Feeling Esprit! Spanish walk vs trot

So ever since the new mold Esprit came out, I have seen many cool customs, but one thing has been nagging me....how many times a spanish trot is called a walk. This is a great example of making sure to reference what you are doing with photos from real horses. This is a great reference, on the right is a spanish walk, the left is a spanish trot. In a nutshell, for it to be a spanish walk the hind leg diagonal from the raised front leg should be BEHIND (or is some cases close to even yet off the ground) the opposing hind leg. In the trot, the diagonal hind leg is forward and raised in reference to the opposing hind leg (hind leg on same side as raised front leg)


Below is a great example of a correct spanish walk....

This horse IS trotting, but that hind leg should be more engaged to be as correct as the friesian above. But still, it is raised and in front of the opposing hind leg.

So to me, the Epsrit would be best to remake into a spanish TROT. I think he has a stock horse look to him as well as spanish, since he has a nice short head with an almost dished profile, so I intend for him to be an Azteca. First of all I look the model over.....and I notice that the raised upper portion of the raised front leg is longer than the one on the ground. To do this I use a caliber with sharp points on the end. Its almost 1/4" difference, doesn't seem like much but on a real horse that would be over 4 inches! Imagine what a real horse with one front leg 4 inches longer than the other would look like! I do this all over the model, and notice that one cheek is way bigger than the other as well, and the hock where the tail is attached is way thicker than the other...so these are things I want to change. I just can't leave stuff like this alone! I got the caliber at Hobby Lobby in a drafting set. You can get a cheap plastic one from Dick Blick too. Just don't use a compass, the ends are not symmetrical and it will screw up your measurements

Look at the difference between the two!

Here is the poor cut in the rough cut stage. I just did NOT like the shoulder muscles since they are so thick, so both side got sanded down. I totally cut the left shoulder off at the point. I notched the raised front leg to clean up that knee, took off the mane and sanded it way down so I could build up a better neck. I took the tail totally off. Spanish and stock horses typically are not flaggy tail horses, so I want to make a nice relaxed and lower tail set. I also completely dremel off that right hock area. I know it seems like more work, but the more you get rid of in this stage the cleaner and less bulky your remakes will look in the end

Here is what the tail area looks like. The tail is built on a aluminum wire, 12 gauge. Notice I sculpt the new tail and the whole surrounding area to make sure the apoxy has a large surface are to bond to. Just putting the tail in and sculpting right around it will for sure lift off in time. I also put an airhole between the horses hind legs. DO NOT FORGET THIS! It really cuts down on long term lifting issues.

Here is what his new neck look likes and you can see the rebuilt cheek on this side. Notice how much cleaner the knee area looks (well to me anyway!)

His off side with the new hock area resculpted, you can see I dremel down this cheek and have yet to add in the wrinkle detail on that side. He balances well on his tail. For tail balancing tips, do all the other resculpting first, every horse tends to tilt one way or the other, then use the tail to balance. I have pop cans on each side of the horse to hold it while the first layer of tail drys.

So what do you think for the mane...right side or left? I always do both sides of the neck with equal detail and then add the mane. If you think, oh I don't have to do this side so carefully since the mane will be there, trusy me that whole side will not end up as nice!

Lastly, I never work on just one horse. I only get so much time down in the dungeon away from the kids so I work on another horse while one dries in front of the heater. Here is the other victim.

Next week its remaking resins to be tack friendly, run Scarlet run!




Hmmmmmm what color should the little filly be??????