Austin Carriage Museum

Saturday I participated in the Equine Art Expo at the Austin Carriage Museum's Festival of the Horse. I had a thoroughly enjoyable day despite the cold weather. Michael accompanied enabling me to run outside to the show ring and experience the equine performances of various breeds.

How we evolve. I'm making a shift toward networking and spreading the word about our downtown Ocala gallery VoilART! as opposed to the pressure I place on myself to always be financially productive. This applies to local shows of course, as the expense involved with travelling out of state requires that at the very least, I am way above a break even point. Those shows are ever so carefully selected to be profitable, however, lest I digress...I had a great show after all. People attending are there to watch horse-related entertainment which qualifies them as my peeps. Built-in fans.


 My booth.

Magnificent Friesians driven by Gloria Austin herself.

The Carriage Museum is HUGE. I'd like to return and spend a leisurely day browsing through the extensive collection. I did a quick tour and learned from the knowledgeable docents: fire horses were led under their ready harnesses suspended from above with pulleys. This hastened the harnessing and took less than 30 seconds. The horses were always light in color for better visibility at night. Also, the term sulky, you know - the tiny cart pulled in standardbred races, is derived from those who chose to be alone (sulking) - a one person cart pulled by one horse. I seriously did not know that.

 Belgians pulling a Hummer. This was a hit at the recent Art Basel Miami in December.

 Love the drill teams in period costumes.

The final demo was Mounted Shooting. Truly bomb-proof horses run at full-speed while their riders maneuver a course and shoot balloons with black powder blanks. Very exciting. Get more info on their website: www.xtremehorseman.com

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." -  Will Rogers