Hi all! 
I'm Phenedoras/Chanco (Old name, will probably be signing up with that soon too).

I found this little site purely by chance and decided to have a look around. Upon seeing my favourite studbook (Go Zangersheide!), I've decided to stay here!
I've been bumping around a wide variety of horse sims for donkeys years, all the way back from the original HL. Why? Well, I love horses, else I probably wouldn't be on a site like this. 
I'm an adult currently still in full time studies and living in France (so please don't mind the odd hours I'm online), along with my menagerie of animals including four cats, a giant dog and four horses. I'm a comitted amateur level showjumper in real life on my one-that-just-became-two Zangersheide geldings. (I swear, I didn't go looking for a second one off the same studbook.) The other two geldings are an ornery Welsh Cob and a simple but sweet ex-endurance arabian, mainly hacking horses for when I don't want riding out to turn into an extreme sport more resembling Parkcour than a stroll through the sunbathed fields.
Online, well, I'll probably have a theme, that theme being Z's everywhere!

I also love drawing, so I'm going to ask, is there much of a market for original artwork for horses or do people tend to lean more towards photomanips instead?

Hello!!!

You will not be dissapointed with joining our ranks.  We are friendly and awesomesauce.  you will also not be on odd hours - we range from Canadians, Americasn, Europeans, Australians..... and much much more.  WORLDWIDE HP.

Do you have pictures of you horses?  We love horse pictures!!

There is a market for artwork - it depends on what you offer exactly.  You can always put something up in auctions to see the reaction!

If you have any questions, feel free to msg any of us!

Welcome to HP!

Bienvenue à H.P.!

Yay! Welcome!

Welcome! Hope to see you in chat (even if at odd hours xD)

Welcome to HP! 

♥

Paints since 6-8-14

Welcome! That's so awesome! I love meeting people from around the country!

Some people have put up orignial artwork in auctions, and it has sold before. I don't think it's commonly done, so it's worth a shot!

Welcome! :D

Why I do think you're the first French player I've seen!

Welcome to HP! Stop into chat sometime!

Link Tree

Thanks for all the greetings! I'm not truly French but have lived there for the past 9 years after emigrating from the UK so that (along with my family) we could have the space to keep our animals.

Here are a couple of pictures of my 'mane men', Hermes (bay) and Cool (grey). I just realised I don't yet have a picture of myself and Cool under saddle, so that's to come if I make an off-topic thread for my four mules!

Basically, I got Hermes way back when he was a rising 4 year old, unbacked and relatively unhandled but with a heart of gold. (We went up to Belgium to buy him and he literally came and cuddled us the moment the dealers stopped putting him over some loose jumps.) We've struggled on and off since then with serious injuries, him getting torsion colic, then me falling off another horse and dislocating my ankle and shoulder on opposite sides, then him ripping his knees open in a freak tractor incident and then my needing surgery for the now wrecked shoulder. 

This all wound up with a very green 8 year old who had grown from a chubby and awkward little boy into what I can only describe as an equine superstar and a relatively inexperienced young rider who hadn't spent much time in the saddle in over two years, let alone on a horse like him. We fell apart. Then, we met an amazing professional rider, Vicky, who we realised was right to turn my pasture ornament back into a riding pony. He's been with her for six months and the change is amazing. I've not just been able to sit on him, he's now sensible enough to hack out, to do dressage and even to jump in competitions! Sadly, not to compete with me quite yet... We had a dressage round (which the picture is from) where he was an angel until they called me back to repeat a movement, he lost his concentration and started bouncing around until I decided to step out. Then, after a month more, it was time for his first ever jumping show and whilst warming up for a 60cm (1ft9) class, as a little tester to see how he behaved, he threw a wobbly at a pair of shetland ponies and I ended up with a re-dislocated shoulder. Fun... 

Vicky's been showing him whilst I recovered and has had a fair number of clear rounds with him, all the way up to 105cm (3ft4). His first 110 (3ft6) is planned for the coming months. However, I needed to get up to my boys level on a simpler horse. In comes Cool. He was also at Vicky's, been trained and sold on behalf of someone else and she had put them together in a field, upon which point they became best buddies. 
It made sense. I liked him, Hermes liked him, why not? We're still in the process of finalising paperwork but we've paid for him and I've got to start riding him...

This was the two of them last Saturday, Hermes pulling a face at not being the centre of my world, typically!

Sorry for the long post being long. I'm being careful not to put to many pictures in at once as I know they can really lag some browsers (such as mine!). Any help getting the images to work would be much appreciated!