The World of Equineity!

Gimcrack Equestrian Centre in King Township

We haven't been painting for a couple of weeks, some "Bug" has captured us and made us ache and doze, so we thought we would share some of the scenery from our trip out to the Headwaters Horse Country Stable Tour.

Gimcrack Equestrian Centre
This is a magnificent farm situated in the rolling hills of King Township, and makes us very proud to live in King Township!
Above you can see the landscape and the horses are friendly too!







Waterstone Estate & Farm

Waterstone Estate farm

Located in King Township again but at the north end close to the Holland Marsh, beautiful area for horse riders and a huge indoor arena.

Harmony Ranch

Just North of Schomberg, a place specialising in teaching adults all about horse riding, 

Showing the art of horse handling

"Come on I dare you!"

If we were a bit younger we might be tempted, but being seniors we are beyond the adult stage!

Lots of inspiration for painting in all these places/

Pomp and Circumstance

My niece Rachel lives just outside of London and a couple of days ago made a trip to check The Mall Galleries and a bit of a walk around.She knows how much we are into horses at the moment.

She was able to take some photo's of the Horse Guards Parade, it was a pleasant surprise looking at a tradition that thankfully hasn't been changed too much .  Something about being an Ex pat you tend to forget

about these treats, the pride and beauty of these horses trotting along with the Guards certainly  makes the heart strings vibrate a little.

Here are a couple of Rachel's photo's for you to enjoy if you're a Brit. 

A colourful spectacle for a rainy day!
Babs

Zelador of Winsong Farm

Zelador oil on 14x18 canvas

He is a great looking horse, we took the picture while he was training for a show. Going through his paces with Winnie we took quite a few shots,but, I picked this one as he has a look of concentration and
was standing quite proudly.

I had some difficulty with the lighting coming from above in the arena and then conflicted with a bright day outside! but I think I succeeded and hope Winnie and Bill will like my rendition of a lovely animal
that he is.      
Babs

Holly's Pots and Me!

Some months ago I had painted Holly's horse and Willow her lab, I thought it would be a nice surprise gift. Things worked out a little differently she was so pleased with her gift she wanted to give me something in return.

Brilliant idea, Holly is an excellent potter and I took advantage of it, asking for a nice blue jug and not to worry how long it would take. A couple of weeks ago she knocked on the door armed with two blue jugs and a good size pot for plants.

I was more than happy,  the jug was a birthday gift for my daughter, I had a surprise too as it worked out, having a jug and a pot too!

Thanks Holly for your generosity I will treasure them they are now out on display in our kitchen.

Babs

OnIce Horse Farm

The Welcome Committee

A Big Secret we found yesterday.

Saturday we were full of energy even though there were heavy clouds and the chance of rain we went out to enjoy the Headwaters Country Stables Tour.

As usual not knowing what it was we were getting into, our first choice just 15 minutes away is the OnIce Horse Farm, specialising in Icelandic Ponies and set in the beautiful  Ontario Countryside we never knew existed! We arrived just as the Horas family were setting up, Mr & Mrs Horas, Wendy, Mitchell and Brian.

We were greeted right away and introduced to a very friendly family, we had the opportunity to look around as they brought the ponies out into the pasture. I believe they have 19 of these special and unique animals .
Meantime we were invited to have fresh coffee/tea  home made cookies warm from the oven or apples and cider, all made by Oma.

We thought it was a great way to start our morning watching the goings on. We had the chance to talk to the Wendy who is very enthusiastic about Icelandic ponies and we found out the uniqueness of these animals, they are playful and hardy with the ability not to worry about the winter, their coats designed to take all kinds of weather and they can give a smooth ride even though they are small.

Wendy demonstrating the way to ride a Pony!

We realized we had found a family who are totally besotted and only too pleased to give us all the information they could about being care givers and owners. 

We are looking forward to more trips to  Onice Horse Farm again hopefully soon when they are not

so busy.
We visited 3 other Stables all very different in this area so lots more to write about with photo's for another day.

Winsong Winnie and Zelador

Winnie & Zelador Walking to the barn. 

Zelador

A beautiful Autumn day and we had the privilege of meeting Winnie of Winsong Farm, a gorgeous morning of sun and warmth arriving at 9 30a.m. we drove up the path and parked the car just as she was coming to greet us for an hour to watch her train Zelador  putting him through his paces in readiness for the Weekend event .

Zelador  is of Portuguese origin, he is a  .Lusitano Gelding, strong handsome colour of milk with a shaking chocolate sprinkles he was still in his stall and seemed to be  listening as Winnie gave us a summary of all what entails training and looking after their horses. An amazing amount of hard work and lots of love and kindness goes into every day. With gentleness and lots of encouragement for Zelador,  it was good to see no cracking whips. just softly talking and encouragement.

They are definitely in communication with each other and a joy to watch this incredible horse who seemed to enjoy his routine catching a ball, standing on wooden blocks, waiting for the next thing with patience and pride, his eyes on Winnie all the time.

He can even sit on a bean bag!

This Sunday we are going back with the audience of 70 or so people to watch the whole show, We are looking forward to seeing more.

Our sincere thanks to Winnie taking the time out before she had another training session straight after us!

We are beginning to understand equine people, they are a different set of folk who LOVE and Care for their Horses!.

Winsong Farm