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!!