[FOR SALE] Not Your Mother's Watercolor

EDIT: She now is quasi-settled at Tamarack Park. Thank you to everyone who showed interest in purchasing her!

---

Trying a new thing with my style, in general. Totally loving it on this end, so you might have to suffer through some more of it.

This is the horse I asked about in this poll -- you guys decided she'd be a mare, so here she is! To adopt her, make some kind of art depicting your human character(s) trying her out at Tamarack Park. Here's a link to the basic property and stable maps -- you're welcome to draw any scene (mounted, driving, grooming, catching, whatever) in just about any place where she'd fit (so not inside the house, haha!). Hacking on the unfenced property (as in this image)? Golden. Precision riding or ground driving in the arena? Spectacular. Grooming in the wash stalls? Adorable. Do whatever you feel like, and you don't have to include my characters in your image at all. The only specs are, again, that your human(s) are trying her out at Tamarack Park as candidates for a private sale. The story (long-winded as it might be) that I've added below might help with some of the feeling, if nothing else.

You can change her barn name and/or her registered name, but if you choose to do the latter I'll be picky about that. (If you do decide to change her registered name, you can assume that Mr. Richardson of Tamarack Park held off on all but the final registration -- pedigree paperwork/verification is in order with the BDHCA, but he was going to let the buyers choose her name, that sort of thing.) You're also welcome to design her other side, and I won't mind if you get creative with details (dappling, Ben D'or spots, etc.).

This image has got some filters on it, and I've really blended the colors pretty thoroughly, so you're also welcome to mess with the hues/values of her coat and her markings on this side, as long as they stay relatively similar to this image. (There is meant to be some blonde and white in her mane/tail, for example, but my fiddling took most of that detail away.) The idea behind her design/pedigree was that she's super-special because she's got two rather rare genes in American-bred Belgian drafts (sooty and splash) to such an effect that she essentially looks like a bay roan with super-chrome and blue eyes, even though she's not at all bay or classic roan. Please keep that in mind when you're depicting her!

You can't change her pedigree, height, sex, or genotype; please credit me as the designer. Her age is sort of up for grabs, but make sure you note how old she is in your story somewhere. If you end up not winning the art auction and you want to be super-sweet to whomever does win her, you could leave your uploaded "bid" art as-is and let the new owner count it as gift art for dA-IGGHR points...

The deadline for submissions is September 3^rd, 2013 at 11:59pm EST. The winner will be announced sometime on the 4th. (It should be noted that I reserve the right not to sell her, only because I've grown kind of attached to her design and her story, and I admit I'll probably be a little choosy regarding her new home. If she gets no bids, or if I can't decide on a winner, then she'll stay at Tamarack Park and will be... sort of always for sale to the right home, in theory. )

09/03/13 UPDATE: Since she got no bids through the art auction, she'll be kind of... eternally for sale, as mentioned above. I really don't want another draft at TamPark, but if nobody likes her except me, I'll still try my best to show her around. If you're interested in purchasing her for art or for points, shoot me a private note, and we can talk about it! Again, I'll still be really picky with the home she does go to, but above all I'd like her to go somewhere where she's appreciated.

---

Registered Name: Aisling's Song
Barn Name: Aisling, Ash
Birthdate: February 6
Gender: Mare
Eyes: Blue
Breed: Belgian Draft
Phenotype: Sooty Flaxen Chestnut Pangaré Sabino/Splash
Genotype: ee/AA/ff/nSty/PP/nSb/nSpl
Height: 18.1hh
Immediate Pedigree: Mountain View Blair x Double O Glow
Build: ---
Temperament: ---
Disciplines: Green W/T/C under saddle; direct-rein only.
Availability: For sale; breeding on hold.
Offspring: None yet.

---

Making a sales video was harder than it seemed. It was her first one, and Anna wanted to get it right. Of course, Niels was doing all the technical work, and he wanted to get it right, too, but she was the one who had to be in the damned thing.

They’d found the Mammoth (Niels’s idea of a “pet name”) lurking in a back yard, for sale on Craigslist, advertised as a “could be registered BDHCA, haven’t had time” – and they nearly laughed themselves silly, thinking that the sellers were lying and trying to make a quick buck on a grade draft.

And then they saw the proof of pedigree, and stopped laughing. And pulled out daddy’s cash offer.

It took their father three months to get all the registration papers finalized, but in that time they’d taken what had been a shaggy, unkempt, out-of-shape mare and turned her into a sleek, braided, slightly less out-of-shape mare. Or mammoth, depending on whom you asked.

They’d registered her as “Aisling's Song,” partly because her sire’s name was Scottish and her dam’s name was Glow, and “Aisling” is a Scottish name meaning something like “dream.” And partly because Kyle's little girl, Sarah, picked it out of a short list of similar light-sounding, Scottish-origin names and said, “Like in The Secret of Kells, right?”

And besides, most everyone took to calling her “Ash” for short after that, which suits her bespeckled coat and sooty hair just fine.

But now that she was registered, she had to go. Well, maybe “had to” is a strong term, but after taking in their fair share of heavy horses, the Richardsons of Tamarack Park knew that the strengths of draft horses were totally out of their league – Anna and Niels were eventers, first and foremost. Nobody could justify paying for another horse’s expenses when that horse would never truly reach its full potential with Tamarack Park.

Knowing that her color is rare among the American-bred Belgian drafts, and knowing that she had at least the basics down under saddle, there was no question that they’d be able to find her a suitable home. Everyone was hoping for a show home at a Belgian breeding stable, but they’d settle for a show home where she’d at least be around people who specialized in draft horses, regardless of breed.

In the three months that Tamarack Park spent getting Aisling registered, Anna had the joy to discover that the gargantuan mare was surprisingly nimble and light-hearted, to boot. She had her three gaits under saddle reliably, and both leads at the canter, though she didn’t have flying changes yet. She was also relatively safe for beginners, though certainly enjoyed looking at anything new – which had a way of unnerving people, because the mare would stop stock-still and stare at something nobody else could see, jigging like a racehorse if her rider or handler tried to redirect her focus, tensing until everyone thought they’d have an eighteen-hand freight train bulling through the stables in T-minus ten seconds, and then… nothing. She’d snort, and blow, and completely relax, as if nothing was wrong at all. She never bucked, never bolted, never offered to rear, or kick, or bite – but she had a way of looking at things funny, and that was enough.

“We can’t just ship her off without fair warning to the buyers. Not if she’d be around a hitch. It’s too dangerous,” Niels decided, and Anna agreed. “They’ve got to try her first, no matter what.”

So that’s where the sale video came in. They were gonna put it up on YouTube and link all their horsey friends and acquaintances to it, featuring all of Aisling’s strengths and even talking about her weaknesses – and if there was anyone willing to come look at her in person, hopefully they’d call.

It wasn’t hard to film an inspiring set of clips. Aisling wasn’t remarkably sensitive to aids of any kind yet, but she got the gist of them and was very enthusiastic, so riding her was always fun.

“Way to make her look easy,” Niels said once, filming a little hack around (but not over) some of the cross-country jumps on the east side of the property.

Anna grinned as they cantered past him, her hair flying across her face in the summer wind, strands coming loose of the braid she’d tied it in. “Yeah, but she is easy!”

“There’s a joke about her virtue in there somewhere, but for the sake of clean content I’ll refrain until another time,” grinned the redheaded boy.

He kept Anna’s laughter in the final cut, and titled the YouTube video “RARE: MAMMOTH FOR SALE.”