HORSES

Before I met my husband, before I had my children and even before my love for dogs, I LOVED HORSES. Maybe that love was passed down from my father, most of the pictures I have of him has a horse standing by his side. He was the one who took me to Asbury Park to ride on the Merry-Go-Round and the ponies on our weekend visits. No matter if the horses were carved from wood or the real thing, they were and still are, a passion of mine, and my family and friends have helped to feed that passion by adding to my collection of horse items.

Today I visited Isa's blog, and read her post about her love for carousel horses, where she shared wonderful pictures of them. I have always planned on posting pictures of my collection, so today I made it a point to do just that. Do yourself a favor and visit Isa at http://isaslittleworld.blogspot.com/ the pictures are fantastic.

This first painting was a gift from my daughter, Cindy. She had it painted for me as a surprise birthday present about twenty years ago.

I also have a collection of carousel horses, most of them are presents from my youngest son, Rick and his daughter Amanda. Amanda was lucky enough to have grown up around horses, her mother's parents owned some, so that was something we were able to share together.

Each piece plays music and most move up and down the pole.

Some were birthday presents......

Others Christmas gifts.......

And some I received for Mother's Day....... and they became a treasured collection.

There are signed and numbered prints of horses in our foyer, they are by the artist George Malick. He was a wonderful man, who I was fortunate to meet while working in a framing shop in Pennsylvania. Guess you can tell he loved horses too, and the Collie in his pictures was his beloved dog. This picture is titled THE THREE OF US. It was a gift from my three children. George colored over the smallest boys hair with brown paint ( it was blond ) so that it looked more like our youngest son, Rick. The bigger boy represents our son Doug and the girl would be Cindy. The children, the horse and of course the Collie, are all so special to me.

The next print is called SHOEING THE HORSE. I've been told that all of the people in his paintings are for the area where George lived in Higgins Valley, Pa..

This last print is called MORNING RIDE and was the first of his prints that I purchased.

When you enter our family room, you can't help but to notice the horse items in there, they are everywhere. I bought this horse's head for a birthday present 'for myself ' two yeas ago. It and the next few pieces sit on our mantel.

Horse and colt are from HOMCO.

And this colt.

The horse, with what I call my Grandmother and Grandfather statues, was made for me by our son's Godfather.

The pewter miniatures were a gift from my DH and the pipe holder was something I bought at Boscov's, many years ago.

These small horse figurines were bought in a little roadside eatery on a trip we took to Florida.

Up in our loft, is a rocking horse, which my DH bought for me the same time that the horse Allegra was bought for a favorite tv character. Do any of you remember who that was and what famous show it was?????

Even the crafters that made things for my boutique knew about my love for horses, one of them made this little rocking horse for me.

This next piece was a gift from my DH and son when they took a motor trip together in my husband's little red sports car, his Audi TT Cruiser on Rt. 66 in Arizona. I love when my husband takes the time to do things like that with our boys.

I've saved my favorite piece for last, a painting called THE COURTSHIP. I've had it for about thirty years. I got it when a store was going out of business it cost me $8.88. It's the best buy I ever got.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my collection of horses.