The year end wrap

I started inventorying my collection about 2 years ago. It's still a work in progress, but the bulk of the horses are described and photographed, as is the tack. The big project for 2013 is props, and then the valuable stuff should all be documented. The big plan is to put it on a flash drive. During the last 2 weeks of the year, I review stuff as I have time. Today was mostly reconstructing my "New Stuff" list that I was meticulous about until Breyerfest ended. Then I just fell off the wagon hard.

But, I did get it done, and, bonus, I also got most of the horse counts confirmed. I still need to do the unpainted resins since either I am missing a box, the inventory lists on the boxes are wrong, or the various lists I have are wrong. Anyway-should I get all these goodies painted, I will have some awesome future show horses.

I also learned that I apparently have not unpacked from TRXC. There are horses I did not see upstairs that I know I have, because I showed them at TRXC!

And need more shelving, but I have a plan.

Still need to photograph the new stuff, but it's not much...and match up certificates, awards and all that stuff. Maybe I should hope for a snowy winter so I won't feel bad pouring over paperwork and the pony room for hours on end.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Pint Size Plastic Live Recap

Its been a VERY busy month on the plastic horse front, and before October, I was very excited about having all sorts of things to blog about. I forgot that I would need, like, TIME, to write the posts! I started this post sheltering at home, in anticipation of Sandy, and I managed to be very good about prepping for the final show of this 5 week period yesterday (down to just packing halter horses, and work is likely closed tomorrow) so here I am, doing laundry and making soup and catching up on online things. We are now in the Sandy Aftermath period and while I have heat, power and the internet, work does not, so I seem to be on vacation this week. I think there is even going to be tack making tonight.

ANYWAY. Just pretend its October 7th.

Pint Sized Plastic was held in the Albany, NY area on October 6th, and I went for a couple reasons:

- I was off that weekend
- It had a small performance division, and I thought it would be a good place to give Polka Parr T, with his newly repaired leg, a spin. So to speak.
- It had a novice division, and I thought it would be super fun to bring along my nieces.

Sadly, whatever photos I took that weekend appear to have vanished. I have no idea what happened to them :( So all pictures in this post were taken by my sister in law, Kathy, who tagged along to keep the girls in line.

This show was on the small size, which I expected. I think it was a good First Show experience for MacKenzie and Riley, as it was not so large as to be overwhelming (see: me at Breyerfest vendor tent, 1995) and everyone was VERY nice, including and especially the two novice judges, Taylor Simpson and Emily Bailey. They moved classes at a leisurely pace, since the girls were the only showers, and gave thorough critiques after each class, making sure to tell the girls the things they'd done well before gently offering suggestions to make things better.

They also appreciated creativity (such as the horse caught in the explosion at the silly bands factory) and humor (MacKenzie showed a 3 legged model named after my own, late real horse, Trivia. The judges liked the "zombie horse")

Both girls did REALLY well, and took home armloads of rosettes, and happily they split the grand and reserve. I would like to point out that the reserve-the classic scale shire known as Champ-was one of the horses we cleaed up with toothpaste a few weeks earlier. He belongs to Riley. Nano, the Esprit owned by MacKenzie was grand.

They also won a ton of stuff in the raffle (including the Holy Grail of raffle prizes, MORE HORSES!!) and came away with amusingly different interests in the hobby. Riley likes performance. MacKenzie is more interested in collectibility--I think its more the radical colors of some of those.

They both want to do this again. They both have visions of NAN. Win.

Anyway, I have tubs of sticky wax for both of them come Christmas. Sticky wax fixes everything.

On the Open front, the performance division moved fairly slowly, as judge Karen Pajak was working and showing china, and as we know, Karen likes to fill classes singlehandedly. Karen did a great job judging, and the division DID end at lunch, which made me feel a lot better about getting home in a timely manner.

Oh, and Polka Parr T is qualified for Harrisburg, which was pretty much my goal for the show.

Not bad for an old, busted up horse!

Futurity

Saturday I traveled north to spend a few hours helping my nieces, MacKenzie and Riley, prepare for their first foray into model horse showing. The show is in a couple weeks, and its a novice division. I think its going to be small, which would be perfect. I brought a bunch of my own stuff to show them what performance showing was like, too.

And I may have created some monsters.

