carny art

over thanksgiving, my family went to san diego to get away from the heat (yes it was still 91 degrees in Arizona on Thanksgiving -- although it has now dropped to highs of 67 now...beautiful).  one of our stops was seaport village -- just a little tourist trap area in san diego.  i took my daughter to ride the merry-go-round.  this thing had been around since the 1800's -- crazy.

while on the ride i noticed the interesting artwork:

yeah, my thoughts exactly.  the 1800's must have been lonely :-).  i just saw this and thought it was one of the strangest things i'd seen.  that was until i looked over my shoulder:

to me, this looks like one of the characters on the horse's saddle licking his arse.  what the heck is that about?  sheep sheering and horse butt licking.  nice