Mini Ball Halter Extravaganza & Tejas Performance Show Report!

Yesterday was the Mini Ball All Halter Extravaganza and Tejas Performance Show(s) hosted by Kim Wandrey and Daralyn Wallace, resepectively. 

Kimmie had asked me to judge way back in January or February, and I quickly and happily accepted!  I don't have a whole heck of a lot of experience judging, but I have a lot of knowledge to share, and there are a few things that OF showers especially seem to not know or conveniently forget when they're assigning breeds to their models.  I'd really like to help people learn more about breeds and which molds make good examples of which breeds, and which molds you might have to get a bit creative with when coming up with a good breed assignment.  So i jumped at the chance to judge OF breyer breed.  Little did i know what i was getting myself in to!

Actually, the show was really fun and great.  Lori Bachelor was my collectibility judge, and we turned and burned through those halter classes -- we were done by 4:30 PM!  Some of the classes were huge (OF Arab Mares and Part Arab mares in particular -- EVERYONE brought out their Weather Girls!!!), and some were tiny (Only FIVE Appaloosa stallions?!) but most were in between, with some lovely lovely models.  I saw several very very creative breed assignments, which made me really happy.  BUT, i also had some people label their horses with things like "warmblood" and "european warmblood."  I gently pointed out to them that a warmblood is a TYPE of horse, and that there are probably 50 warmblood breeds native to germany alone, with many more in Europe and North America.  I remember saying to one of my cohorts "if I have to do the research, so do they!" jokingly.  It was a really really fun thing to do though, and I'm definitely looking forward to judging more in the future!

My overall breed reserve champion of the day was the Grey Salinero from the Elegance Dressage Set, and my overall grand of show was a really really nice Del Mar.  It was SO hard to choose my overalls!!! There were TONS of nice horses on the table.  But it was definitely great fun looking at all the pretties and deciding which were the best of their breed(s) that day.

My own showstring was the smallest i've ever brought to any show except my very first, which was Red River Live in October 2006.  I brought 15 to that show i think, and i only brought 22 to this one.  It was very very weird to be able to see the top of my table!  But it was kindof nice as well -- i might have to bring fewer horses sometimes so I can have a little break! 

it was extremely weird to not be running around trying to keep up with what was going on in the performance rings and all the halter rings!  But i only had one performance horse with me, Atari, who won his last NAN card for his Superior Event Horse Plaque and is also qualified to go to this year's NAN.  This way I don't have to chase that last card anymore.  He was lovely as always =)

My OF VLR Stone Weanling, Totally Over Dun BWS, won her class in collectibility, and then went on to be reserve division champ as well!  She's so cute!  So that's two shows and three NAN cards and a Division reserve for her.  I'm definitely taking her to NAN... She's too adorable not to!

My two Jeanette Garey CMs, Almost Always (Idocus in black sabino) and Spangoletta (flash in palomino sabino) got NAN cards, and Almost Always ended up winning his division as well.  Jeanette was there, and she was tickled that he's done so well for me -- we both agreed that black horses don't get enough love, and we both love them! 

Flirtation won her breed class again (as usual *wink), but the thing that absolutely made my day was that Rambeaux (I showed pix of him in my last post) was second to her and ALSO third in workmanship!!  He beat paintjobs by Lauren (flirty included!) and several other "actual" artists, so i was just seriously seriously tickled.  A horse I painted myself is going to NAN!  Not in workmanship, but in breed, and really.. I painted him MYSELF!  *Dance*

So that's it... I'll edit this post and add pix of the guys with their winnings when i get a chance, probably later this week :)

Goals for The Year

So... I've decided that I have a few goals for the coming year.  Typically, i mark my years in the showing part of the hobby by Red River Live, since that was my first show, but Carmen's not having it this year due to personal circumtances.  Still, its hard to believe that as of September I'll have been in the showing part of the hobby for 5 years.  In that time i've managed to do a lot of stuff!  I've won tons of NAN cards, I've won 4 Overall show Champs or Reserves, I got attended NAN in 2007 (my FOURTH Show ever) and won 5 Top 10's and a National Championship, and i've started customizing my own horses.  I've been successful in english and western performance in one of the top performance regions of the country; I've made lots of new friends, even started judging!