Kenz and Ri were both excited about the whole idea (Riley may yet explode before it happens) and I had a really great time working with them. We talked about halter showing a bit, and then performance stuff. I set up a couple performance entries so they could get an idea of what we do. I left behind my enormous fishing tackle box full of older tack I don't use anymore so they can play with it and try it out. We made tags for their horses.

And then we got to business. Kenz and Ri play with their horses, and I am glad that they do. Last time I was over, they had expressed a desire to try and go to Nationals in Harrisburg this year...which means played with horses will need some refurbishing. I brought along some paint for touch ups, but they first project they offered was a MUCH easier one--black scuffs on white markings. I can do that! Pretty soon we were all scrubbing toothpaste on the offending areas and those horses cleaned up well.

I had to continually stop myself for pushing my hobby prejudices onto them. I would love them to share my hobby, but it really needs to be what they want to do, if they are going to stick with it. So I kept my mouth shut when everyone grabbed a paintbrush and went to town touching up areas--I had to remember the point was not to perfectly restore OF models, and the girls were already thrilled with the toothpaste trick.

Eventually, Kenz asked where one got customs.

"Oh, we can make those!"

"WE CAN?!"

Oops. I had not thought about bringing stuff for a project like this! Fortunately, n=my brother had a couple cans of automotive primer and a decent outside work space. The girls brought over a few horses to give new faces to, and I primed away. My inner hobbyist did clutch her pearls and gasp a bit when the idea to paint at least one horse gloss black with pink flames was floated, but fortunately, another portion said "Oh, his. Why not?"

Why not? I'm interested in seeing what they come up with.

Kenz and Ri have actual ponies and horses in their life, something I didn't when I was their age. My carpet herd was mostly stallions. Theirs are mostly mares and geldings--I think I registered about 25 horses between the 2 of them for this show, and there are 3 stallions. That's it. There are also 3 grade horses--a concept that is a hard sell for hobbyists. We like to have some sort of explanation behind why our models look the way they do, so we invent all sorts of crazy combos, rather than just accepting a horse for how it is. I find how they are entering this thing--what breed your horses is sort of mattering less, NAMHSA already in place and entrenched, the level the competition, a mentor, family support--really interesting. I hope they have as much fun with it as I do.

Polka Parr T

He's been so very much on my mind of late, and I love to talk about him. He's been a sight at shows in Region 10 since 2000, though he was foaled in my head in the summer of 1999.

He is Polka Parr T. The mighty Polka Parr T.

If I have a favorite, this is it.

In 1999, I had just discovered that not only was Weird Al Yankovic still around, he'd just released a new album, AND, HELLO, he toured. I had to go see him once, right? That was like 72 shows ago. On the 1999 album, there was a parody song called "Its All About the Pentiums" and I loved driving around in my Pontiac LeMans with the windows down and that blowing out of my speakers.



In 1999, I had also been introduced to freestyle reining, and as someone used to the very formal dressage musical kur, this event was just outrageous to me. Not only were routines set to pop songs, riders *and horses* could wear costumes. The model horse implications were endless.

One night, these two things got married in my head. MODEL HORSE FREESTYLE REINING SET UP TO ALL ABOUT THE PENTIUMS. Yes. I needed to go get me a reining horse. Doing a dramatic sliding stop. There were options for this, and I settled on a Black Horse Ranch reiner that I turned from a very yellow palomino into a dark bay with only a thin, Y shaped stripe on his head. His name was a joke, as well--the Parr echos the Zan Parr Bar family of Quarter Horses, while Polka Party! is the name of a somewhat obscure Yankovic album (it fits in between Dare to be Stupid and Even Worse)

Polka Parr T. I thought I was hilarious.

Polka got his first run at a CT show where he managed to come home with a trophy. I think he won reining and his halter class. This only encouraged me, and I spent the winter dreaming up an entire freestyle ride--with all the compulsory moves!--to Its All About the Pentiums. Part of my set up including placing the song's lyrics with the choreography written out. There was also a CD player with the song cued up, should a judge want to hear this (many did) I made a doll, and metallic silver boots for Polka. He was so blinged out, it was ridiculous.

Being the type of performance shower that I am, though, I could not leave him a single class horse. I'd also been exposed to marathon driving in person in 1999, and part of what I saw were single horse entries, going down steep hills. So Polka got a harness, and a hill, and he went on to win more harness classes than I can name--certainly enough to earn him a Superior Event Horse award (so that would be 12) and gain entry to NAN twice as a harness entry. The first time he went, in 2001, he was National Harness Champ. I love that.

