Tuesday, March 4, 2014

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

7 comments:

  1. Beautiful bracelet! I'm so glad you have him with you close always :) Going to check out the link to that store, I really like yours.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A beautiful way to remember him every day!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It was truly my honor to be able to make your special memento. May you always have his beautiful memories in your heart.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for sharing this. I have my sweet boy Danny's tail, tucked away and have been looking for the right thing to do with it. This is perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's beautiful, and a wonderful way to keep him close.

    I have one with AJ's hair, but I've been wanting one that has both AJ hair and Lilly hair. I'll definitely check out her Etsy store.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beautiful - what a great memory and a way to keep him close. I'm glad you had some hair saved so you could do this when you were ready.

    ReplyDelete
  7. My boy is still here with me, but I really want to get one made. I love this style! What a wonderful keepsake.

    ReplyDelete