How to ride a Model Horse!

1. A digital picture of your favorite model horse, be it Breyer, Hartland, or Barbie.
2. A digital picture of you, either riding a real horse or in a horse riding position. (Make sure you and the model horse are at the same angle, or directly reversable if flipped in your photo!
3. A digital picture of a place-field or wherever you'd like to be riding this steed.
4. Some skill with a computer and a photo editing program with layers.

1. open a new file -you choose the size -in your photo editing program. I used photoshop 5.
2.Start with the background, open the landscape picture in put it in back.
3.Open up the Horse picture. Select the horse from the background. In Photoshop you use a lasso.Copy and paste into the new file. Resize so it doesn't look out of place with the background. Zoom in and examine the horse, make sure you didn't accidentally leave important bits behind. Pick a small eraser to smooth rough edges, or a small paint brush and eyedropper, click surrounding color and fill in any gaps. Zoom out again.
4.Open the picture of you. Repeat the selecting, copying and pasting. If you are on a real horse in the photo, you might want to select the saddle too. Resize and reposition to fit the horse.
5.Optional: Add a new layer. Choose a color that matches a saddle, if you have one, and paint a bridle or halter on the horse. You can select it off the other picture, but it is easier to draw a new one. If you have a texturize option, you may be able to make it look grainy, more like a real halter or bridle.
6. Sit back and look it over. Adjust brightness or contrast on each layer. For instance, if your horse is really dark and shadowed you can lighten and brighten him to stand out against the dark background or vice versa. Make sure you match your own light or dark values to your new mount.
7. Save! Hopefully you've done this before now. You might want to save once as it is such as photoshop psd format and once in jpg. Once its jpeg you cant adjust it.

Enjoy Riding your Dream Horse!

Many software programs have filters that allow you to make photos look like art. You can watercolor your new picture, or make it look like a painting

You can also manipulate your model horse into new positions. You need plenty of photos of your horse at different angles for this. The horse walking and galloping in the photos is a Breyer Morgan Horse, #48. Discontinued, He stands in a stretch show stance. On the shelf, he hasn't moved an inch.

This is a fun way to teach yourself a program like photoshop. A digital camera, a good software program with instructions and you are on your way!