Keeping Him Close

I had seen a few artists who made horsehair jewelry at Equine Affaire.  I had a plan that when my dear Banee leaves the earth that I'd like a bracelet from her tail hair.  Her owner kindly agreed to the request.  Thankfully, Banee is still doing fine and she will turn 35 next month. Hopefully you've forgotten by now that she's just 2 months older than I am....

So when I lost Junior I decided I'd have one made of his hair.  The vets collected the hair for me on that horrible night while I held his head and wept. The hair sat in a shopping bag for a long time while I browsed the internet for an artist.  I found one on Etsy that I really liked.  It was a beautiful but simple design.

After several emails with the artist, I decided on a style.  I only needed to prep the hair.  Taking the hair out of the bag was awful.  His beautiful tail was just filthy from the trauma of that last hour.  The arena dirt just fell out of it.

Washing the hair smelled just like giving him a bath and brought back a whole slew of memories of how long it took to acclimate him to bathing, how once when I didn't have a wash rack he got away from me (for the first terrifying time) but stopped as soon as he hit the grass, and how good he looked when he was all clean and his socks were glowing - which only happened before a show because it was a LOT of work. I remembered how he was so smart that he learned to step on the hose to stop the water, so bathing was a constant battle of hose handling as he nonchalantly moved his feet around until he made contact and I'd yell "OVER" and he'd grudgingly move.  He was always making sure I was in charge. So many little things I miss about him.

Through many tears I managed to get it all washed and dried and I separated the amount to send to the artist.

After a quick turnaround, I received this:

and I have been wearing it each day since.  Of course, opening the package (thoughtfully wrapped up like a gift) sent me into tears, but that was to be expected.  Not only is it a piece of my heart wrapped around my wrist, but it's a beautiful piece of art.

I am very pleased with the purchase so if you've been hunting for something similar, please take my recommendation for Kathy from "Tails of Love" on Etsy. LINK HERE