Carriage Trade

I have always loved horses. I took riding lessons as a young girl. I recorded the name of every horse I rode. I went to riding camp. I still have my yellow ribbon from the show from camp. It was a small camp in Massachusetts, maybe 50 girls. Many of the girls brought their own horses to camp with them. If only. We were all assigned a horse of our own for purposes of stable cleaning and stall mucking. I loved that I had the only “Jewish” horse in the camp: Shalom. I don’t think I ever got to ride Shalom for lessons but every morning I was there, cleaning the stall, feeding him a treatsie.

When I was just a new lass to SL, I met Shenlei Flasheart of Shengri La. She had horses that I could ride about the sim. I was thrilled and many of my ealier posts to this blog cover the joy I had in riding there. Times change, Shengri La is no longer here, I hadn’t ridden in ages. Then I met B and again fell in with the horse set. Except THIS time, the horses are avatars. *huge smile* They are gorgeous. As lovely as the rezzable horses were back in Shengri La, avatar horses are stupendous, MUCH better. So when I got an invitation to participate in a machinima to advertise a horse-oriented sim, Carriage Trade, I was thrilled. I went shopping, of course, to get some much needed boots and riding gloves. My friend directed me to E. Watkins Premier Equestrian Supplies, owned by Emilie Watkins. I had a WONDERFUL time wandering about the store (all 3 floors), gazing at both equestrian and aviation apparel. Despite wanting EVERYTHING horse-related, I restrained myself. I treated myself to a pair of dressage riding boots and some gloves. Ah, I LOVED my rl tan leather riding gloves. Such soft, supple leather, with the loveliest pattern of pindot ventilation holes. I skipped both the breeches and the hunt cap although I was sorely tempted. Another time.

I dressed in my riding finery and decided that I needed to do SOMETHING with my hair. I never went riding with my hair loose. I had long hair back in the day when I rode regularly. I almost always pulled it back, out of my way. I couldn’t wear it up, because that interfered with the jump cap. I rummaged through my hair styles and found one that I thought would suffice.

I tp’d to the meeting point at Carriage Trade. I was going to be one of two mounted riders. There were also 3 carriages. The cool thing about riding in SL is that the horse does all the work. I mean ALL the work. *grin* The horse is the one who has to wear fingers to the bone running through the sim. All I had to do was get up on the horse and enjoy the ride. I had the lovely fortune to be riding Andersine. I never even heard most of the directions and instructions as they were all IM’d directly to the horses. I simply sat there and took pictures. And more pictures. And even more pictures. I took 130 pictures in the hour that we were making the machinima. 130. I couldn’t stop. I had a smile on my face and I kept clicking saving clicking saving clicking saving.

Georgianna Blackburn and Belvidere Fotherington have started a blog chronicling Carriage Trade. Carriage Trade is a mixed-use equestrian sim, with facilities for both horses and riders: residential properties, common areas, retail shops, all in Victorian style. Last week Carriage Trade threw a party to celebrate Georgianna’s rez day and the grand opening. I *only* took 78 pictures at THAT event. *grin* They plan to hold riding get-togethers every other week on Wednesdays, beginning on December 29th, at 6 pm SLT. They will offer riding lessons and jumping practice in preparation for the first Carriage Trade Fox Hunt! /me laughs and orders an larger hard drive for photos.

Making the machinima was a wonderful time, the rezday/opening celebration was a great deal of fun and I can’t wait for the riding get-togethers and hunts! Come join me there!
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