Thank you, Zee. Does me a ton of good to hear!
And yes, I will keep posting :)
Not certain yet what the next one is going to be. I want to do another horse & cowboy scene, hihi, but also feel drawn to painting a buffalo/bison.
Not certain what I'll do next yet.
Haven't had the time yet. Yesterday was shopping for pressies for my granddaughter's 1st birthday...
Today visiting my girl to celebrate the 1st birthday of the wee one :D

Canvasses for either one have been prepped though, so if I feel like it I can start right away!

Joyful!
Going to my daughter in a bit so I will see my 2 li'l granddaughters as well :)

The youngest had her 1st birthday yesterday!

Thank you so much, Zee!

TxsGal3333, that's kind of what I meant by how often and what etc.
What you say is not really very often and can be just phone calls.
With the father of your kids I can totally understand as well.
I too was in touch with my ex, father of my kids, for quite some time after the divorce.
NOT because there was still love there. Over is over for me. As in 100% over.
But it had to do with the kids.
Every other weekend the kids were with him and sometimes he picked them up at my new home that I shared with my new partner. Sometimes his new partner came with.
Then we drank a cup of coffee, chit-chatted and after that he was on his way home again with our kids.

Having spent a long time with each other and having kids together can mean you still get along after divorce without any desire for getting involved again.

For me personally that's where contact with exes ends. And I wouldn't like a new men to still check in on an ex either. I should be his new responsibility as a man, not an ex.
But that's my personal view & feelings.
This stuff will be different for everyone.

Haha, I guess!
But I haven't watched -nor listened to- news for 15,5 years now. Like to keep it that way!
I rather watch fiction, far more relaxed :D

Just watched US Marshalls for the umpteenth time. Such a good movie.
And such a shame they never made a 3rd one.

You seem to misunderstand a lot.
I have NOT asked.
I thank you for not posting anymore replies in my threads. I do not appreciate personal attacks and insults.
This is a happy & positive thread and I'd like it to stay that way.

Thank you so much, Kristi!
Also for backing me up as an artist and with your knowledge.
As you say, it is beyond rude, and what makes it even worse is that he keeps that going with another tome under your reply.
I'm not even going to read it, haha.
I've had nothing but great & positive feedback from people, except from him and what he comes up with makes no sense whatsoever. What remains is the fact that it's utterly rude.

You do know what you're talking about when it comes to horses, the gear, and riding, which is far more valuable & meaningful :)

Come to think of it... also what 'staying in touch'
entails.
Is this the occasional coffee, and if so, where? Her place or his or a restaurant?
Or is it dinner or entire afternoons/evenings spent together?
So where, how much time, and how often do they spend time together? That also matters.
But still, most important factor is, how do you feel about it? Are you okay with it?

Depends. Not necessarily a red flag.
At a certain age most everyone has had more than 1 relationship and many stay in touch with exes.
I do believe in many cases it's meaningless, but then again it begs the question, if it's meaningless then why is that more important than a potential new partner?

But all in all I think it comes down to your own boundaries. What is okay for you?
I've been lenient with it in the past, also with men having female "just friends".
Since the last one I have now made it a boundary. No guy with female friends anymore and no guy who wants to stay in touch with exes.
UNLESS it's occasional for shared kids.

Again, figure out what your own boundaries are in this.

The legs are exactly as they were in the reference photo...

The dust cloud is exactly as how it happened

The dust cloud isn't somewhat transparent but totally opaque

The dust cloud was that big/long

The cinch is the BACK cinch which is ALWAAAAAAYS loose. The front conch is tight, not the back one.

You wouldn't -and don't- even see the the front cinch at this angle. The cinch isn't that close to the rear legs. So if you know your stuff you'd know it's a back cinch.

The way the knees bend... you cannot even see the knees because of the dust cloud?

The gait of a horse depends on whether it's stepping, trotting or galloping. It's doing none of these really. It's part stepping & slipping & sliding down.

The positioning of the legs depends on the split second you take a snapshot of its movement. It is exactly as in the photo.

The movement is more than clear and, as my fellow painter friend said, well captured.

So to me it seems all you're trying to do is to knock my work. Maybe do some research first before you criticise as all you come up with is based on nothing, otherwise called "BS".
And maybe refrain from replying if you don't like me and/or my work.

That doesn't surprise me. I only ever watched the first episode of that last season, just out of curiosity how they went about finding & introducing a new tracker.
Just one look at him told me he wasn't a likeable man. He didn't have the looks nor charm of Terry but also came across as unpleasant.
Which is why I never watched that season.

