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.

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.