Once Upon A Time...
I got engaged right after coming home from a model horse show.
I posted a blog entry shortly after about the engagement and promised that a show report would be posted "soon".
Well, that was back in May, and it's now November.
I have since been to four other model horse shows.
I had Jennifer Buxton stop by for a visit.
I moved my horse, Bunny, to a new stable.
And got married.
Plus I've had other happenings happen that may have been worthy of sharing.
Yet, there hasn't been another blog post here since.
I'm not very good at this blogging thing, apparently.
Luckily, my friend Jennifer is, and you can see some of my show pictures on her blog:
here (Tornado Alley/Hog Wild)
here (Tornado Alley/Hog Wild)
here (Mid Ark Model Horse Expo)
and here (Mid Ark Model Horse Expo)
And you can also read about our visit here.
So, while that may not cover everything that has happened between May and now, it's a start, right? :)
Maybe one of these days I'll be better about blogging myself!
Friday, November 14, 2014
Saturday, May 3, 2014
And Then Life Happened
I came home from Tornado Alley Goes Hog Wild, the double-show in Tulsa, Oklahoma on April 26th, and vowed to quickly get my show pictures posted to Facebook and to get a show report posted to this blog.
I was off to a good start. I got all of my Performance pictures posted by Sunday April 27th despite getting home at 3am that morning and being a zombie for most of the day.
Monday morning, I woke up, and although I was still exhausted from the weekend, I got started writing a blog post about the show. My boyfriend, Rob, had the day off from work and was coming over to hang out and take me to see 50-1 while it was still in theaters. I was making good progress on the blog post by the time Rob arrived, but put it aside so that we could spend some time together. I was hoping he would join me in bed for a snuggle (or maybe even a nap.. like I said, I was still tired and worn out). But instead, he insisted that I come outside to see how pretty the yard was. He told me that the storms the night before had made everything greener, and that the sky was clear and blue, and that I should really see it.
Reluctantly, I changed from my pajamas into real clothes and joined him in the side yard. We walked around, noticing how everything was in bloom and discussing the yard work projects we had in mind for the summer. (Although we don't live together, Rob helps me out A LOT with home improvement projects.) Rob then suggested I get on the rope swing hanging from the big oak tree in the middle of the yard. "It'll make you happy," he told me. So I did, and he started pushing me as we talked. "Do you remember what we did on our first date?" he asked. "We played on this swing," I replied as I swung higher.
We talked about our relationship for the past three years and about our love for each other.. and then he grabbed the swing, bringing me to a stop, and got down on one knee...
Needless to say, my mind has been on other things besides model horses ever since! We're hoping for an October wedding, so there's a lot of planning to do in the meantime. This week has been a flurry of announcements, phone calls, planning discussions, and venue hunting.
But, SOON, I will have a show report posted here, I promise!
I was off to a good start. I got all of my Performance pictures posted by Sunday April 27th despite getting home at 3am that morning and being a zombie for most of the day.
Monday morning, I woke up, and although I was still exhausted from the weekend, I got started writing a blog post about the show. My boyfriend, Rob, had the day off from work and was coming over to hang out and take me to see 50-1 while it was still in theaters. I was making good progress on the blog post by the time Rob arrived, but put it aside so that we could spend some time together. I was hoping he would join me in bed for a snuggle (or maybe even a nap.. like I said, I was still tired and worn out). But instead, he insisted that I come outside to see how pretty the yard was. He told me that the storms the night before had made everything greener, and that the sky was clear and blue, and that I should really see it.
Reluctantly, I changed from my pajamas into real clothes and joined him in the side yard. We walked around, noticing how everything was in bloom and discussing the yard work projects we had in mind for the summer. (Although we don't live together, Rob helps me out A LOT with home improvement projects.) Rob then suggested I get on the rope swing hanging from the big oak tree in the middle of the yard. "It'll make you happy," he told me. So I did, and he started pushing me as we talked. "Do you remember what we did on our first date?" he asked. "We played on this swing," I replied as I swung higher.
