Gymkhana Equine Plaques Photos

[John Morris]

I had fun with these, but I hope someone will help me remember what the heck type of wood I made these from! The name is at the tip of my tongue, It is an exotic, not cocobolo but something along those lines, very dense and heavy.

 

The plank I used had a partial live edge so you'll see some of them with rustic edges, I love those the most. I finished them the night before the event, which was yesterday. My youngest daughter belongs to a Gymkhana club, barrel racing, speed poles, and more. We meet every third Saturday of the month and I volunteered my lumber and time to fabricate the plaques or trophies. They fund the engravings and horse head medallions. For a look at the last ones I did CLICK HERE.

 

 

See the plaques I made and delivered yesterday morning to the event! They loved them! The stand about 8" tall by 7" wide.

 

 

 

 

I sanded the plaques to 400, and applied a generous coat of BLO and let sit for 15 minutes, then I wiped them off. I re-visited the plaques 4 hours later and wiped them down again as the oil does leach after the initial wipe.

 

 

The engraved plates came from a wonderful out fit here in town, just as the last ones I did, they came from Anady's Trophies. They are great folks, ready to help, and their quality and attention to detail is un-paralleled. We shopped around and found plates cheaper, but that's the operative word here, cheap, they were cheaper for a reason, the print was lasered on, it looked just like black print smooth to the surface of the plate, very un-classy. After all the work I put into these, I do not want cheap plates to grace the surface of these. So Anady's is the only way to go. Excellent quality and precision engravings.

 

 

Also, how can I finish this topic without sharing some images of our day yesterday, the first image is my girl holding up here First Place ribbon in the Bi-rangle competition, Division 3 Junior. Her riding partner is sitting behind her, they are great friends and love riding with each other.

 

 

 

 

And my lil girl getting ready to enter the competition area for the Birangle event. The horse she is on is a Mustang named Bubba Joe. He is 26 years old, that's almost a hundred in horse years, but folks, he is fast! The only reason he is living this long, and staying this strong, is he is being used as a daily rider, he gets love and attention, and he is not left in the stable for days on end, he feels needed.

 

 

 

 

Lastly, my girl standing next to her instructor after the competition. The two of them have formed a wonderful friendship and our daughter loves riding with her, and she looks forward to Fridays as that is her lesson day.

 

 

 

 

We had a great time folks. We always do. You cannot get more American then with these events out here in the west. The atmosphere is great, family, American, country music, kids laughing, parents fully involved in all facets of the event, and we all volunteer our time through out the day, yesterday my job was at the registration table, signing folks up for each event, and selling raffle tickets.

 

Just good ol fashioned fun!

 

Thanks for looking, thanks for putting up with my gloating.

 

[lew]

Gotta say, I like these plaques better than the previous ones. I really like the character the "natural" wood pieces have. They're a little more "cowboy".

Tell your daughter congrats, from us, on the Blue Ribbon, too.

[John Morris]

Thanks Lew, yep the folks loved the first ones, but they really loved these, I don't know how I am going to top this set of plaques for next months event.

I'll pass on the attaboys to my girl Lew, thanks!!!

[John Morris]

As to the species of lumber, I am not so sure anymore that it is exotic, perhaps English Walnut?

[Harry Brink]

Outstanding again, John.

You'll have a hard time out doing those.

 

[John Morris]

I agree Harry, hmmm, what's next! Bubinga?

[John Moody]

Those are awesome looking John. Wow!!!

And congratulation to the Blue Ribbon winner!

 

 

[Gene Howe]

Gloat away, my friend. The plaques, your daughter and old Bubba Joe are all gloatworthy.

Dense and heavy? Not any English walnut I've worked. It's sure pretty, though.

 

 

[John Morris]

Thank you John, again I'll pass on the congrats from Moody to my girl, she is so proud of that ribbon, and that is the first time she road Birangle, so she did pretty good!

 

[John Morris]

Thanks Gene. Appreciate the sentiments. Bubba Joe is such a cool horse. I think he is still the most used student rider that her instructor has in her stable. He has a ton of character and he is great with the kids, but he does challenge the kids too, he can get feisty and stubborn at times. Last months Gymkhana event our daughter rode Bubba Joe and he would not do a thing she asked of him, she tried to get him around the poles and he wasn't going to have any of that. He went around the poles he wanted to go around! When the day comes that ol Bubba Joe meets his maker, he will be sorely missed by all. But till then, he keeps on keeping on!

 

Ya, I am not sure what the lumber is at this point. Back to it being tropical or African, because it did have a high density feel to it, like a chunk of Ebony would. A friend of mine gave me the lumber, it was one plank, and it just looked like it was screaming to be sued for this purpose with the wild grain and all, completely western looking.

[John Hechel]

John, those plaques are wonderful.

From the pictures they look like Bacote. It is a dark brown and yellowish to gold mixture and grows in central Mexico.

 

congratulations to your daughter for a job well done. I think she out did your work with winning the blue ribbon

 

[John Morris]

You betcha she did!! Thanks John for the kind words. You nailed it on the head!!! That is exactly what the species is, Bacote, I knew the name of it but it escaped me, my friend who gave it to me told me the name of the wood, but for the life of me I could not remember. And I have not worked with it at all to be familiar with the looks of it to be able to determine the species. Thanks for solving that mystery!

[Cliff]

It all looks really great.The plaques, the kids, the event - - - all of it.

[John Morris]

Moving this up from the archives! I remember this project fondly as I get ready to make some sawdust tomorrow to make more plaques for another event.

[Cliff]

Oh now that's really great stuff.  Nice plaques too.