Entry for the Dixie Stables summer 2009 costume contest. I admit it, I cheated terribly on this one – my original idea fell through, so I had to scrounge up a last-minute replacement. All the actual items of clothing were purchased ready-made, largely from Goodwill. The hat and watch came from Wal-Mart, and the belt keys were picked up at Lowe’s.

My goggles were hand-crafted using plumbing connections, acorn nuts, and a leather jacket I no longer wore. The connectors were prepped with Testor’s Dullcote, painted with FolkArt gold acrylic, and sealed with an interior/exterior craft gloss. The lenses are simply circles cut from a green plastic bottle and popped into the connectors before the straps were glued in. My hair’s been braided and tucked up under the hat.

The horse is once again Scrap Iron. His goggles came straight out of the swim department and were hastily painted with black and gold acrylic. I was afraid at first that said paint was neither going to go on nor dry, but after many, many hours, it finally did. The original straps were removed – they’re tied directly onto his browband with pleather laces. The band of sensors was made from canning jar rings and lids, printed-out clock and gauge faces, and a few strips of pleather hastily cut and cemented together at ten pm the night before the show.

The full photoshoot, including pictures from both ringside and around the barn, is available here.