Golden Vale Stables

A purely fictional location where I draw horses, give them lives and careers, and sometimes write stories for them and the people who look after them.

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Registered Name: GV Freya the Fearless Barn Name: Freya Gender: Mare Breed: Irish Sport Horse Height: 16.2 hh (170 cm) Coat: Flaxen Liver Roan Genotype: ee/AA/nRn/ff Markings: Stripe, two socks, two pasterns

Discipline: Eventing Competitions: 0/0/0 - 0 Temperament: 7 Personality:       Excitable       Fearless      Trusting

Lineage: Starter Breeding: Closed Offspring: None yet Other:       - LOVES peppermints, they are the best thing she’s ever tasted      - will absolutely try to jump something that’s too big for her. She’ll jump anything, she’ll jump the fence, she’ll jump the ditch, she’ll jump over the moon if she can.       - The only thing she fears are cows. But with a rider on her back, she will stand her ground while trembling because the human will protect her from the scaries. 

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We’re immensely proud of Zeppelin and Jordan for bringing home a blue in yesterday’s show jumping course! The jumps were smaller than puissance jumps, so Zeppelin didn’t have much trouble with them, and the two finished with a clean run! 

I had a hell of a time shading these two, though. The shading reference I was using, the light source was behind the horse, and me being me I thought that would be fun to practice. It ended up taking me three times as long to finish shading as usual! Guess it was good practice! 

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Reblog this if you’re an active mostly horse blog and I will follow you! (And I’m sure other horseblr people will, too)

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After taking to the wrong lead right out of the gates, Happy rallied and ran in third in a race today! 

I’m trying to do better with shading from images, not from my head, and I think this turned out quite well. My little Cheeto does love to run. What I don’t love is the pattern I unfortunately picked for his silks. 

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Even though I titled the image irina_firstride.png, this is pretty obviously not Irina’s very first ride. Despite her docile and eager-to-please nature, that didn’t go very smoothly, not as smoothly as this for instance. We’re thinking about training her in more than one discipline once we get the basics down, which-- at her rate-- will be sooner rather than later. 

I’m really liking the look of colored lines when dealing with light horses, and at the moment she’s the lightest one I have. :) What do you think?

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After a novice dressage class, Dante brought home a second place ribbon! He received several treats for his good behavior before returning to his stall. I on the other hand have yet to improve my people skills (sorry Lisa), but we’ll get there. 

Did I mention that a very close friend of mine wrote me a program that gives me show results that are based more off the horse’s skills than on RNG? It’s a handy tool! 

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A little bit of jumping training for three of our bounciest babes, all dressed up in their boink costumes! Left to right is Kitty, Dante, and Ash! Originally these were going to have little detailed jumps, but these were primarily done before coffee again and I wanted coffee more than I wanted small jumps. Maybe next time :)

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Registered Name: GV Black Mamba Barn Name: Ash ID Number: 346 Rank: Sargento Gender: Mare Breed: Barroco Height: 15.2 hh (157 cm) Coat: Silver Black Splash Genotype: Ee/aa/ZZ/nSpl Markings: Blaze, two socks, two coronets

Discipline: Show Jumping Competitions: 0/0/0 - 1 Temperament: 3 Personality:     Solitary     Attentive     Curious

Lineage: Starter Breeding: Closed Offspring: None yet

Other:     - Has difficulty seeing low-contrast jumps     - Does NOT like peppermints     - Genuinely enjoys working with people and doing her best, is a joy to ride

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All of the horses here need to be used to a saddle and rider, if nothing else. Even Irina. So we start with the saddle!

I tried a new thing this time with coloring the lines, because black lines looked so harsh against an extremely light horse, and I really, REALLY like the results! Let me know what you think! 

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She’s not normally one for dressage, she doesn’t have the passion for it like a certain someone does, but Kitty can go through the motions for you if it makes you happy! In this case, it’s another ghost rider, but we’ll pretend it’s an actual person riding. 

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Don’t have a ton of examples up on this platform yet, but I’m doing commissions! Message me if you’re interested. :) 

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Quick sketch this morning before and during coffee! Yearlings and younglings are difficult to draw but I think I got the gangly aspect down pretty accurately. One day, Irina will be flying through the dressage arena—but everyone’s gotta start somewhere. And today, that “somewhere” is ground poles. 

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A bit of barding fun with Kitty and Eros, who are taking to their new costumes with various degrees of grace. Kitty looks like a lovely, demure lady’s horse—Eros looks a lot like the horse the black-armored antagonist with a red shield would ride. 

Just a simple shading job on these two, I went for a stroke outline to make these look a little more graphic, a little more isolated. A bit like stickers, really! 

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A quick rendering of the show jumping tack vs the dressage tack! Featuring my most handsomest boy, Dante. 

[goldenvalestables]

Registered Name: GV Ironclad Intimacy Barn Name: Irina ID Number: 295 Rank: Soldado Gender: Mare Breed: Barroco  Height: 16.2 hh (168 cm) Coat: Buckskin Pearl Splash Genotype: Ee/Aa/CrPrl/nSpl Markings: White face, splash markings

Discipline: Working Equitation, Dressage Competitions: 0/0/0 - 0 Temperament: 3 Personality:       Affectionate      Patient       Humble

Lineage: GV In Regards to Love x Te Amo WIM Breeding: Closed Offspring: None yet

Other:       - Very delicate eater. If you offer her a treat, after identifying it, you will never feel her teeth when she takes it from you. Similar thing happens when she eats actual food      - Is a slightly shy performer. Needs just a little bit of encouragement and love prior to showing off      - Full sibling of Intimate Love WIM      - Baby photos attached!

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Registered Name: GV Catherine de Medici Barn Name: Kitty ID Number: 354 Rank: Cabo Gender: Mare Breed: Barroco  Height: 16.1 hh (165 cm) Coat: Smoky Grullo Splash with Brindle (pangare carrier)  Genotype: Ee/aa/nCr/nD/nP/nSpl Markings: Stocking, pastern, apron face splash

Discipline: Dressage, Working Equitation Competitions: 0/0/0 - 0 Temperament: 5 Personality:       Inquisitive      Brave      Affectionate

Lineage: BE Cesar Xever x AR Queen  Breeding: Closed Slots:  1) Reserved for BonBonBerry 2) 3)  4)  5)  6)  7)  8) 

Offspring: None yet

Other:       - Is likely to throw a few crow hops in warmup, but not enough to unseat her rider. It's more out of excitement to get working      - Lips at your hands and sleeves almost incessantly. Best solution is to let her do it       - LOVES running and playing with foals, she absolutely loves babies

Purchased From: Foal Design

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Registered Name: GV Cattywampus Barn Name: Cat Gender: Filly Breed: Thoroughbred Height: 17 hh (173 cm) Coat: Smoky Seal Bay Sabino with Splash Genotype: Ee/AtAt/nCr/nSb/nSpl Markings: Wide blaze, two stockings, sabino markings

Discipline: Flat Racing Competitions: 0/0/0 - 0 Temperament: 6 Personality:       Headstrong      Brave      Confident

Lineage: JA’s White Wonder x DRM Little Cat Breeding: Closed Offspring: None yet Other:       - Running style: frontrunner. Miler. Cannot tolerate being anywhere less than right up in the front. Prefers dirt over turf      - Very stubborn, relentless, and competitive, especially on-track. Requires a mask!       - Right eye is blue       - cattywampus (adj.) - Alternate spelling to catawampus; dialectal : askew, awry, in disarray or disorder. (Or, a Southern East Coast dialect word that I stumbled across and fell in love with.)