! I did it a few days after Halloween because we went camping.

Carving the pumpkin was harder then expected but my X- acto knife skills came in handy! 

Here is the final result. This was my first jack-o-lantern and it surprised my mom and me how well it came out! Right now as I'm typing I can hear my mom cutting the pumpkin for pumpkin stew.