The Best Distraction

     Remember how back in November I ordered a foldable arena from Emerald Studio on Instagram? Long time ago, wasn't it. Remember how I was afraid it might be lost because it stopped tracking and the woman I talked to at USPS said we should just file a claim? Well, Friday morning I got a message on Instagram that Anastasia (I believe that is her name) had heard back from the postal service and the package was waiting for me to pick it up. I was so confused because that has never been something that has happened so I asked her where. Then it occurred to me to track the package. It said it was in Wilbraham! Which is the town next to mine! Holy cow! So I figured it would arrive on Saturday, which was exciting since I had a horse that was supposed to come then as well. But when I got home...

       I was instantly excited. I waited 119 days for this to arrive and I really thought that it was lost. I started to unpack and I unrolled it from a TON of bubble wrap. This thing was super well protected. 

     When I got all the wrapping off I found a really nice quality box, with several latches and a little leather handle to pull it open. The workmanship is incredible. 

     Tucked safely inside, with more bubble wrap, was the side wall. The hooks for the pole rack and the pegs to hold the side wall on were all wrapped. The poles were also wrapped. Everything was incredibly well packaged and very secure. 

I put the side wall on and took a quick photo in my horrible, yellow bedroom lighting. But I was still super excited! How could I not be? 119 days of anticipation is hard. 

I got all of the hooks on the pole holder and put them up. It is just such a nice touch!

      Did I forget to mention the other surprise I had? My new horse arrived a day early! So I had to get him into the area to see how he would look. I ordered it nice and large to hopefully get a variety of performance scenes in it and have them look realistic. The side wall should definitely help that. I might need some more kinetic sand. 

     I took another quick photo and cropped it down. This should definitely work! I will have to be a bit careful with camera angles, and not every setup will work, but I have a really excellent way to do indoor photos now. Though I also totally plan on doing outdoor photos in the arena. The light is just so good that way!

Here are some better photos of my new horse. 

     He was done by Julie Brooks (who also made Halestorm) and he is awesome! I have been wanting a horse like this for a long time and I am excited that he is here! Now he needs a name. I am not all that good at names so this will be tough., 

      Anyway, as soon as I opened up my new horse and my arena, all I wanted to do was play! But my live sale looms on the not so distant horizon and I had to be responsible and get some work done. It did take me over an hour to talk myself into it, but I did finally get to work. But there will be playing and performance photos soooooon.