Hooray for the man who gets what masculinity is all about!

My new brush is also synthetic but it is meant for art and different material than the cheap shizzel brushes.
I wanted to finish my painting.
Which I did! Just now, this afternoon :)

And I'm happy with it!!

Funny thing... I was stuck with the bottom left corner. The last part to finish off properly really. And I couldn't get it done.
Then I got into a "I don't care anymore!" state of mind which is always when for me it miraculously works out, haha.
It was supposed to be a tad darker, more shadowy. As it is I'm really happy with it, although it may not show up well in the photo.

I think I'm going to call it "Adrenaline Rush".
The rush being thundering down that steep excuse of a path.
If you or anyone else has another great idea, I'm all ears.
I'm never much good with titles.

A bit longer, but it's a blog (mine) that I translated...

The Chinese year of the Fire Horse has started!
This means we’re going to be dealing with a lot of fiery energy. This can be a relief after the Year of the Snake -2025- which was mostly about letting go of what no longer served you.
Now we can move forward again. Time for action!
Fire horse is about passion, exuberance, the desire to gallop.
Horse represents things like strength, courage, loyalty, speed, independence. With the element Fire these qualities will be even stronger.

And yup, this can have an effect on your love life for sure!
The energy encourages you to act with passion and courage. Pleasure and joy is within reach. What helps, adds to it all, is spring knocking on our doors as spring bring similar energies with it.

Looking back at previous Horse years you can notice certain tendencies during these years. The Horse energy is really quite something!
In the last Fire Horse year for instance, 1966, we had birthcontrol and the freedom that came with it, mainly for women. It changed an awful lot in the area of dating and relationships.
In the Horse year 2002 online dating started to come up real fast and in 2014 Tinder was a big hype. Many met their partner via that app.

Generally speaking Horse years always have to do with increased independence, especially for women!

But nowadays online dating is past its prime. Lots of unpleasant stuff happening, being ghosted, many people are less willing to commit and so on. A lot of people have lost hope, have gotten discouraged, had too many disappointments.
You even hear/read people say they’re weary and fed up of dating.
Apparently more people than ever before feel lonely? In spite of being on dating sites/apps?

I think it became too easy? Too much choice maybe as well. Kind of like we always have running tapwater. No one appreciates that anymore. It’s normal. Until there is no tapwater. Then you get PO, grin. But we take it for granted, even though it actually is very special!
It’s a bit like that with online dating (sites).

But it is expected that during this Fire Horse year people will feel the urge to go about things differently. To go places to meet people, to find connection in real life, not online so much.

Since Horse is also about being authentic and authentic expression, it is likely people will be open about their intentions. Isn’t that great?!
I’d love it if all the vague chit you often get on dating sites would cease to be.
No longer being kept in the dark by someone, or them leading you on, half-assed situationships.
The Horse year could sure as heck bring such a shift!
The Fire Horse doesn't tolerate ambiguity. It craves clarity and desires decisive action.
The Horse also doesn't fake things, nor does it tolerate BS, untrustworthy or strange behavior.
This is therefore at odds with how things have often been in recent years.
It also increases the likelihood that people will express their intentions honestly and clearly.
I'd love that!

Regardless of what your own Chinese sign is, this year the time is right to be more outgoing and active. To bring ‘new’ into your life, to take well-considered risks, to go out of your comfort-zone, and to clearly express your intentions.

I do want to say that none of this is forced in Horse energy.
I’m a Fire Horse myself and I can vouch for it never being forced but coming from enthusiasm, lust for life, joy. Feeling like it. A “Hell yes!!” to life.

What could be important this year, is to stay properly grounded. The passion and enthusiasm of the Horse combined with the element Fire can activate you too much.
Then you’re at risk of going over your own boundaries and/or burning out. So keep your feet on the ground and make sure to rest regularly.
Know when not to go fast, especially when you have to make decisions, certainly when it concerns matters of the heart.
Being overly careful isn’t handy, neither is diving head first into a new adventure.

Apart from all that, just enjoy the Horse energy this year! Let it carry you forward and have fun!
That way, if you don’t find a partner this year, you at least had a good time and created a lot of added value in your life.
It certainly isn’t a year to remain passive in your comfy chair. Not a time to stay stuck and stagnant in old routines.