So my goals for this year are:

• NAN Top 10 For Atari
• NAN Top 10 or Cookie for Logan in X country and/or showjumping and/or Hunter (this depends on if all the jumping classes are on the table at the same time.  I think they usually are, so we might have to choose.)
• NAN Top 10 or Cookie for Mahoney in any of his OF English Events.  I think his best chances are in Dressage, Hunter, and Sport Type Pleasure, but I'm going to put him in as many English classes as i can at NAN this year.
• NAN Top 10's for halter horses (depends on who goes, but hopefully I'l do as well or better than I did last time i went!)
• 
  
• Finish my new Foxhunting/Natural Trail diorama with Livvy's help (conscript Lindsay if necessary for artistic input)
• Finish my Arena Wall for Western Events
• Make documentation for Western and Games Entries
• Plan setups for Stock Work (get a cow), Reining/Reined Cow Horse, Ranch Horse Trail, etc. for Dun It To Heck
• 
  
• Get all horses photographed for my SD list
• 
  
• Keep the MHV updated
• Finish Hanoverian Articles
• 
  
• Judge MEPSA OF Halter Photoshow Championship in a timely manner(!)

*WHEW*

So those are a lot of goals.   I think the hardest to finish is going to be my Dioramas and the setups for the western events since I don't have real life experience in those.  But i'll do some research, run some things by some of those new friends, and hope for the best!

The NAN Stuff is out of my hands really.  I mean, it all depends on what the three judges like best that day, and if it's not Atari, or Logan, or Mahoney (or any of my other performance horses) well, that's okay.  This NAN, while i do have lofty goals, is basically my reward for finishing my undergraduate studies.  I don't know how much I'll be able to show as a grad student -- I know i'll get to a few, but i'm almost sure i won't see another NAN until maybe the summer after my Master's.  That is, unless we have it in texas again!  Then I'll get there!

I also need to trim my showstring.  I'm starting to really focus more on performance and artist resins, and both of those get really expensive really fast.  I try not to buy resins I can't show in performance, so that does help, but there are so many nice OFs on my want list... And i've fallen into the Stone boat.  Though not in a big way.  I own 5, and one of those is a mini resin.  I need to figure out where my focus is going to be and trim the showstring accordingly.  I DID trim it quite a bit when i switched to trunks instead of using my giant rubbermaid, and that has helped, but I need to really go through with a fine toothed comb and decide who will show consistently and who will show at certain shows or not at all.  That's another thing to add to the summer to do list.

I'm pretty optimistic though.  After NAN the next show in Texas isn't till January, and the next show in Oklahoma isn't till November.  It'll be my first semester of grad school, so I'm not going to make any concrete plans yet, but if i am in desperate need of a show, we'll see who's going up to OK.  If not, I'll wait till January and go to Midwinter's!

And that's that for now.

What I've Been Up To Lately

I know I haven't posted anything in quite a long time -- live got in the way of blogging, as I'm sure many of you understand.  This is going to be the mammoth update post that I promised in September (!!) with a few additions.  =)

SO... let's see... What have I done?  Well, the first thing is that the Model Hanoverian Verband is live.  I created the MHV with Alicia Vogel in order to promote and advance the Model Hanoverian Horse in the hobby.  I love Hanoverians; I've always loved Hanoverians, and I wanted to start something new in the hobby to promote the breed i love in the model format.  I also wanted to kindof provide an education depot for people who do pedigree assignment about warmbloods in general and hanoverians specifically.  For some reason, it seems like people in the hobby are intimidated by warmblood breeding and conventions; and I wanted to make it easier for people to learn and understand that this isn't really that difficult as long as a few simple(ish) rules are in place.  So that's what we did.  The MHV is a central place for the registration and approval of Hanoverians in the model hobby.  We record pedigree information, approve mares & stallions, compile show results, and we'll also have year end awards and things like that to promote our breed. :)  If this works out, we might start other registries as well in the future.