Polka went on to win performance championships all over the place. He picked up champs in harness and western, and was Versatility champ at NESE at least once. He got a second National Champ in 2001 in trail, and was Top Ten in all his performance classes. I had so much fun showing him, and never seemed to run out of things to show him in. He roped, he did working cow horse, trail, games. He earned a Superior in Roping, and had ROMs in games and working cow. There was no end to him.

Sadly, the second time he showed harness in NAN--2006 (there was a large gap due to both issues with NAMHSA and my serving on the BOD that prevented my entering again until then) he had a tragic acident. I had to re-engineer his hill from 2001, and I apparently did not do it right. I used it several times without incident, but when I set him up at NAN, he rolled off the hill about 15 minutes later, and hit the concrete floor and he shattered. He broke 3 legs, his tail and his ears. I really was devastated, and my day of showing at that NAN was over--my heart went out of it. Everyone around me from Region 10 felt my pain, and offered condolences. And super glue. I did eventually cobble him together and showed him in another class that day, but I decided he was done. It was just too painful to even look at him.

A few months later, Liesl Dalpe came to me and asked if she could repair him. At first I turned her down. It was still hard to think about him. But she asked again, and I agreed, and turned him over to her several weeks later. I forget what Spencer show I was at when she returned him, and I honestly was not expecting a lot. But when I opened his box, I could not tell where he'd been broken. It was an amazing restoration, and I am so thankful that Liesl put him back together for me.

Of course, he could not STAY retired. He went to NAN in 2008 and came home Reining champion. Not bad.

He broke again enroute to a show in summer 2011. I remember stopping short and cussing out someone who cut me off on I-95, but I did not realize that in doing so, Polka sheared off his (I think) one good leg. This was the one time I did not pack him in his own box, and I'll never do that again. I sighed when I saw him at the show and brought him home. Really retired now. Really.

Then NAN made plans to come to Harrisburg. So close. And I looked at Polka's break and said "I can fix that."

He's back under saddle in a few weeks. I have hopes.

Baystate Live 2012

This weekend saw Anne Field's Baystate Live--in Spencer. Anne is probably passing this show to someone else, as it is a huge undertaking. Its an all halter format, and it has something for everyone, OF Plastic, OF China, CM china, and split Artist Resin and Custom divisions. EVERYTHING was very competitive, and getting one of the 1-6 ribbons was an accomplishment Saturday. This was a tough show.

It mostly moved quickly--OF plastic halter slowed a little, and Anne asked for volunteer judges to help get out on time (a success) In its defense, OF Plastic did have a larger class list, and still had very full classes. I think it had 4 rings to the other divisions' two, but OF Plastic is just the largest division at ANY show. Its kinda just how it is.

Interestingly, I think the Custom classes were, on average, larger than the Artist Resin classes. I know I pull out older CMs that I would not pull out for combined AR/CM shows (and har, har, perhaps I should leave them home ANYWAY!) but I think I am in the minority on that. I think there are just more customs, and I think people are rolling a lot more of their own.

I did not take many pictures because I was far too busy being social. I did show a ton of stuff (like 75 horses?) but I managed to be a bit more organized than I have been. I have been using spreadsheets for a long time, but at NAN this year, my bestie Heather introduced me to an iPad app called Numbers, and I have been using that. It does not ned the internet to work, and it takes up less space than my old spreadsheets did. It works better for me than what I was doing, so if you have an Apple iOs device, consider it. I am pretty sure Numbers is made by Apple, so it is probably not available for other operating systems.

The only down side was the whole tornado watch thing on the way home. I sat tight in Spencer for a while (I was done showing by 3 or so, but I wanted to go eat with friends, and then did not leave until like, 9) Sort of a drag, and I was exhausted yesterday, but I am back on track today.

Next up....Pint Size Plastic in the Albany area! And a warm up session with the nieces before hand!

Arts and Crap Day, East Coast Edition

Back when I lived in Ithaca, I was fortunate enough to be in an area with a small, but very active, group of hobbyists. We would get together from time to time for a thing we called a Hack Session. Customizing projects would be brought, along with copies of whatever publications had come in the mail since the last meeting. We tortured models both resin and plastic, made tack, ate chips and salsa and had a great time. It was a great period in the hobby for me--I was being very creative because I had time, no money and lots of people inspiring me to try stuff.