We talked about our relationship for the past three years and about our love for each other.. and then he grabbed the swing, bringing me to a stop, and got down on one knee...
:)
Needless to say, my mind has been on other things besides model horses ever since! We're hoping for an October wedding, so there's a lot of planning to do in the meantime. This week has been a flurry of announcements, phone calls, planning discussions, and venue hunting.
But, SOON, I will have a show report posted here, I promise!
Monday, April 28, 2014
Best Laid Plans
Before I post a full show report for Tornado Alley Goes Hog Wild, I'd like to post a little bit about the happenings leading up to these shows.
Originally, this was a double-show being hosted by Jacklyn Catena and Jessica Sneeringer as part of Jacklyn's "OkieMo" show series. Jacklyn was planning on having a show in Oklahoma City nearly every month, many of them specialty shows. But Tornado Alley/Hog Wild was going to be a full show with OF and CM/AR Halter and OF/CM/AR Performance.
Shortly before I learned about the OkieMo shows, I had seen a listing for Lemmonade Live, a show taking place in Magnolia, TX on April 26th. Google maps told me it was about 7 hours away from Little Rock, which I figured was doable. I marked it down on my 2014 Shows calendar. Probably a couple weeks later, after being accepted in the OkieMo Facebook group, Jacklyn made the announcement that Tornado Alley/Hog Wild would be held.. the same weekend. I replied that I wished I could make it, but I already had planned on going to Lemmonade Live that weekend. Jacklyn left me several replies about how I'd be much better off coming to Tornado Alley/Hog Wild since a) Oklahoma City was only 5-5.5 hours away from me and b) it was a double-judged/double-show rather than a single show so I'd have double the chance at NAN cards. As I hadn't paid an entry fee for Lemmonade Live yet, I decided to change my plans and attend Tornado Alley/Hog Wild instead. When entries for the double-show opened, I paid in full.
Tornado Alley/Hog Wild wasn't until the end of April though. In the meantime, there were two other OkieMo shows, one of which I planned on attending (the other was a Mini Halter only specialty show, so I was going to skip that one). 28 Days After Christmas was originally scheduled to take place in mid-February. Again, I paid in full as soon as entries opened (they were limited and first-come-first-serve). Shortly before 28 Days Later was supposed to take place, Jacklyn and Jessica both announced that they were withdrawing their NAMHSA membership status for all of the OkieMo shows. By now, Lemmonade Live was sold out. (Jacklyn eventually completely cancelled all of the OkieMo shows and then deleted the Facebook groups as well.)
Understandably, I was disappointed. While model horse shows are fun in and of themselves, if I'm going to take time and money to travel to a model horse show, I'd like it to be a NAN-qualifier so I have a chance at earning some of those coveted pink, green, and yellow cards. My entry fees were refunded for all of the OkieMo shows promptly, and the option to still attend them just for fun (and for free) was still on the table. My disappointment didn't last long though, because Lyn Norbury stepped up to host both shows shortly after. She announced this on February 10th, and announced that instead of being in Oklahoma City, the shows would be held in Owasso, OK. Again, I paid my entry fee for the double-show early (February 11th), and sat back and waited.
On February 19th, Lyn announced that she had secured a showhall in Owasso, OK. The show hall was in a Best Western hotel, and entrants could also get a special room rate of $74 per night. On March 13th, Lyn announced that she had changed the show location, and the shows would now be held in at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center by Marriott in Tulsa, OK, where entrants could get a special room rate of $89 per night.
