Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Muddy Monday: Clinky Classic

This month's Muddy Monday posts have been all about exhibiting ceramic horses in competitions, and today, I will talk about my show. Out of the dozens of North American Model Horse Shows Association-sanctioned competitions hosted around the country each year, only a handful are ceramic specialty shows. This means that most, if not all, entries at the show must be a kiln-fired product, in whole or part. One KY show includes cold cast porcelains in the entries, as they contain porcelain powder in their resin mix, and they are produced by the show's main sponsor. For the most part, a ceramic specialty show has a focus on fired, glazed horse art. By virtue of the collectors it attracts, the gathering creates a safe, yet social "cocoon" environment for handling and sharing these fragile artworks, in person. The public, as in unregistered or unbadged persons, are not allowed at these events.

I host one ceramic specialty show, known as "Clinky Classic". Instead of being an annual show, it is held every two to four years. The first one was hosted in Louisville, KY by Anna Tackett, in 2004. She asked me to provide a fleshed-out classlist that would suit the ceramics produced at that time, taking into consideration the many artist runs and the paucity of certain manufactured breeds. Back then, NAMHSA required a core classlist, specific breed classes that had to be included in the show. This worked well for general shows with other makes of models, but in a ceramic show, some classes were empty because few or none had been made, yet! I also designed the trophy and medallion awards for that show, the first time I had sculpted matching awards in this manner. 



All the medallions for the very first Clinky Classic.
The show has grown to award even more!


The show graphic was adapted from the medallion and created by Heather Malone. As time passed, Anna became less involved in the hobby, and allowed me to become the show's new hostess. NAMHSA eventually dropped the core classlist requirement, which freed the show to focus on what was actually in collector hands at the time. The numbers of entries per class, and the class splits/additions that judges needed to make on the fly, dictate what the next show's classlist will be. Thus, the show evolves as the collecting world grows and trends change. I continue Anna's traditional flat ribbon color choices, to this day, in honor of what she started for our hobby. I also create a brand new design graphic each year, along with matching trophy and medallion sculpts.




Left to right: 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012 medallion designs


The tremendous effort and time required to produce the basic awards for the show is the main reason why Clinky Classic is held so infrequently. Other reasons, like real life getting in the way, and changes in hall availability, have contributed to this schedule. The next Clinky is scheduled for November 1st and 2nd 2014. By Fall 2013, preparation had already begun.



2014 show logo.
Each show logo has the theme horse superimposed on a 14-point star.


The 2014 show theme is the Renaissance, and the horse breed chosen for the awards is the Spanish Norman. This breed is a modern recreation of the historic war horse, a horse used for heavy armor combat and games. 



Original unbaked Super Sculpey medallion.


To make production ceramic molds, the medallion image side gets the first pour of plaster. It is later removed with compressed air, to preserve the sculpt. If the medallion remains undamaged from molding, I can pour more plaster halves on it. This cuts out the trouble of making a rubber positive for molding. I got six pours off of the raw Sculpey original. I use raw Sculpey for two good reasons: raw has more flexibility and pops out of the plaster pours easily; sculpey releases toxic fumes while baking, which adhere to the insides of your oven and home or studio, so I never bake it. It is only inert when kept at room temp.

Each now-empty plaster half gets filled with wet earthenware clay, in which I inscribe the copyright notice. This is now the exposed backside or verso of the medallion. I try to use the same clay fill each time, so the signature looks the same from casting to casting. This time, I had to make two fills with signatures. 

On each plaster, I carved "buttons" to key the new half to the first. Next, I add a tube of clay for the pourhole and wall up the plaster to pour the second half.






When I remove the clay tubes and start to peel the cardboard walls off, the molds look like this.