I'e moved, the rest of the group has gone on with life. I'm still in neck deep, but not everyone else is. I didn't realize how much I missed that connecting over Hack Sessions until I read this post in Jen Buxton's blog. If you are somehow not subbed to Jen's blog, go do that now.

I was not alone in being fired up about this. Pat Coulter, the Region 9 rep, and local to me hobbyist, grabbed the reins and scheduled one. 4 of us showed up, so it was small, and I had to split early to go do Work Stuff, oh, and all my CM supplies are SO OLD they were no longer usable, so I ended up organizing show references and fiddling. It was still a lot of fun, I wished I did not have to go early, and on my way home form work, I stopped and bought new primer and spot putty. And spent the night working on things:

I started prepping my Iaret, a pair of kitty resins, and a jump. I repaired Polka Parr T to show worthy status. I also bought things to make props for my current driving horse--Pat turned me on to Indoor Driving, which gave me a WHOLE BUNCH of new things to do with a galloping horse in harness.

I am eyeing my basement as a good location for the next one. I have a table, and a lot of other space down there, and I can get more lighting. We could take photos, too, since I can set up my light cube. I also have a coffee maker, and there are many food delivery options. After all, I have more things to prep, a show to plan, and its more likely to get done with friends.

Red horses in trail

We often point out how unrealistic our model horse classes are, what with their entries displaying multiple modifications to baseline colors--crazy apps, pintos, nary a plain old solid colored horse to be seen--the sort you'd see making up 90% or more of a typical live horse show class.

And yes, small sample size, but marvel at the lack of chrome on display here:

Yes, one is a dun, and one is a blonde, but no app spots, no pinto markings, I am not sure there is even a teensy bit of sabino in those white markings that ARE there!

Performance on the Porch

Yeah, I'm running a few weeks late, sorry!!

I managed to convince Dave to come to this, as there was also a pool party planned...and then it rained all day. I felt pretty bad, but Dave took it in stride. He hung out with John and Rob much of the day. And I think he is still willing to come to Harrisburg to help there. This is why I married him.

Performance on the Porch at Kate Cabot's home in Beverly MA was a huge amount of fun. The classes were small but brutal, with a 2 horse CM Cross Country class that was composed of the 2012 NAN champ and reserve. Not a bad place to try new things out though, as the pace was slow enough that you could experiment without penalties.

Lots of fun, and done by 5pm, even with an hour lunch break, and a slightly late start.

I know Kate is planning a few more of these small format shows over the next few months. If you can get to one, I recommend it. Its why we do this.

And yes, I am plotting out a sport horse show in my basement. Also small. Details to follow.

And photos:

Nancy Timm's Stone Pony rides on!

Kate Dwyer's fab marathon pony!

Robin Briscoe's "Stole Your Girlfriend"

What? This is totally normal.

I loved this Cross Country jump--its a scale model of one of the Olympic jumps.

Kate Dwyer's "Friendly Fire" makes it look easy.

Heidi in Working Cow Horse

I can't remember if this is Anne or Marisa's Leggs

Another one of Robin's entries

I'll have to get the OK to put up the photo of the world's oddest model horse class. 4 horses, all chestnut based. Not a pinto or an app among them!!

Bring it On!

The post Breyerfest show season is underway in Regions 9 and 10--everyone is excited about getting horses qualified for our very own NAN in our backyard. And my weekend schedule has suddenly opened up in ways that allow me to attend more shows than I have been able to do in a very long time.

The short list--

More Fun Live, Performance on the Porch on August 18
Baystate Live September 8
Pint Size Plastic October 6
New England Performance Challenge October 20
The Region X Championships November 3-4

All weekends that are FREE. I just need to send entries to the latter 4 there. And get my act together!

This blog was meant to report back on activity in Region X, and I've just not been able to get that done. I am hoping to be able to post pictures (since I can now do that on the fly with my Real Camera) and report on these! See you there!

The Breyerfest Wrap

It's Sunday afternoon, and I am in a very different Clarion from last night. The flyers on the walls are gone. It's quiet. The pop up vendor that appeared in my hallway has vanished. The conference center is setting up to host some bridal show. My people have left Lexington again, off to their homes with new treasures. I am on the road early tomorrow.

