Nitro

Elaine's Spoiled Rotten Steed

Once upon a time, in the southern desert of a vast empire, lay a beautiful big city. It was inhabited by warm, colorful, lively, people, who lived life to their fullest, despite constant danger from the cruel, barbaric people to their south.

One person in the city stood out as being the warmest and liveliest of them all. Her name was Elaine, and she was the beautiful daughter of the city's royal astronomer.

One of Lady Elaine's greatest passions was spoiling her finely bred little desert mare, Nitro.

Nitro once belonged to her younger brother, and was used as a war mount until he died in battle at a tender young age. Nitro survived the battle, and as you can imagine, Elaine treasured her greatly, for she was part of her brother's memory. In fact, the little mare rarely left Elaine's side.

When Elaine would spend long hours working on her beautiful mosaics, Nitro would be standing over her shoulder, foot cocked, asleep. It didn't matter whether or not the mosaic was being made inside a house; Nitro was often brought indoors. When Elaine wrote to her friends in foreign kingdoms, Nitro was almost always besides her, nibbling at her hair. And when Elaine went down to the market place, Nitro went too... in fact she was pretty good at carrying all Elaine's excessive purchases home.

However, it may also be said that Nitro was full of silly little personality quirks and bad habits, as are most spoiled animals.

Every time the messenger boy came in to deliver messages from distant kingdoms, she'd start rearing, pawing, and snorting. Evidently she hated that messenger boy and wanted to kill him! To top that, if she didn't get her grain early enough in the morning she would pound on the metal gate of her enclosure with her front hooves, making a sound that traveled through several connected walls, waking up half the people on the block. And to add to that, while being mounted she rarely held still, leaving poor Elaine to hop around in circles on one foot. Moreover, she sometimes bit people, and had a little kicking problem ... among other things.

Of course none of these shenanigans kept Elaine from loving her horse! In fact, the mare had more sets of tack than the king had in his entire stables: a set to go with nearly every color scheme Elaine wore!

In any case, despite the mare's annoying antics, Lady Elaine could not have found a more loyal marketplace companion!

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About the Horse

Nitro was made using a 1/6 scale Barbie horse.

(Click on image to see it in high resolution.)

Seemingly endless hours were spent painting this mare, with great attention to detail, particularly in the textures of the hairs.

She was a multi-medium project. Acrylic paints, pastels, and colored pencils were all used together to achieve the desired effects. Several coats of durable spray-on varnish protected the paint job from wear and tear.

Her shoulder beared a little scar, hinting at her days as a war pony. She also had a couple of "old scratches" elsewhere on her body; I suspect those were just good ol' everyday horse scratches (if you own a horse, you know exactly what I mean [wink]).

Very little detail was spared on this piece... look at the hooves! All four had this kind of detail on them.

Nitro was a flea bitten gray. It looks like she was born reddish bay, and then grayed out as she got older. Like many flea bitten grays, she had what they call a bloody shoulder (quite the interesting phenomenon, surrounded by plenty of tales in Earth's Bedouin culture).

Did you know that flea bitten gray horses can be found in backyards, meadows, and pastures all over this world ... and in many other worlds as well? They're incredibly common!

Just look at all the "flea bites"! They helped show what directions the hair is growing in, don't they?

Even her underside was full of detail, including wrinkles and the chestnuts.

Nitro's face had a little blaze on it; when she was a younger, darker horse, this would have really showed up. Now it has faded significantly.

Her big brown eyes were painted using layers of different shades of brown, and were then glossed over, to give them a life-like sparkle.

They also had a little bit of white sclera showing, adding to her expression. The devious little booger! Who is she thinking of biting next?

The insides of her nostrils received a little gloss as well for added realism, and as you can see, her muzzle has all sorts of interesting things going for it!

It's astonishing how "flat" this horse looked before she got all her shadowing, wrinkles, and veins!

The Tack

Nitro's tack obviously was given a lot of old Bedouin influences. Especially the head gear. But perhaps you can see a little creative fantasy in there as well?

Meticulous attention was paid to the detail and sturdiness of the tack. To keep it strong, all beadwork was done using multiple threads. All pieces were made removable and to easily withstand years of collector's play. All in all, the tack was made to be a nice little collectible in its own right, apart from the horse.

The sturdy treeless saddle was made from pale leather, "fleeced" on the bottom with tea-dyed cotton. It was original in design, but definitely had a Spanish flair to it. Also notice how the leather was distressed to simulate wear.

Ornate tree leaves were branded into the leather on both sides of the saddle, using a fresh-from-the-flame tool.

The girth was a webbed girth, and boy did it look real ... like something you'd expect to see find hanging on the wall of a local tack shop!

There was a leather saddlebag attached to one side of the cantle, and a glass water bottle attached to the other side.

A perfect little beaded crupper helped keep the saddle from sliding forward, while a tasseled breast collar kept it from sliding back.

The saddle was made to securely seat any 1/6 scale dolls with open hip joints.

Last, but not least, Nitro wore an ornate beaded saddle pad. The pad was embellished with sequins and other findings, and then fully lined with faux black velvet.

Click HERE for a free Elaine and Nitro desktop wallpaper!
(Simply right-click the image and select "Set as background" to install it.)

Auction

Nitro was sold on eBay in October of 2007.
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~ Click HERE to see Elaine's page ~