This morning, Wings sent me several photos of our horses — horses past, I should add, ones that have already joined the star herd. The most recently departed was my beloved Miskwaki, a red paint horse who left us on September tenth of last year. He was both registered, complete with papers, and a rescue, near death when he found us by crossing through a downed section of fence.
He never left.
All that remains of a herd that has at times been as large as six is one horse now, another rescue of sorts: Miika, a sorrel mare whose hoof care was so entirely neglected in the first nine years of her left that she now is now disabled, with permanent health issues resulting from it. It means a great deal of work for Wings, including tight dietary control, daily administration of prescription medications, and a great deal of extra hoof care — in fact, tomorrow the horse vet and the farrier will both be here, because she gets a specialized trim every eight weeks or so, and her trauma from early experiences goes so deep that she must be sedated for it.
She handled Miskwaki’s loss remarkably well at the time, probably because her prior circumstances featured a lot of coming and going of other horses. By now, though, she is lonely, and we need to find her a companion. Unfortunately, her hoof and other issues mean that the pool of potential companions must be severely restricted: male, gelded, no longer frisky but not so old as to have only a short time left. So far, we’ve had no leads, never mind the ability to acquire one anyway. But we shall need to find a solution soon. She now spends her days at the northeast fence, gazing at a herd of horses two fields over, and a couple of weeks ago, I finally was able to see the source of her new obsessiveness: There is a new red paint horse there who looks remarkably like Miskwaki.
That horse will not be an option, but we will be on the lookout for others.
Meanwhile, we focus on her health. She will never have full function back; the early years of damage were far too great for that. But when the fields are covered with snow or frost, no green left to do any damage to her adrenal or metabolic systems, she’s allowed into the fields . . . and the earth right now is soft enough that she is able to trot across the pasture, head and tail high. At such moments, it’s possible to think of her beloved Miskwaki racing across the sky above her, the two of them running free together once more: between the stars and the winter winds.
Today’s featured work is the very embodiment of this dream fulfilled. It’s a cuff that Wings completed shortly after Miskwaki joined the star herd last September, created in his honor and memory. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Flight of the Star Herd Cuff Bracelet
Horses are celestial spirits; when they depart this plane, they ascend to join the flight of the star herd. With this extraordinary cuff, Wings memorializes our own paint horse, Miskwaki, whose hooves have been given eagles’ wings and who now races with his old herd across the Bridge of Stars. The band is wrought of solid, substantial 18-gauge sterling silver, hand-milled in a feathery pattern reminiscent of the wings of those greatest of raptors, barbs textured in sharp relief and mottled with the random orbicular pattern common to their kind. Across the center two paint horses run toward each other, a four-spoked Evening (or Morning) Star, layered with a stamped and twinkling five-pointed star dancing at its center, set between them. The star and each of the ledger-style paint horses are saw-cut entirely freehand of 20-gauge sterling silver, the horses’ paint coats texturized with scores of strikes of a single divot-end stamp inside elegant lines, each figure gent ly shaped and then overlaid across the top of the band and soldered seamlessly into place.Band is 6″ long by 1-3/8″ wide; paint horse overlays are each 1-3/4″ long from end to end and 1″ high; Morning Star overlay is 7/8″ high by 7/8″ across (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown below.
Sterling silver
$1,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s an extraordinary work, one that incorporates multiple traditional Indigenous silversmithing techniques. Saw-work, stampwork, millwork, overlay — all of these combine to create a wholly unique specimen of sidereal wearable art.
The overlay work is stunning, three separate pieces saw-cut, stamped, and texturized entirely freehand, two paint horses racing toward each other from either side of a central Lodestar. But it is the millwork of the band itself that gives those three pieces such an ethereal backdrop: the mottled grace of eagle feathers, individual barbs dancing in the powerful winds of the night sky, each detail highly textured in sharp relief.
On this first day of what the outside world knows as February, our daylight skies are flawlessly clear, painted in the deep unbroken blue of midwinter. Tonight’s skies will be just as clear, if not unbroken; the moon is not yet full, but getting close, and is almost impossibly bright now, while the stars bead the black velvet of night with a pure and ancient light.
In other words, it’s just the sort of time when a spirit horse might choose to visit his still-earthbound love. Just the season, too, for their spirits to find other, in the perfect atmospheric clarity that winter sometimes brings.
And so we will watch the skies again tonight, as the elk perchance arrive for a visit to the horse they know so well. There may be no sight of the Green Comet, but I swear that I have seen a shimmering tail racing across the night skies all the same: Miskwaki, between the stars and the winters, come to visit once again.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