The highlights:

- NAN 2013 is in Harrisburg, PA. Three hours from home. I'll only need to take a day, maybe two, off, instead of a week.
- Apparently some on the west coast have decided to split from NAMHSA over this. I wish them luck- if they can solve the issues of manpower and money all hobby organizations suffer from (RESS, anyone?) we will all benefit.
- There were still shires, Cleveland bays, Cigars and Esprits left in the SR lines. I grabbed a shire.
- NAN itself went off smoothly, and seemed drama free. And it ended at 8 on the first night and 6 on the second. Midnight NANs may be a thing of the past!
- I had fun at the Stone show, and attending the Breyerfest auction.
- Found some very nice glossies to add to my collection. And a Ratrod I plan to performance show the crap out of. And placed an order with Bill Duncan.
- Also found some fun halters and horse blankies for my nieces.
- Lots of time seeing my friends. Lots of excited plotting to hold shows.
- Relatively cool weather!
-I didn't get to watch many of the horse demos, but I did see that woman with the nine Arabian stallions at liberty-amazing!

I don't feel burnt out on the hobby this year. It's been a great Breyerfest. Good to see you all, and hope to see you back here for Denim and Diamonds!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Exciting developments

In case you've been under a rock, or on the road to Lexington all day, or maybe swaddled in bubblewrap... Breyerfest and NAN got a lot more techie today.

If you have an iPhone/iPod touch or iPad, go search Breyerfest on the app store. You'll find the program, photos of all the auction models, and maps of the horse park. My favorite part is the map of CHIN complete with an area to make notes! No more forgetting my notepad somewhere!

No Android equivalent this year, maybe 2013?

Not going to NAN but not looking forward tot he lag of having results and photos up? Well, NAN is being live streamed this year. Set your browsers to these links:

http://www.livestream.com/medieval1

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/medieval1

I don't know how this is going to work. I am going to check in the stream while at the show to see. You will need Flash to do this, so if you're on an iPad (like me) use a Flash enabled browser (I use Photon, it was like $5 in the app store)

I can hardly wait!


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It's that time of year...

My husband takes Monday off in the summer. Monday is my day off and we go do fun stuff. Last week, work nearly killed me, despite the national holiday in the middle. It just did not end up as a holiday for me. So Friday I begged Dave to give me Monday to prepare for Breyerfest and NAN. All the other times I put aside got eaten by one thing or another, and I had too much to do, including building a marathon harness that has been in the planning stages over a year, and that had, as of this morning, gotten as far as having one piece cut and dyed.

I am happy to report that the most complex part of the harness is done, and the next most difficult bit is underway. I can borrow parts from other harnesses I have (this is when it's great to be a tack whore) if I get in a bind. But I am off this weekend, so I am optimistic about having a 100% new harness for NAN.

My show string is extra light this year, and they are all organized, tacked and packed, except for the harness horse. She has 13 classes at NAN so she gets her own session tomorrow. I did some party shopping for Lexington. I even had time to dink around on Facebook a bit. I think I really love the Pre Breyerfest period now that we have Facebook. I love watching everyone get ready. It almost extends the event for me.

I look forward to a fun, and relaxing time in Lex this year. I am only showing 2 days at NAN. Then I get my Breyerfest volunteer obligation out of the way by judging Breakables Thursday night. I do have SR tickets in the first group to go (debating that Gambler's Choice...other than the Cleveland Bay, I am not really feeling the SRs this year. Please don't be something I hate.) and I am doing Stone Age Live on Saturday, so its really a pretty relaxed Fest this year. I'll have real time to shop!

See you all in about a week!


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Moving Forward

I am really not sure why this blog has been in my brain lately. I kinda wanted bigger/better things for it when I started it, and it fizzed a bit. I think it was just One More Project I Didn't Really Have Time For when I started it. The fun of the Internet is continual re-invention, right?

So, I do most of my model horse gossip on Facebook these days--I do not Blab, and I am done paying for it, so I no longer have access to what would interest me anyway. There are a TON of great blogs out there about model horses, many that don't update often, but they are amazing when they do, and some are pretty specialized, so they go deep in a subject that gets surface treatment, or just retreads on Blab or other groups. And I forget where exactly I read it, but a comment was made over the weekend about a person who isn't in the hobby any more, but is still sort of around, and how it was a pity she left because she really had insight on how shows worked.

And this made me think.

