-I Long way to go I-

Adult

Link to Pointjournal for North-Antrim-Trials:
North-Antrim-Trials SHS Daydream

Yay another drawing from me^^ I still have a lot saved in my stash just waiting to be uploaded
Well this time I tried some different shading, you might think. I saw this shading used by other artists and was always like: what technique are they using? That can´t be done with mine? But oh actually it CAN, it is not about the shadingstyle, it was always about the shadingcolors! That´s what makes this shading so unique, I used completly different colors for shading But I think I will stick to my old colorsheme, because I love drawing shiny horses hehe^^
Also this is the first drawing where the focus isn´t only on the horse but also on the background!

Foreword: Finally the big north antrim trials were coming, Fiona was really excited: she had trained her Asgardian mare for a long time. It was a hard and sweaty training, sometimes nothing went right, but Fiona learned to stop when this happens. Then she just put the saddle and bridle of and rode without any saddle on her horse. They even practiced cross country and show jumping this way, not many people were able to ride a horse like that and have such a tight bond to their riding animal. But let us see if they have trained enough and if everything goes right now! They both are totally motivated, but the other contestants are great, too, we will see what is waiting for our great team in the near future! Stay excited

This was the first day of the north antrim trials, the first discipline was endurance. And this discipline was something really special for Fiona, because she had grown up with it! Her mother was riding endurance horses for over 30 years now and of course Fiona was riding those horses, too, she even learned riding on an endurance horse. There were two horses, one brown calm horse and one crazy grey horse. Fiona loved that crazy grey horse, it would have been her future horse... if there weren´t these little problems. The horse was really crazy, it would let nobody except Fionas mother and Fiona herself touch it ears, also it was scared of everything, literary EVERYTHING, everything you can imagine: umbrellas, bags, tractor, buckets, blue flowers, yellow flowers, some other horses and even more... but oh well, they needed to sell this horse and the old owner bought it back. It was a nice, but already very old, farmer whose dream was to buy his old driving team horses back an drive with them again. He was so happy when he bought the grey horse back and after a few month he also got the half brother of the crazy grey horse back. Those were one of his best days in his life, but then the sad thing happened: The half brother of the weird grey one died because of an bad illness. The farmer was really sad, because his dream was crushed now, but it came even worse: When he tried to drive with the crazy grey and another of his horses, he asked a neighbor for help. The neighbor hold the crazy grey one and when they tried to harness this horse it got crazy and reared that high that it couldn´t hold itself anymore - It fell down... broken neck - instantly dead. That must have been the most sad day the farmer had ever had, both of his horses died and his dream was crushed forever. He would NEVER be able to drive with his dream team again.

But now back to Fiona: The teenage girl was preparing her wonderful black mare Daydream for an Endurance competition. The wonderful Asgardian-Horse was still eating its hay, when Fiona came. Usually Fiona used SHS Toxic Poison for anything like Endurance and show jumping (also he was a little bit in training for cross country), but he had a bad broken wing and needs to rest for the next few month. Nobody really knew what happened to him, but the veterinary surgeon meant he must have done some kind of a somersault, but he had no idea if that was even possible for a horse.

Now Fiona needed to ride her beloved mare Daydream for this event, the mare might not be the best trained in endurance, but they gave their best to get Daydream up to a standard endurance horse And it turned out that Daydream has fun gallopping and running for hours, first she didn´t get that she couldn´t run fast all the time, but soon the black mare understood the system of endurance riding. The mare might not was the best horse for an endurance competition, but she was definitely willing to give her very best and that was all what counted. You can have a great horse for any discipline, but if it is not willing to do anything and has no fun in those disciplines you won´t win any competition. Also it was important for Fiona that her mare was comfortable when they are riding together, natural horsemanship is a must!

Fiona got up early in the morning, she still needed to prepare some things and pack her bags, she put some water bottles, cookies and treats for daydream in it. Just when she already wanted to buckle the backpack  Lukas came out of the kitchen and hold a small package with some slices of bread in his hand "Haven´t you forgotten something? One with chese and one with bacon, just how you like it the most", he asked with a cheeky smile in his face. Fiona gladly took the little package and stuffed it to the other things, then she turned around and started looking for the clothes that she needed for the long ride. Just when the girl didn´t looked Lukas secretly put a little cupcake and a candy bar in her backpack. "It is still going to rain when the competition starts, but it will get warmer and sunnier in the next days!", Lukas said thoughtful, Fiona nodded, she couldn´t say a word because of excitement. Three days of riding were a long time, they had trained a lot but not that long. She knew her horse had enough stamina for this event, but she didn´t knew if she herself would have enough power to endure this event. Fiona sighted and sat on a chair in the room, Lukas kneed next to her and looked her right in the eyes: "I know you can do it, I saw you training! I trained you and believe me you are ready and even if you don´t win: that is not a shame! It is your first endurance event with Daydream and it is something special, so the best thing would be if you just enjoy the ride and don´t think about it as a competition!", Lukas said gently and patted her shoulder. "You are right...", Fiona muttered, but she wasn´t really convinced. Both stood up and nodded at each other, it was time to awake daydream and prepare her for the long ride.

"Only a few seconds from now... I need to enjoy every moment, fel every second and be glad of every minute that I can be together with daydream!", Fiona whispered to calm herself down, it was right before the event started: all horses were lined up and ready to run away. The teenager girl looked around, she saw some endurance breeds, a lot people hat an endurance saddle and bridle, but she hadn´t. Her mare wasn´t an endurance horse, so they didn´t bought a correct endurance saddle and bridle for her, now Fiona was ashamed of that. The others were looking at her with arrogance, they could see that Daydream wasn´t an experienced endurance horse, but they also knew that Asgardian-Horses were really good horses. Still they don´t feared our little team, no actually Fiona heard some people laughing and talking about her, they asked why they weren´t at the Pony riding school and that the people don´t like dressage riders participating on an endurance competition. Fiona was really sad to hear that, but she needed to shut it out. Finally the start signal could be heard and all horses immediately started running, Fiona could see the other horses dashing of, but she remembered what Lukas told her when she had her first endurance trainings lesson: "Never use all your strenght at the beginning, start slow and keep one exact speed the whole day, then daydream won´t be exhausted at the end of the day!"

She would definitely follow his advice, she patted Daydream strong neck and they fell into a comfortable canter.

Art stats

Art (c) Summerlandhillstable
Mina
Time horse: 2-4h
Time background: 2-5h
Ref: own ref , no background ref
Adobe photoshop Cs6
Wacom bamboo fun pen and touch