#caleb quain

[ariadnew]

Hey look it's a long and pathetic story but the gist of it is that I found myself binge-watching eventing videos while I was sick and miserable last week (some people make chicken soup and watch their comfort movie and, if things are really dire, quietly will the couch to yawn open and gently swallow them up; I fixate on something obscure and lament all that was and is and isn't 🤷) and this picture of Cal & High Street HF (@katrinbergling) is a direct consequence. There will, presumably, be cross-country and show jumping phase pictures to follow. It is possible I will even write some sort of frivolous story. After what length of time this is expected to occur, however, I cannot say.

That's it; that is all; have a very fine Thursday.

[ariadnew]

Meanwhile, life ticks quietly on at Lowmax.

[ariadnew]

WHAT DO I EVEN TITLE THIS POST

Well, hey. It's a Thursday and I'm cleaning out my drafts, and I'm feeling quite pleased with myself because I have- rather ruthlessly- already deleted five of them, and I have at least another five erasures left in me. It is diabolically liberating. So pleased I am that I shall allow this one to live, like a great benevolent bloodthirsty blog monarch.

These photographs were taken two (?) years ago for lovely Miss Maggie York's High Fashion photo challenge (or something to that effect; I cannot remember exactly; it was two (?) years ago) I expect they've been sitting in my drafts that long because of a misguided notion that I would someday patch holes and smooth edges et cetera et cetera; I have accepted I am not going to do any of those things. I was going for 'ad in a high-fashion magazine so snootily vague you're not really even sure what's being advertised exactly.' To accomplish this, I channelled the baffled energy of my child-self paging through my mother's copies of Harper's Bazaar and Vogue left on our coffee table. I can only presume I have been semi-successful, because I'm not sure what I've done here or why I've done it, but I'm quite certain it is utterly pointless.

Fashion!

(Cecilia and Cal are not an item; yes, I promise. They just happened to be on the lot while I was taking pictures of Agatha; I was tempted; her wanting to be on his arm is extremely on-brand for Cee; here we are.)

Bonus colour image, because why not:

[ariadnew]

MONACO 2023

Absolutely, categorically, not even slightly a date.

Which is why I listened exclusively to the soundtrack from A Room with a View while making these photos. Because it's absolutely, categorically, not even slightly sweepingly romantic and beautiful and evocative of grand but devastatingly ephemeral holiday loves.

Not even slightly.

@highgrovesims3 can even confirm.

The thing about this blog is that I'm a bit like an ice-berg: a lot more going on than first meets the eye. You could also say extremely cold and largely void of life at its core. That would technically be correct. But mostly the other thing. The activity thing. That.

-I'll stop with my bad jokes. This set was/is yet another of the many I begin with big plans, then sort of lose drive to finish after my ideas become too big for me to realise. It was, in all seriousness, a spontaneous idea conceived to cheer up my very good pal Maria Jones- I'd never planned to do this; we never discussed doing anything like it. I took all these photographs before I even took my entry pictures (I'm responsible like that) This set really could have been done better, but I'm really lazy when it comes to the game now, you know? There's also writing I began to go along with it, but if we waited for that to be finished it'd be another two years before anyone saw this post (if at all) so... that's that.

Anyway: the point of all this rambling is that I'm on a hard-drive cleaning kick at the moment, and as such I'm queuing a few things— more CTJL Monaco; old CTJL side projects; a winter series; random tomfoolery and more— to appear at arbitrary points over the next few months. Take cover, in other words.

[ariadnew]

Cal and High Street HF (@katrinbergling) helping me do a screen test for this iteration of the indoor arena... last year. :) It's still missing things, unfinished in places and in want of polish, but I think this version is here to stay. The exceptionally large windows work against me in the visual realism department, I think... but then, the placement of modest windows works against me in the narrative department, doesn't it? I can hardly imagine Agatha skimping on the construction. She'd want to frame that view like it was on a 60 metre flat screen (and you can bet your last dollar she's double-glazing it, too)

[ariadnew]

HIGH STREET HF.

The horse Cal hopes will take him to CCI5* and the one that might actually do it; the pair are seen here at the GMHA Festival of Eventing back in August last year, hosted amidst the humid, hilly greens of South Woodstock, VT.

High Street & Cal never got to have the eventing career I’d always intended for them, but there are no rules saying I can’t start making it up now! One of the perks of being a loose cannon.

This is the first [official] picture I’ve made of Streets in a while. This is rather shameful in itself, but the fact he was made for me by the legendary (I think we can openly say it at this point?) @katrinbergling elevates my shame to unfathomable heights. The natural consequence of me contemplating this was that I was compelled to put in actual effort during the editing process this time, as a sort of penance and (possibly grotesque) homage. 

Alas, effort ≠ talent, so this picture has stayed in my drafts the last year. If anything can be said for it, it is, at least, less offensive than the raw screenshot.

(Bonus picture, because I did attempt a competition scene, but it all went downhill once I tried to correct the environment and yes)

[ariadnew]

(@highgrovesims3's dreams, that is)

(I know you have a rubbish-res version of something like this saved somewhere; you might as well have a proper version)

[ariadnew]

CALEB QUAIN

The US eventing circuit’s ‘wildcard-turned-one-to-watch’, Caleb Quain garners attention both positive and negative from fans and peers alike for his outwardly cavalier approach to competition, his career, and the ultra-polished world of elite equestrian.

When he’s not being the posterboy for eventing and lovable misfits everywhere, however, he’s Agatha Foskett's right-hand man, self-proclaimed best friend, and co-director of Lowmax Stud, as of a year ago. Doesn't like coffee, chocolate, or being told what to do and how to do it. Loves fresh tropical fruit; exotic birds; his mother; the ocean. Allergic to bees. Laughably ticklish. Collects guitars, most of them painted. Can't play, but finds idly plucking the strings remarkably therapeutic. The neighbours are inclined to disagree. Famously relaxed and easygoing, Cal is much more disciplined- and determined- than his public demeanour would suggest. He’s also about as restrained as it would suggest, so, y’know. Caveat emptor.