On March 26th, in the midst of a heated NAMHSA Database System debate, Lyn announced that she would be changing the format of the show from an EMCAT/tag show to a card show. At this point, I was very frustrated with all of the changes, and not being a fan of card shows at all, especially not for such a large, DOUBLE show, I asked Lyn what her refund policy was. (Meanwhile, Lemmonade Live had also moved to a bigger show hall across the street from its original location, and was open for more entries again. I was thinking it might be a good idea to switch my plans and go to Texas instead of Oklahoma.) Lyn said she would not be able to give me a refund until possibly after the show when she could see if she had made a profit or not, and even then, no refund would be guaranteed. Because I didn't want to waste my $65 entry fee, and because Sheila Bishop made a generous offer to let me travel and stay with her for the show, I decided I'd still go after all. After a few back-and-forth emails between Lyn and myself, we agreed to disagree about some of the issues and changes, and Lyn even asked for my input for some additional Performance classes which she added to the official class list on March 29th.
On Sunday, April 20th, less than a week from the show, Lyn sent out an email to (most of) the entrants to let us know that she had changed the class list. The email stated that a "tentative" expanded class list would be put into use for all of the OF and CM/AR Traditional/Classic scale Halter classes (originally the classes were Stock, Sport, Light, etc but now they would actually be Quarter Horse, Paint, Appaloosa, Arabian, Part Arabian, Morgan, etc). While it was a much better class list, it was another change, and very last minute at that. I redid my class list and included quite a few more Halter horses to show.
Sheila and I left Arkansas on Friday, April 25th and arrived in Tulsa, Oklahoma in time for dinner. We went to bed really unsure of how the show would unfold the next day, especially since there was still only one judge listed for the Performance division. Being performance junkies and the Performance division being our main reason for attending the show, we were nervous about what it would mean to not have a second Performance judge on showday. Luckily, a volunteer judge was found the next morning during the hour and a half set up time before the show. There was also a last minute change to the judge's roster for the CM/AR Halter division - Tracy Rogalla, the original judge, was a no-show (she apparently forgot about the show?), but luckily Jessica Sneeringer stepped up to judge in her place.
By the time the show started, I thought there wouldn't be any more last minute changes. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Breyers and Stones were separated for the OF Traditional/Classic Halter division, and as the first Stone class was called, it was announced that instead of using the expanded class list for the Stones that was used for the Breyers, the original non-expanded class list would be used. Because of class limits, this meant that I couldn't show about half of the Stone horses I brought unless I wanted to pay an extra $2 per horse. If I had known that the Stone classes wouldn't be following the expanded class list, it wouldn't have been as frustrating - I just wouldn't have wasted the time and space to pack and bring them, and wouldn't have wasted the index cards and printer ink for them.
Although the show started promptly at 8:30am, we didn't finish until almost 10pm. The whole day felt rushed and unorganized, but after earning three Reserve Championships and a stack of NAN cards, plus getting to hang out with Sheila, the weekend wasn't a total waste.
Full show report soon!
(and the tl;dr version : The show had many changes leading up to it - and on the day of - that added up to a lot of frustration for me, but in the end I had a good time and it was worth going.)
Originally, this was a double-show being hosted by Jacklyn Catena and Jessica Sneeringer as part of Jacklyn's "OkieMo" show series. Jacklyn was planning on having a show in Oklahoma City nearly every month, many of them specialty shows. But Tornado Alley/Hog Wild was going to be a full show with OF and CM/AR Halter and OF/CM/AR Performance.
Shortly before I learned about the OkieMo shows, I had seen a listing for Lemmonade Live, a show taking place in Magnolia, TX on April 26th. Google maps told me it was about 7 hours away from Little Rock, which I figured was doable. I marked it down on my 2014 Shows calendar. Probably a couple weeks later, after being accepted in the OkieMo Facebook group, Jacklyn made the announcement that Tornado Alley/Hog Wild would be held.. the same weekend. I replied that I wished I could make it, but I already had planned on going to Lemmonade Live that weekend. Jacklyn left me several replies about how I'd be much better off coming to Tornado Alley/Hog Wild since a) Oklahoma City was only 5-5.5 hours away from me and b) it was a double-judged/double-show rather than a single show so I'd have double the chance at NAN cards. As I hadn't paid an entry fee for Lemmonade Live yet, I decided to change my plans and attend Tornado Alley/Hog Wild instead. When entries for the double-show opened, I paid in full.