These are the first Breed Champion and reserve medallion tests for 2014. The Clinky Classic glaze color breakdown is as follows:

Blue: Breed champion

Peach: Breed reserve champion

Harlequin Blue field, Peach horse: Gender champion

Peach field, Blue horse: Gender reserve

Purple: Collectibility or Workmanship champion

Green: Collectibility or Workmanship reserve

Maroon: Performance champion

Salmon: Performance reserve


When judges do callbacks for the Overall of each main division, only horses that have won at least one medallion may return to the ring. Medallions from the fun "challenge" classes are not considered for the overall judging. Each Overall champion and reserve gets a ceramic trophy horse. The 2014 trophy model sculpt was finished in November of 2013. This is well ahead of schedule, as for most years, I sculpt the trophy model only 5 or 6 months ahead of the show. Unlike most trophy models, he is full trad size. In previous years, Clinky trophies were large mini and up to classic adult size. This year, I am pulling out all the stops with a HUGE trophy model.



This is a portrait of "Star Of Orion", 2007 Spanish Norman high point winner.




Because this show caters to the tastes of ceramic collectors, I provide ceramic trophies in the official award colors for the factory-finished models. As with the medallions, Breed gets blue and peach glaze, and Collectability/Workmanship gets purple and green. People who collect factory tend to want glazed items. The vibrant art glazes make them suitable as home decor, not just models. 

The 2012 Clinky theme was the ancient Chinese Emperor's Dancing Horse, and the trophies even got sashes and wine cups! 



The trophies were finished with the official show glazes, but applied in drippy sancai style, like Chinese ceramics.



However, the Custom Glaze Breed division gets a special treat, just for their fancy; CMG Breed Champion and Reserve trophies are undecorated bisque. This means they can send the bisque to their favorite glazer, and have a new custom show ceramic. Most shows provide rosettes or certificates to champions, but few shows these days actually award new show horses for the main divisions.


Lower right: carefully wrapped bisque trophies, on the Custom Glaze champion callbacks table.
This show truly attracts wonderful ceramic art!


A great deal of planning goes into the theme and awards for each Clinky, let alone the labor for creating the awards. In the past, ceramist Marge Para volunteered her time and slip to make half of the medallions for each Clinky show. This year, I am going to try and do it all myself! Normally, Marge and I also donate medallion sculpt and production labor to the Kentucky show, Breakables at BreyerFest, but since I have taken this year off from Breakables duty, I can do more for my own show.

In addition to the regular classes, this show makes room for challenge classes. These are opportunities for ceramic artists and manufacturers to provide awards for the best of their own product in showcase classes. Unlike shows that are funded by auction and raffle donations, CC has evolved to turn every donation into award opportunities with no further demand for money from the entrants. Cash donations are put directly into buying more satin ribbons. Ceramic item donations are assigned to their appropriate challenges or Collectibility classes. 


This CMG "Farewell" foal was donated to CC3 by Laurilyn Burson and Joan Berkwitz.
It was the prize for the first place in the Made With Love challenge.


Judges are very carefully selected for each division. I am even picky about standby judges, and try to assign them to their strengths. This year, I would like to bring in some highly-qualified exhibitors taking on the role of judge, and "import" judges from distant parts of this country. This show offers one of, if not the most, competitive model horse judge compensation packages in this country.

Clinky Classic offers optional catered meals from local small businesses, and several fast food places are nearby. The ordering, pick up, buffet set up, and clean up are all done by my dauntless husband, Paul Francis. He usually enlists an exhibitor's husband or two to help him, as it is a big job. Without his efforts, the show would not be able to keep such a comfortable pace and happy exhibitors.

At this time of year, I am ironing out class list changes and adding a new Overglazed Custom division to the show. I am about to make the ceramic mold for the trophies, which will take me three to five 12-hour days. Soon, I will submit all my materials for NAMHSA membership and then open for entries. Until then, you can follow the show prep progress on the Clinky Classic Facebook page. This where I preview photos of the awards and donations to challenge classes. You can view all the results photos from the 2012 show at that link, under Albums.