Would you guys be interested in reading interviews with other hobbyists, sort of how the Old Skool publications did it? I will warn you, I would tend to skew away from artists. I think that our artists are absolutely vital, but many have their own blogs, and often they are very celebrated, whereas the people who are a lot of the meat and bones of live showing are not. You may be able to look at a photo of a NAN Top Ten and know who did it in an instant, but I wonder if you could name your own Regional Rep (or really, what they do), or why your local show holder even puts on a qualifier. There are a ton of people who are silent and almost unknown, and yet, without them, we would not have shows. We'd probably still have horses. I am pretty sure I'd still collect horses and tack and props without the ability to show them (well, maybe not props) but I am also pretty sure I would miss showing--I really enjoy competition, as unfashionable as it may be to admit that.

So what do you think? Worth pursuing? Who do you want to know about?

OH NOES

Facebook is being a pig about posting this photo, so here:

Perhaps NAMHSA can sell logo umbrellas?

Unpacking NAN 2013

We're adults. We should be able to have an intelligent and rational conversation. Especially when we are talking about a model horse show, which is about as much of a ridiculous display of extra time and money as you can get. I mean, we are not discussing how to divvy up the last case of Icehouse Light during the Zombie Apocalypse here. We're just discussing where the best spot for NAN 2013 should be.

Yeah, its that time of year. Full disclosure--I have been following the posts on NAMHSA-Discussion, though not in the last 24 hours. I do not read Blab. I have largely stayed OUT of the discussion, because I feel I can be polarizing, and frankly, its much better the meat of this on N-D comes from the people who are currently serving it. However, I got to the point where I was pissed about feeling unable to make my thoughts heard, and, well, I have a blog.

So how do you go about making a selection? Really? It should go to the location that makes the most sense, based upon things like what it will cost to run the show, and how many people can be expected to show up and cover its costs. NAN has not covered its own costs in over a decade. It loses money. On average, the Breyerfest NAN (which gets more entrants since Breyerfest is that weekend) looses less--between $2-5K, and the non Bryerfest one (which has been in Las Vegas, Dallas, Portland, and Tucson--prior to 2005, it was held in Pomona California in conjunction with another hobby event called Jamboree. Jam was a big draw for the hobby, but its organizer decided to move on) loses around 10K. Though apparently the Tucson NAN lost a lot more than that. You can make the argument that losing some money is OK, since NAN may have benefit for the hobby--its a big spectacle and you get to see all sorts of things you wouldn't otherwise. The competition can be fierce. But you can also decide that probably a 5 digit loss every other year isn't smart for the long term viability of the organization. After all, the often quoted "$80K in the bank" is now really, according to the latest NAMHSA News, in the $60K area.

And yes, there's been some discussion about how to cut costs, but no one wants to lose the trophies ($20 each, so $40 per class) or make the rosettes shorter (another $20 per class), or decreasing the judging staff from 3 per class to 1 (which would relieve issues with having the sheer volume of volunteers who can judge) No one wants to limit entry (like a show like Westminster does) and when you want to raise the entry fee, people don't like that (understandable) They also don't like it if the org wants to set a limit on how small classes can be (awards alone are $60 per class. It costs an entrant $3 to enter a horse in a class, so you need at least 20 in a class to break even. At the Tucson NAN, the entire OF performance division was sub-20 horse classes. Some were 3-5 horses. Entrants largely refused to allow the organization to combine classes. Some were offended by the very idea) No one wants to hold NAN with less frequency--say every other year, and people demand that it be held in a different location every other year, creating logistical problems that must be solved over and over again. So, the show is stuck because everyone wants what they want and are unwilling to compromise at all.

One way to get the non Breyerfest NAN to be less of a cash suck would be to try and get more entrants to it. This year, there are two bids in the northeast, east of Lexington KY, in the running. These are in areas that do support large, active, showing populations. While many of these showers do go to KY in Breyerfest NAN years, there are many who don't--the trip isn't feasible due to work, family obligations or finances. An event closer to these dense populations, might draw more entrants to a non Breyerfest NAN, and then have less of a loss. An event east of Lexinton could draw not only those who do make the trip to Breyerfest and NAN, but also those who stopped or never have been able to go.

For me, getting to the Breyerfest NAN is a 12 hour drive one way. The show is held the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday prior to Breyerfest. If I were ONLY to do NAN, that's a week I need to take off to do it. That's 1/3 of my vacation time. While this is do-able for me every other year, its impossible for some of my comrades who live even further east than I do.