Tornado Alley/Hog Wild wasn't until the end of April though. In the meantime, there were two other OkieMo shows, one of which I planned on attending (the other was a Mini Halter only specialty show, so I was going to skip that one). 28 Days After Christmas was originally scheduled to take place in mid-February. Again, I paid in full as soon as entries opened (they were limited and first-come-first-serve). Shortly before 28 Days Later was supposed to take place, Jacklyn and Jessica both announced that they were withdrawing their NAMHSA membership status for all of the OkieMo shows. By now, Lemmonade Live was sold out. (Jacklyn eventually completely cancelled all of the OkieMo shows and then deleted the Facebook groups as well.)
Understandably, I was disappointed. While model horse shows are fun in and of themselves, if I'm going to take time and money to travel to a model horse show, I'd like it to be a NAN-qualifier so I have a chance at earning some of those coveted pink, green, and yellow cards. My entry fees were refunded for all of the OkieMo shows promptly, and the option to still attend them just for fun (and for free) was still on the table. My disappointment didn't last long though, because Lyn Norbury stepped up to host both shows shortly after. She announced this on February 10th, and announced that instead of being in Oklahoma City, the shows would be held in Owasso, OK. Again, I paid my entry fee for the double-show early (February 11th), and sat back and waited.
On February 19th, Lyn announced that she had secured a showhall in Owasso, OK. The show hall was in a Best Western hotel, and entrants could also get a special room rate of $74 per night. On March 13th, Lyn announced that she had changed the show location, and the shows would now be held in at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center by Marriott in Tulsa, OK, where entrants could get a special room rate of $89 per night.
On March 26th, in the midst of a heated NAMHSA Database System debate, Lyn announced that she would be changing the format of the show from an EMCAT/tag show to a card show. At this point, I was very frustrated with all of the changes, and not being a fan of card shows at all, especially not for such a large, DOUBLE show, I asked Lyn what her refund policy was. (Meanwhile, Lemmonade Live had also moved to a bigger show hall across the street from its original location, and was open for more entries again. I was thinking it might be a good idea to switch my plans and go to Texas instead of Oklahoma.) Lyn said she would not be able to give me a refund until possibly after the show when she could see if she had made a profit or not, and even then, no refund would be guaranteed. Because I didn't want to waste my $65 entry fee, and because Sheila Bishop made a generous offer to let me travel and stay with her for the show, I decided I'd still go after all. After a few back-and-forth emails between Lyn and myself, we agreed to disagree about some of the issues and changes, and Lyn even asked for my input for some additional Performance classes which she added to the official class list on March 29th.
On Sunday, April 20th, less than a week from the show, Lyn sent out an email to (most of) the entrants to let us know that she had changed the class list. The email stated that a "tentative" expanded class list would be put into use for all of the OF and CM/AR Traditional/Classic scale Halter classes (originally the classes were Stock, Sport, Light, etc but now they would actually be Quarter Horse, Paint, Appaloosa, Arabian, Part Arabian, Morgan, etc). While it was a much better class list, it was another change, and very last minute at that. I redid my class list and included quite a few more Halter horses to show.
Sheila and I left Arkansas on Friday, April 25th and arrived in Tulsa, Oklahoma in time for dinner. We went to bed really unsure of how the show would unfold the next day, especially since there was still only one judge listed for the Performance division. Being performance junkies and the Performance division being our main reason for attending the show, we were nervous about what it would mean to not have a second Performance judge on showday. Luckily, a volunteer judge was found the next morning during the hour and a half set up time before the show. There was also a last minute change to the judge's roster for the CM/AR Halter division - Tracy Rogalla, the original judge, was a no-show (she apparently forgot about the show?), but luckily Jessica Sneeringer stepped up to judge in her place.