One important thing I have learned from hosting this show is that my job during show weekend is primarily about results. I can do a bit of light judging, but mostly I need to be available for questions, introducing people, and taking results photographs. For a specialty show like this, it can't be emphasized enough: someone needs to take photos. My weekend job ends on Monday night, after I have submitted the first round of text show results to the exhibitors for proofreading. After about a week or two, I submit the final draft to NAMHSA, for their official records. This last step is necessary to activate all the cards that were won that weekend. The entire show process, when you produce all the awards yourself, takes a full year. I do it, again and again, because it is just so darn much fun.

If you would like to enter a ceramic show, or host your own, I am happy to answer any questions you may have. 


Monday, March 17, 2014

Muddy Monday: A Walk In The Mud

As a resident of Tennessee and a professional equine artist, I get struck by the shrapnel of hate-bombs directed towards this state's native horse breed. I dodge the landmines of local horse people. The social and news media drive non-horse and AR people into such a froth that they have difficulty separating the Horse from what is done (to the Horse) in the name of Fashion. The Horse did not ask to have these things done to him. His only fault is being such a forgiving and compliant being, that this could even go on, at all. I've run into a few serious horse people who fail to grasp the distinction, and there is a tendency to throw the bay out with the bathwater. Or the black, dun, gray, chestnut, roan...

To see the breed before humans really took it to extremes, all one has to do is look at great old paintings, early photos, and sculpture (like last week's blog feature, Hagen-Renaker's Roan Lady). Why go to extremes, in the first place? One reason, although not the only one, is financial. The horse with the flashiest, most visually-arresting movement (in other breeds, it is flashiest color or most extreme skull shape) wins, by any means necessary. A World Championship meant lots of breeding money in a state, and a whole region, that had been economically depressed for a very long time. This is the sort of business that doesn't require higher education in the day-to-days, with the exception of needing veterinary services. Financial ambition, limited education opportunities, agricultural setting, and a state with weak or non-specific laws about animal welfare all contributed to the perfect storm of Fashion superseding Comfort. Some laws have been added, others amended. 

Today, enforcement is imperfect, as seen in the statewide "leash law"; every owner except three or four of us on my entire street let their dogs roam, without so much as a warning. Again, this goes back to the agricultural and hunting traditions that defy or circumvent paper laws: if the owner can prove that the dog is currently engaged in hunting or herding, it is exempt. Sadly, breaking from the history of soft enforcement will take an enormous coordinated effort, time, and an attitude shift. For example, our county animal shelter has made huge strides in the past seven years, including rescuing horses, not just small mammals and poultry/fowl. If I told you of the amount of difficulty, the number of concerned citizens and volunteers, the hours of meetings and labor, and listed just a few of the community events that it took to turn this single shelter around, your head would spin. If that's what it took to make one TN county shelter state and federal law compliant, I have some small perspective on what it will take to completely eradicate the statewide soring of Tennessee Walkers. To be honest, it doesn't feel like enough people reside here to vote and enforce it into extinction.

What Fashion and Greed have done to the Tennessee Walking Horse is not the Horse's fault. Please, stop blaming the victim. The TWH was originally a beautiful and handy all-around riding horse, sound with ample physical substance. They had bone. They had chests. They grew abundant manes and tails and didn't need wigs. They could live long lives. They had natural movement that made them famous, before anything was augmented or artificial.

I've seen educated horse people take stands on social media, but a photo or a shared link does not touch what I feel and experience. Most of these well-meaning people have the comfort of distance. A few of them turned their venom to the mistreatment of this breed, rather isolated to this region, but were silent about Thoroughbred racehorses, Arabians, Quarter Horses, or any other breed with even worse death, misuse, and inflicted injury/drug/soring/surgical records. Unlike most of those vocal folks, I live here. It affects my entertainment choices, my business, and my relationships with locals. I do not attend real horse shows here, for fear of what I'll see. Non-horse people, upon learning what I do for a living, attempt smalltalk, and ask if I will be going to the World Championships for inspiration this year. I have to gauge my response carefully, because you never know who is related to someone in that industry; this is a state where the pride is strong and a little dangerous. 