So climb on your horse and enjoy the ride!
And, as someone else said (which I liked):
Trot in trust…
Gallop with purpose!

I watched a recent interview of Terry Grant, Mantracker, the other day.
After that I realised that about half of each episode was re-shot??
I already knew that they re-did shots of moments that hadn't been clear or they didn't have good footage of.
Logical in one sense, it's a tv show after all and has to look juicy.

But realising that every frontal and side view has been shot after the actual chase changes how I perceive it all.
As Terry says, they don't change anything, but by re-doing it things automatically change.
One big difference would be that the prey aren't scared anymore. They've already spent time with Terry during dinner, they know they've either lost or won etc.

Watching a few episodes again, paying attention, I could tell that half -at least- isn't original footage.
Once the ending we were shown was even not what had actually happened?? The outcome remained the same but it had happened totally differently?
The reason was that Terry was setting his one remaining prey up to only go in one direction. He'd orchestrated this with his guide Phil.
Or he thought he did as it turned out that his cameraman had shut off his microphone so Phil didn't know. The whole thing went sour, the prey won. Yet what we were shown is that Phil is chasing after him, trying to rope him but misses.
While in actual fact Phil wasn't even there?!
This being at the end of the chase, they would've had to improvise and come up with something but still, knowing that now I feel I'm being conned, hihi.

Another good example of a mix of original and filmed again later...
The capture of the Blinkhorn brothers.
The best ever capture as far as I'm concerned. But much of what is shown is stable close-up footage, which isn't the original.
In between you see short flashes of the original footage of the capture, but this is from quite far away and wobbly (handheld cam).

So even though they try to keep it the same as how it actually happened, much of it I now feel is fake. Seeing him give his death stare to a prey was exciting. Now I know, since it's a stable frontal view, that it was shot later on.

It's the same with the frontal and most side footage of the prey.

Kinda disappointing although I do understand the reason why. But having at least half of each episode re-done later... Disappointing.

A bit like having watched "the making of Jurassic World". Watching the movie after that is never the same again, hihi.

To add to what I posted above ^^^...
There's nothing wrong with talking on the phone. It is actually recommended, not right away, but after a few chats, why not? Provided these chats had substance, weren't a few lines of course.

Reason being that it's important to find out if you A) like his voice and B) if he / the 2 of you can keep a good 'live' conversation going.

I once was totally put off by a guy's voice while chatting had been great! But his voice was god awful. Highpitched, unbearable. I knew right away that it was never going to work out. I can't listen to a screechy voice on a daily basis.
Saves you time to find out reasonably early!

Another time on the phone with another man my spine melted in a puddle on the floor as his voice was so wonderful.
He was equally mesmerised by my voice, hihi.
We got into a relationship.

Get a prepaid SIM card with a different phone number that you can use for these conversations.
I've done that.
That way you never have to give out your regular phone number.

That's not so bad. Men often just do whatever, don't think that for a woman such things might be different.
It could be him showing genuine interest in you and then you blow him off.
A few days of chatting is quite something, depending on the quality of the chat of course.
If you could deal with it in a bit of a playful way, a feminine way, things might actually work out.
For instance something like, "I'd like to hear your voice too, but it's a bit too fast for me. Is it okay we keep talking here for a while longer? I'll let you know when I'm ready."

Or something like that. With such a message you let a guy know that you are interested as well but that he's moving just a bit to fast for you to feel safe.
And it conveys your boundaries.

Women often are so quick to go cold when a man shows interest. Men can be insecure just the same in matters of love!

A quality guy will respect your boundaries and wishes, might even become more interested in you when you express them. Certainly when you do it in a playful way. Still firm, but playful, so it's not like throwing a door shut in his face.
A w@nker will likely start nagging or be gone. Use your discernment and intuition.
But remember general rule of thumb: Men can want & suggest, woman decides and sets her boundaries.

Yup, year of the Fire Horse :)
I'm a Fire Horse myself.

YESSS! I just treated myself to a larger filbert brush! I've wanted one for several years but these things are so darned expensive.
And now I found a shop that sells the size I wanted $20 cheaper than my regular art shop. I could not resist!

Normally they sent out orders on a Tuesday, which makes sense if it concerns frames they have to make or large orders. But one brush??
So I phoned them :p
They had 1 brush left in stock of that size and they will ship it today!
YEEHAAA!
Good thing I called them :)
With a bit of luck it gets here on the morrow!

(The "what are you feeling" topic doesn't work, again, so sticking it here :p )