By the time the show started, I thought there wouldn't be any more last minute changes. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Breyers and Stones were separated for the OF Traditional/Classic Halter division, and as the first Stone class was called, it was announced that instead of using the expanded class list for the Stones that was used for the Breyers, the original non-expanded class list would be used. Because of class limits, this meant that I couldn't show about half of the Stone horses I brought unless I wanted to pay an extra $2 per horse. If I had known that the Stone classes wouldn't be following the expanded class list, it wouldn't have been as frustrating - I just wouldn't have wasted the time and space to pack and bring them, and wouldn't have wasted the index cards and printer ink for them.
Although the show started promptly at 8:30am, we didn't finish until almost 10pm. The whole day felt rushed and unorganized, but after earning three Reserve Championships and a stack of NAN cards, plus getting to hang out with Sheila, the weekend wasn't a total waste.
 |
| Pennyroyal won two Other Performance Reserve Champs |
Full show report soon!
(and the tl;dr version : The show had many changes leading up to it - and on the day of - that added up to a lot of frustration for me, but in the end I had a good time and it was worth going.)
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Quiet on the Blogfront
I've been pretty quiet here on my blog because I either haven't had too much that I felt was worthy of a blog post - or at least, if I did have something worthy, I didn't have the time (or energy) to post it!
I went to a double-show in Tulsa, Oklahoma this weekend and got back home at around 3am this morning, so I've been spending most of the day resting and recovering. But hopefully soon, I will have a show report written up to post and share. In the meantime, I'm starting to upload photos from the show to a Facebook album which you can find here.
Anyway, I'm going to make it a goal (among other things) to actually update this blog more frequently, even if it's just tiny little posts to check in here and there.
I went to a double-show in Tulsa, Oklahoma this weekend and got back home at around 3am this morning, so I've been spending most of the day resting and recovering. But hopefully soon, I will have a show report written up to post and share. In the meantime, I'm starting to upload photos from the show to a Facebook album which you can find here.
Anyway, I'm going to make it a goal (among other things) to actually update this blog more frequently, even if it's just tiny little posts to check in here and there.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Midwinter's Night Ball - Show Day #2
Finally, the last installment of my show report for A Midwinter's Night Ball! Once again, my apologies that it's taken me so long to do a simple show report blog post. Life has just been crazy!
So, when we left off, I was rejoicing in my very modest Performance winnings, and the OF Halter winnings that had so far made the show worth attending. To be honest, there was a part of me that considered skipping the second day of the show altogether. My collection doesn't include many customs or resins, so my halter line up for Day 2 was pretty small. After a not-so-stellar day of CM/AR Performance, I was wondering if there was any point in even trying my hand at OF Performance. The thought of a leisurely ride home early was sort of tempting... but in the end, I figured I shouldn't give up and instead I decided to do what I came there to do - SHOW.
I did decide to take a more leisurely approach to the day however. Although the show hall opened at 8am and classes started at 9am, Rob dropped me off closer to 9:30am after we enjoyed breakfast together in the hotel. I was figuring that things would be slow moving as they had been the previous morning, but when we got there, all three Performance Harness classes were already in full swing, so I jumped right into getting my first entry of the day, Class #4 Showmanship, ready.
When I came back to find a shiny red ribbon and a pretty pink NAN card next to my horse, it was definitely a good start to the day!
The rest of the Other Performance subdivision was pretty good for me as well.
The next Performance subdivision was Costume, and again I sat out since I don't have any costumes. I also decided to skip the Western subdivision since I really don't have the right tack to be competitive, especially not in Texas! But that was ok really, since it meant I could take my time and focus on getting Arrietty in the tack I wanted her in for the English subdivision (I had to do a bridle change after realizing that the one she wore for Other Performance didn't have long enough reins for the doll to hold them properly). I took lots of time to adjust the rider doll juuuuuust (hopefully) right as well, which I think paid off in the end! I also had time to wander around and admire everyone else's entries, which I love to do.