So, like any artist in the midst of a turmoil they sense around them, I needed to make a statement that no one else could make for me. I was going to make a natural TWH portrait. At ease. No parked-out stretch. I needed a vintage subject for the sculpture. The modern two-legs-out -of-one-hole log-head Fashion was not going to cut it. This needed to say, "Do you remember when they looked like this?"

There are people still breeding for this old type. They call such horses "Heritage" Tennessee Walkers. Here is one of the last breeding farms for this type, in our country.

While researching the blog post about Roan Lady's real life identity, I ran across retirement photos of her only mate, Go Boy's Shadow. While he was a two-time World Champion, and was show-shod in the early era of the Fashion, he was kept natural for most of his life. 




At age 23, photos taken in 1975 by Mary Ellen Areaux.
Photos used with permission of Walkers West webmaster Judy Handel.



At the stud farm, he was barefoot, had a natural tail set, and looked better at age 23 than most of today's representatives of this breed look in their prime. Even in an early publicity photo (see below), he had one hind leg casually forward and under him, as if already defying the future Fashion. This was my portrait horse. "This guy", is what I needed to say.

I tried sketching him in a few different ways. To get a feeling for the conformation of a portrait, I sometimes trace a show-prime photo, and stare at it a while. Then, I freehand a drawing, then stare at both to see what meshes. I then trace my own drawing over, about three more times, adjusting model size while examining his retirement photos, because I am trying to teach myself to shed perception vs. what the horse actually had grown into. His underline had dropped, his head carriage had risen, and his hips had rounded.




Then, I made the armature by laying it directly on the drawing. I have grown into a very untraditional sculpting method of finishing the horse entirely in sections, rather than working round and round in many, many stages. This method developed when I made models out of Aves Apoxie, instead of the plastalina, Chavant P-40.





In epoxy putty, I condense it to just three main steps: sculpting, sanding, veining. This is not how I was trained, and I do not recommend it to anyone. I can't explain why I can do it, other than my brain does organize/identify/process things differently. This method will only lead to frustration and mismatched body parts, if you are a beginning sculptor.






The real horse had a very large shoulder and neck, so when he matured, his deepened waist balanced him out nicely. I loved his diamond-shaped nostril flare in his older photos, so I went with that look.



In his retirement photo, he stands proudly with his forelegs under him, sort of like the Hagen-Renaker 6" Style Two Amir (whose real identity is the subject of a future blog post). 






His natural tail reached to his ergots, in the old photo. I sculpted a light breeze blowing his tail, mane, and forelock. 



This angle shows the soft undulations of his crest skin and muscle, and his handsome face.




The unpainted resin edition is only a single mold run. This means after about 30, the mold is aged. Sometimes, the rubber holds up for more. However long it lasts, we will not make another mold to make more resins. Thirty-odd resins of a natural TWH can't come close to outweighing the model horse world's Big Lick mold majority, but it will take lots of efforts like this to slowly change attitudes. Orders are open for this unpainted resin model. While I normally allow customization of my resins, I do not allow Big Lick conversions on this resin. I purposefully chose leg poses and pastern angles that would make such a conversion an enormous headache, if attempted.

The big question is, "Will he be ceramic?" Yes, I have scaled him to shrink down to Roan Lady's size in ceramic, so they can be displayed together. Happily, the original survived the resin molding process, so I cleaned the mold release off, and I will make his plaster directly on the original. The first plaster mold is the waste mold. This will be used to pour a rubber master. The rubber is what the future production plaster molds will be poured against. As the plaster dries, there is a degree of shrinkage. The rubber has so little shrinkage as to be inconsequential. But, the next generation of plaster, off that rubber, will reduce. Then, when the clay casting dries out, it shrinks more... and even more, in the bisque firing. The final product should stand just a hair taller than the average Roan Lady model. 