I've also put my S/D list up on the web.  This is a continual work in progress as I get more guys PAed and of course keep adding new horses to the collection :)

And of course I've been to several shows... Logan (Timepiece resin by Prosser/Langford) has almost enough NAN cards now for his Superior Division Horse -- Not bad for a guy that competes only in jumping classes!  He'll go to NAN and show in Hunter, Jumper, and Cross Country if all three jumping classes aren't on the table at the same time.  If they are, we'll show in Cross Country, because his jump is absolutely amazing.  He's got 9 cards in Showjumping, but I'd like to get him a better jumper jump before NAN if I'm going to show him there.  Not that his jump isn't great -- i just want one with more pop.  =)


Pik Atari (Kinetic Potential) has his Superior Event Horse award -- that's twelve cards in one class.  He's also going to NAN and will show in Prix St. George.  After that I don't know.  He has nothing else to prove -- he's won a NAN Top 10 already, and in ~20 shows, he's won 13 NAN cards (I had to use one for NAN '07, of course) -- so he might retire. That depends on if i can get another upper level dressage resin to replace him, of course, but he might.  If not though, we'll just keep trucking along...

Mahoney (OF Breyer Cleveland Bay) earned his Superior Division Horse award as well... He's going to show in as much of the OF english division at NAN as i can cram him in.  He's been such a super consistent show horse for me, but I think that after NAN i will retire him.  He's too big really to try to get in western tack or harness without having those specially made for him, and my budget isn't that big, so we'll just see.

My other show horses have been doing fairly well as well... I got all three of the new Treasure Hunt Models -- Looking forward to showing them, but I'm judging OF Breyer Breed at the next show (!!!), so I won't be able to show them until November or January.  Its kinda sad, but I'm really looking forward to judging!!  And my restored OF Glossy Dapple Grey Clydesdale took an overall championship in collectibilty at Red River Live in September, and then won another NAN card at Lone Star Live a few weeks ago.  He's definitely going to NAN, because he belonged to my great Aunt Mimi, who died when I was 7.  I've had him since then, and my dad bought him for her when HE was very young, so he's never been out of the family.  Mimi would be so proud if she knew what a good showhorse he's become -- so his name is Mimi's Tribute, and every win is dedicated to her. Sappy i know, but she and I shared a love of horses and ALL animals. 

Let's see... What else...

OH!  I've been customizing!  I mostly work in pastels, but I also do some work in oils.  So these are some of my most recent Customs.

First is Logan, a portrait of the REAL logan done in oils and finished in mixed media on the G3 SM Standing TB mold. I shortened his ears and carved them out, but other than that he was not CMed.  He was a christmas present for my mom.

This is a detail shot of his front leg.  The real logan had a roanish leg that was pretty cool :)

Next is Rambeaux BWS.  He's a slightly customized G4 WEG Warmblood in Dark Dapple Grey.  He's pastel, colored pencil, and acrylic.  I raised his hind leg a bit so he's correct for an extended trot -- he stands balanced on his own but its a bit tenuous, so I'm going to make him a base.  All the under dapples were drawn in hair by hair with a black prismacolor pencil, then he was pastelled with the bigger dapples erased out with a kneadable eraser.  I especially love the transition between his head and his neck.

This is his right side.  I had to lean him up against a bug spray can!

And the left side

Detail of dapples

Detail of white foot

This is a CM I've been working on in oils and acrylics, a G4 Reining Horse SM.  He's not LSQ, but i think he's decent.  I like how rich the flaxen chestnut came out after the oils dried.

And this is my first CM finished in Earth Pigments.  He's a Schleich Hanoverian Stallion to dark red chestnut with a tiny star and 2 hind stockings.  Based on the TB stallion Eskendereya.

Head and neck, right side

Head and neck, left side

Detail of star

Whew!  Alright! So that's what I've been up to lately!  Enjoy!