Royal By Accident

Many, many moons ago, I started a little Stone Chips QH. Being as anal about stock horses as y'all know I am, I practically resculpted his whole front end and painted him solid palomino. I showed him a few times under the name "Royal By Marriage"*, but the little guy couldn't buy a NAN card until I gave him a lacy tovero pattern. In return, he gave me my first NAN championship. I promised the little dude that he'd always have a home with me.

Never one to let a good idea go to waste, I decided to recapture the magic with a big version of my successful mini. I got my mitts on my first ISH body (they were expensive back then) and made "Royal By Accident." He was frame instead of tovero and the body color much darker, but his paint job wasn't up to the standard of his predecessor. After a few shows and no ribbons to show for it, he ended up buried in a box. "I'll work on him again later," I told myself.

Four years later, he was still in a box, although re-prepped, re-primered, and his ears glued back on. I was tired of staring at his blank self, so I stuck him in a box and shipped him to my favorite painter, Lauren Tapley Hoeffer.

A few days later I get a text message:

"This ISH is another recycled custom, isn't he?"

I have a tendency to send my customs that aren't working--paint-wise--to Lauren. She fixes them and makes them awesome, but I suspect she rolled her eyes after opening another box of these guys. We talked briefly about color, but as always, we agreed to just let him pick his color.

A few weeks ago, in the middle of a very rough time for me, she surprised me with him at BreyerWest. How cool is this guy?

Click to embiggen

The craziest thing is Lauren matched the color of Royal By Marriage--not on purpose--closer than I did when I tried to match it. She is super-talented like that. And she gave him an amazing bi-colored eye!

*I have no idea where I got the name from besides thinking it sounded cool.