The ceramics will be announced as they are finished and available. A Walk in the mud never felt more freeing and purposeful.

On the subject of the breed and its use, it feels good to replace a small bit of the hate, frustration, and aggression with beauty. Despite what the formal art schools tell us, Art that makes the viewer consider issues, and where we are going as human beings, doesn't have to be ugly or unrealistic to give topics some abrasive therapy. On that note, I have some sanding to do...




Monday, March 10, 2014

Time and Space Traveling Roan Lady

Today's post revisits, in detail, a well-loved mold in the Hagen-Renaker collecting world: the Tennessee Walker, "Roan Lady", mold # B-705. Back in HR's Monrovia era, Roan Lady was issued in matte white shaded with gray from Spring 1959 to Fall 1960. The San Dimas matte colors of matte white, doeskin, and "Roan Lady Rose Gray" (or "Hybrid Gray") were produced in San Dimas, in the years 1966-7, 1970, and just six more months for Spring 1971. There was no color selection option on the order sheets. In 1970-71, her name was dropped from the order forms and she was simply, "Tennessee Walker".




Spring 1959 HR order form


Spring 1970 HR order form





Monrovia white gray
mixed pale and dark blue ribbons in mane
Photo courtesy Ed Alcorn




San Dimas white gray with unusual cobalt blue/white mix ribbons in mane
Possibly a transition model between Monrovia/San Dimas?
Photo courtesy Nancy Falzone





San Dimas white gray
dark green ribbons in mane
Photo courtesy Jeanene Bernardin




Left: San Dimas white owned by Susan Candelaria
Middle: Monrovia white owned by Karen Grimm
Right: San Dimas "rose gray" Hybrid owned by Karen Grimm
Photo courtesy The Glass Menagerie editor Susan Candelaria






San Dimas "rose gray" Hybrid
pale blue ribbons in mane
Photo courtesy Jeanene Bernardin





San Dimas "rose gray" Hybrid
pale blue ribbons
Model courtesy Janet Hicks




San Dimas "rose gray" Hybrid
pale blue ribbons
Photo courtesy Nancy Falzone




San Dimas "rose gray" Hybrid
pale yelow-green ribbons
Photo courtesy Nancy Falzone




Left: San Dimas "rose gray" Hybrid with pale blue ribbons
Right: San Dimas doeskin with dark green ribbons
Models courtesy Jo Ellen Arnold




Left: San Dimas doeskin with dark green ribbons
Right: San Dimas "rose gray" Hybrid with pale blue ribbons
Photo courtesy Ed Alcorn



San Dimas doeskin with unusual overspray on hind leg and croup.
Photos courtesy Jayne Kubas.





Left: Monrovia(?) true rose gray with green ribbons
Middle: San Dimas "rose gray" Hybrid with pale blue ribbons
Right: San Dimas white with green ribbons
Photo courtesy Dara West




Left: Monrovia(?) true rose gray with green ribbons
Right: San Dimas "rose gray" Hybrid with pale blue ribbons
Photo courtesy Dara West



Left: San Dimas "rose gray" Hybrid with pale blue ribbons
Right: Monrovia (?) true rose gray with green ribbons
Photo courtesy Dara West



San Dimas "rose gray" Hybrid with pale blue ribbons
Photo courtesy Dara West




Monrovia (?) true rose gray with dark green ribbons
Photo courtesy Dara West




Monrovia (not sure because the mold looks San Dimas) true rose gray with green ribbons
Photo courtesy Dara West



Custom glaze or test by Maureen Love, with dark green ribbons
Note also the same eyewhite as the photo above it.



The glaze crawl traces back to Maureen's matte glaze that she used on her vintage customs.
The dock hairs and mane edges are meticulously hand-painted.