For the western half of the country, the trip is, obviously, even more arduous. Which is why, initially, that non Breyerfest NAN was started. The org wanted to include them. Great. Except its become an entitlement. Even suggesting that the show be outside of California is met with anger. I helped run the Las Vegas NAN--5 hours from Los Angeles! And people were angry about the 5-6 hour drive to that. Oh, the non Breyerfest NAN is also held on a weekend. I'd LOVE to have a NAN 5-6 hours away. I could do that taking only one day off, if I felt like jetting out right after work on Thursday. But, because I live in NJ, I won't have that chance. I'm already privileged, apparently, to have a 12 hour drive and a mid week show, and I should be happy with that.

I do feel for the west coast and the travel issue--last year at this time, I packed a bunch of china horses into a plastic tool box and flew cross country to attend BOYCC. It was not cheap for me--my roommate had to bail at the last minute (her job cancelled her vacation, there was nothing she could do about it) and I had to take on the entire cost of my (not cheap, but very nice) hotel room. I don't regret the trip, but I would love another BOYCC experience that was closer to home. However, unless I put it together, its not happening here, and I'm not going to pursue that right now. I suppose I could bitch and whine about how I deserve a BOYCC here, and how unfair it is that it will only be in CA...but, its not the responsibility of the person holding BOYCC to make sure I have a convenient experience. If I want it, I'll make it happen. If I can't, I can't.

NAMHSA decided to try and make it easier for all to come, at least once in a while. So why is the west coast "more deserving" than the east coast showers who have supported the show and the organization as much as the west coast (really? How are we measuring this and who cares?) Why is someone in Region 2's time and cash spent going to a NAN in their region worth more than my same amount of time and money getting to the Breyerfest NAN? If its going to be fair, you cannot allow one group to gripe about distance and then poo-poo the idea that this is an issue on the other end as well. If its a valid argument in one place, its valid everywhere. That doesn't mean the organization should try and hold NAN in all 50 states, or everyone's personal circle. But it does mean that if one group is allowed an opportunity, to truly be fair, it should be offered to all. After all, in 17 years of NAN, 8 have been west of Kentucky. None have been east. No one has even bothered to put up an east coast bid because no one thought it would be taken seriously. When discussion last turned to this, and the suggestion that the non Breyerfest NAN might stop, the west coast begged saying that all regions should be considered. Now that there are TWO eastern venues up for consideration, they are sounding a lot like a spoiled child screaming about a toy.

The western NAN is subsidized by those east coast showers. If the childish behavior continues, they may find that the east is a lot less supportive of the endeavor. After all, more people from the east have helped chair that NAN than the west has turned out to work Breyerfest--in 2011 the organization had to threaten to cancel the show unless a chair could be located. It took a threat to get someone to step up and run the show they wanted so badly. IF the west wants this to continue, they need to start taking a lot more responsibility, and offering more help than showing up and paying entry fees, or buying raffle tickets.

I know this will post to Twitter and Facebook shortly after I hit publish. I ask that if you read this, and you want to respond, PLEASE do so here. This page is public. Everyone can read it. The hobby does not (and will not) have broad access to my FB account. Any conversations need to happen where everyone can read them.

And you can post anonymously--but if you're going to be packing a flamethrower, its not showing up. Be forewarned :)

Random Techy post

So, this is kinda geeky, and is going to appeal to the whole scientist/model horse crossover that exists, but its an article about preserving plastics--cellulose acetate, the building material of Breyer and Stone horses, among them:

Care of Plastics

I'm posting it here because there is ongoing discussion in the hobby about shrink models, and those that start smelling like vinegar and leak. As it turns out, once this starts to happen, it can cause damage to other models, so its best to isolate these examples from your main collection.

Here's another article on the same subject.

Food for thought for those of us with a lot of plastic ponies--looks like we do need to think a lot more about how we keep them.

Thanks to Kelly Korber Weimer for posting these on Facebook.

Frustrations

I find myself terribly frustrated with some of my fellow hobbyists today. To the point where I question my continued involvement beyond just collecting. However, I have some new show stuff that just arrived, and the idea of selling it all really doesn't interest me, either. So that isn't going to happen either.

Yet, I find myself wanting to go spend some time in the horse room today. It certainly NEEDS it. I need to catalog some new (and gorgeous) tack, and it needs cleaning, and its about time to inventory and photograph all those props (which can happily now be done in categories. And how did I end up with 4 vehicles?) so I suppose there is an excuse to go reconnect with it.

This is just not a good day for me. I can and do derive enjoyment from my collection, and there certainly are people who collect the level of stuff I do who feel no need to compete with it. Maybe that is where I need to travel next.