Guide Horses

Nirvana has had to take a back seat to two large non-horsy projects, the second of which is nearly done.  So mostly because it's interesting, and partly to prove that I do occasionally finish something, here's my guide horse, Salaiset. 

 "Salaiset" apparently is what the tv show The X-Files was called in Finnish, and means "secret files".  Since the action figure used here is Agent Mulder, it seemed an appropriate name.  Salaiset is a fairly simple custom (nothing moved) with a new mane and tail, an opened mouth, added fat, and carved ears, then pasteled to bay with some acrylic details.  She's a Stablemate masquerading as a small Classic-scale miniature horse.

Handle made from translucent Sculpey and wire.

 Small miniature horses can be used like dogs to guide the blind.  They have some advantages over dogs, including that they do not chase cats or squirrels, have better peripheral vision, and they live much longer.  The average working life of a guide dog is 7 years; for a horse it may be 20 years or more.  The downside is that the horses must be small and they take longer to train.  The harness is much the same as a dog's, with a rigid handle, and features a halter with a short lead rope with clips on both ends instead of a leash.  Some guide horses wear modified children's sneakers to give them better traction on slick indoor floors.

To help "force the scale", Salaiset's halter and harness are intentionally made chunkier than normal Stablemate scale.  This helps gives the effect that it is a small horse in a larger world.  Real miniature horse stock halters (at least the ones I've seen) are often made almost the same width as those for a full-size horse, and lead ropes are not scaled down either.  So, the lead rope clips here are huge, as is the working halter buckle. For comparison, Petrelli is showing off a better scaled halter, made with very thinly skived and split leather.  Normally I use bead wire for Stablemate buckles (which is too delicate for working buckles) but on Salaiset's halter I used the same gauge as the halter rings.

To learn more about guide horses, you can visit the Guide Horse Foundation's website here: http://www.guidehorse.org/ or read about training a guide horse named Panda at http://www.theclickercenter.com/ThePandaProject.html