HR factory bisque, with mold number written on side.
Some of these numbered bisques were sent to Breyer for mold lease selection.
The HR archives had a few duplicate bisques, 
several of which were given to the handbook authors.
Photo courtesy Sally Clow




HR archive bisque custom glazed by Karen Grimm
Looks like an homage to Maureen's, even down to the green ribbons?
Photo courtesy Jeanene Bernardin



HR archive bisque custom glazed by Joan Berkwitz
Photo courtesy Jeanene Bernardin



HR archive bisque custom glazed by Joan Berkwitz
Photo courtesy Jeanene Bernardin



In the early 1990's, model horse hobbyist Debbie Uecker made unlicensed
 polyresin replicas of the HR Roan Lady model, for customizing.
This is a primered resin.
Photo courtesy Dara West


Her real portrait horse identity has evaded me for some time, and only recently has my searching yielded anything useful. I narrowed down the real horse identity to two mares shown on the Pedigree Online All Breed Database. It is common for the HR models to have shortened, marketable names that are derived from those of the living portrait horses. Exceptions to this "rule" include Nataf and Ferseyn. Disclaimer: it is entirely possible that am I incorrect in this name assignment. Roan Lady could have been an unregistered mare with a completely different identity. This identification is to the best of my abilities, with the help of the breed registry.

The two names that looked promising were Traveling Roan Lady (f. 1949) and Shadow's Roan Lady (for which no date was given), the aforementioned mare's only produce. 

I've had such wonderful luck in the past with friendly and helpful breed registry staff, and the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' and Exhibitors' Association was no exception. I spoke to a kind lady who searched the official registry while on the phone with me, and she provided some very helpful data. It turns out, Shadow's Roan Lady could not have been the portrait horse, because she was foaled in April of 1958. Since HR released the Roan Lady model first in Spring 1959, it is reasonable to assume the the sculpture was made sometime in (or before) 1958. This allows time for moldmaking, pouring the wax prototype, molding again, and finally, making production molds, and at least one test before orders started coming in. This means Shadow's Roan Lady would have been a weanling, not even a yearling, when the HR order forms with "Roan Lady" were first mailed. The model is quite clearly an adult mare.

Our real horse identity is, therefore, "Traveling Roan Lady". Her registered color was, not surprisingly, roan. At the time she was registered, the breed recognized roan as its own color, so there was no information about her base color. The registry representative stated that now the registry properly recognizes roan as a Modifier, not a base color. She was last recorded as owned by "a Mr. McClure" of TN, but no date given. It is common for horses to not have all their owners/locations reported to the registry by owners. At first glance, that certainly doesn't place her anywhere near Southern California, where Maureen did sketches of a mare that looks just like the model... and where she sculpted the model. I sighed, thinking I had followed a red herring.

A little Google digging, starting with typing "mcclure tennessee walking horse" started a ripple, that became tides of information. Mr. R. Mitchel (Mitchell) Mcclure (McClure) has lived in more than one state, and ended up in Westlake Village, Ventura County, at the end of his life. He was working in Los Angeles, CA sometime after 1955, so the registry's last known address for him in TN as of 1963 is misleading. He had businesses in Phoenix AZ, including a TWH stable. The car dealership business branched out to a location in North San Diego county (Mission Valley), all of which puts him within reasonable driving distance of Maureen. But, wait... it's not so simple!

Turns out, Mr. McClure wasn't just some guy with TWHs in TN, as the Registry's last record for Roan Lady indicates. The last record they have is only helpful to the date of 1963, which is when he was denied further Association services. He was, at one time, the Regional Vice-President of the California District of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' and Exhibitors Association.

