Horses!!

a new reference book arrived in the mail this week; had read about it on Angela Swedberg's blog as it features a horse mask she made (and modeled by her own Appaloosa). Its a good book on an interesting aspect of regalia and it differs from American Indian Horse Masks (2007) by including other elements such as saddles, bridles, blankets, saddlebags and even quirts. It is well illustrated with photos of museum objects, detailed ledger book drawings, and historic photos from parades etc when folks display all their horse finery. The writing concentrates on the object's details but includes a large bibliography of well known works for those of us wanting to know more about the place of horses in the lives of native peoples.
It has just one photo of a toy horse but I'm inspired enough to consider making a leather horse and creating the needed regalia. Interestingly I found on Ebay a model horse supplier that carries metal and resin Native saddle trees for hobby folks who decorate plastic Breyer horses. I would like to get these little things for reference but mine would be made from carved wood just as the real ones were. Womens' saddles included a high pommel from which cradle boards could be hung...I was surprised by the detail of the model makers (and even more surprised that there was a market for them in the 1st place!!).

I doubt my horse would ever look like this one but it would be amazing to create it for a doll (Plains men measured much of their worth in horse wealth):

be sure to click on this photo to admire all the amazing beadwork, whew!!
a future project perhaps.......