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!

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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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