Research showed that Mr. McClure was spending part of his time working in Los Angeles by August of 1955. This car dealership history revealed the location of his Phoenix, AZ Tennessee Walking Horse stable. From 1957 to sometime before 1985, 1230 East Pierson Street, in Phoenix, was his home and stable. In the days before A.I., Roan Lady would have been bred in TN at the stud farm, in September of 1957. That leaves a gap of one year (spent almost entirely in foal) during which she may have been moved from TN to the new farm in AZ. Between LA and Phoenix, it would not be unthinkable for Maureen to have driven out to see his Walking Horses, if they were not already visiting her own neighborhood for a parade or show. I would expect they would have at least participated in the Pasadena Rose Parade, being stabled within driving distance, and being a showy, gaited breed, ideal for parades. Sadly, I can find no record of this. 

My own questions are, since the sketches of Roan Lady do not show her in foal, did Maureen see her before she was getting a belly? Did Mr McClure hand Maureen show photography that he kept in his place of business, while Roan Lady remained back in TN, being in foal? She is not drawn with show braids, after all. 




Maureen Love sketch of Roan Lady
Image courtesy of Share The Love



Maureen Love sketch of Roan Lady
From Sketchbook Horses of Maureen Love, 1990.
Used with permission of editor, Joan Berkwitz.


I hope such photographs can be found in Maureen's reference morgue, because that would clear up the last bit of this timeline. The main point is, although Roan Lady's last record shows her stabled in TN, it is quite likely she was transported out to AZ to be with his new breed-dedicated stable. Because of his denial of services by the Association, there is no death record for this mare.




Here is Roan Lady's one and only mate: Go Boy's Shadow,
the 1955 & 1956 World Grand Champion.
Nothing but the best for our Lady!
I sculpted a portrait of him, to mold in ceramic, for display with Roan Lady in the cabinet.


Fresh from his two consecutive wins as World Grand Champion Tennessee Walking Horse, Go Boy's Shadow (1952-1978) was at stud at S.W. Beech & Sons Stable, in Lewisburg, TN. Traveling Roan Lady was bred to him around September 1957, counting back from her filly's birthdate. Mr. Beech was the defendant in a lawsuit brought by Roan Lady's owner, in a matter completely unrelated to the breeding, but very much related to horses. This controversy surrounding the owner, and his records stopping dead in 1963, have probably contributed to the difficulty in identifying Roan Lady as a portrait horse. It is not known why Roan Lady was not bred again, as there was a four-year window of her owner's continued activity with the breed association.

Traveling Roan Lady had 4 grandfoals, and it is possible to find her in pedigrees of today.

Roan Lady's only foal, Shadow's Roan Lady, had a successful last owner. Dr. Joe T. Walker, of Murfreesboro, TN, earned the respect of his community and the government, such that this House Joint Resolution was made to honor him and his deeds. 




Detail of reissue eye and braid decoration.
Photo courtesy Lynn Isenbarger.


Reissues can be readily identified by their chest vent hole.
Photo courtesy Lynn Isenbarger.


The Hagen-Renaker portrait model of Roan Lady has been reissued in several glossy colors. She is available for ordering today in a wide range of colors, which can be previewed at Ed Alcorn's comprehensive site.

This is a great sculpture time capsule of a Heritage Tennessee Walking Horse, in her prime of life. More about Heritage Tennessee Walkers, next time!



Gratitude to Ed Alcorn, Jo Ellen Arnold, Jeanene Bernardin, Sally Clow, Nancy Falzone, Janet Hicks, Lynn Isenbarger, Dawn Sinkovich, and Dara West for sharing their lovely photographs.References:

Benuish, Alison, ed. Hagen-Renaker Research Materials: 1949- Present. N. pag. Salisbury, MD: WMHC, 1995. 

Berkwitz, Joan, ed. Sketchbook Horses of Maureen Love. Privately published: Carlsbad, CA 1990. 

Berkwitz, Joan. "Roan Lady". The Glass Menagerie. December/January 1995. Color photo print.

Roller, Gayle. Hagen-Renaker: A Charlton Standard Catalogue. Third Edition. The Charlton Press: Palm Harbor, FL, 2003.