The Western subdivision ended right before lunch, but since I wasn't showing during it, I had actually already eaten by the time everyone else took their break. So, while everyone else ate, I set up my English entries in the Performance ring - there were markers for the first four classes, so I set up everything I could minus the horse from all but the first class. Then I could sit back and relax - so I thought! Lunch ended, and the English judging began at a quick pace.
The classes were really flying by (turns out our Performance judge had a plane to catch!) so most of my afternoon involved making sure I had as many performance scenes ready to go as space allowed, and then moving my horse from one entry to the next with minor tack changes in between. I only had a few horses in the Halter division, so I only had to make a few trips here and there to the other end of the show hall. But my mind was totally focused on the Performance..
It was at this point, that I started doing a little math in my head... It seemed to me that I was doing pretty well by now.. and that in most of the classes, the blues and the NAN cards were going either to Arrietty or to Christie Partee's mare Color Me Pretty. I wondered how our ribbon counts would add up in the end...
It was finally the moment of truth.. English division call backs. Color Me Pretty had already been sitting on the callback table with 5 blue ribbons beside her while the Dressage and Other English classes finished up. But the last two blue ribbons put us on top for sure, and Arrietty won English Performance Champion!
If that wasn't amazing enough.. the Overall Performance callbacks were next.
I was truly amazed at how well I had done in OF Performance - it really was well above my best expectations for the day. I really felt like I went up against the Big Competition and was able to hold my own, which means a lot to me. :D
By the time the Performance division was finished, my halter horses had finished their classes as well. There wasn't much exciting to report there - I only had four entries in the Custom division and six entries in the CM Mini division. The best I did there was my CM Stablemate Mule to a Zebra won 2nd Place, two of my CM Ponies won some 3rd places, and my CM Mini Morgan that I painted myself won 6th Place in Breed and 6th Place in Workmanship which I thought was pretty spiffy considering I had painted him about 16 years ago when I was just a kid.
I also sadly didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked as the day went on. I was tired and rushing through Performance entries, and often the only chance I had to take pictures was of my own entries to document my placings. But anyway, all the photos I took from the show can be seen on my Facebook album here.
So, I'd say my first time showing at a Big Texas Show was a success. Plus, it was a lot of fun, and that's what really matters! I'm definitely looking forward to coming back to A Midwinter's Night Ball next year!
So, when we left off, I was rejoicing in my very modest Performance winnings, and the OF Halter winnings that had so far made the show worth attending. To be honest, there was a part of me that considered skipping the second day of the show altogether. My collection doesn't include many customs or resins, so my halter line up for Day 2 was pretty small. After a not-so-stellar day of CM/AR Performance, I was wondering if there was any point in even trying my hand at OF Performance. The thought of a leisurely ride home early was sort of tempting... but in the end, I figured I shouldn't give up and instead I decided to do what I came there to do - SHOW.
I did decide to take a more leisurely approach to the day however. Although the show hall opened at 8am and classes started at 9am, Rob dropped me off closer to 9:30am after we enjoyed breakfast together in the hotel. I was figuring that things would be slow moving as they had been the previous morning, but when we got there, all three Performance Harness classes were already in full swing, so I jumped right into getting my first entry of the day, Class #4 Showmanship, ready.
 |
| Arrietty, my DAH seal bay "English Pleasure" Palouse won 2nd Place (out of 5 entries) in Showmanship! |
When I came back to find a shiny red ribbon and a pretty pink NAN card next to my horse, it was definitely a good start to the day!
The rest of the Other Performance subdivision was pretty good for me as well.
 |
| Kiss Me Kate filled in for Arrietty in the Other Performance - Competitive class since I didn't feel up to the tack changes that would have been required. She scored 1st Place (out of 3 entries) - not bad! |
 |
| Arrietty won a 3rd Place (out of 5 entries) for Other Performance - Non-Competitive & Scene. |
The next Performance subdivision was Costume, and again I sat out since I don't have any costumes. I also decided to skip the Western subdivision since I really don't have the right tack to be competitive, especially not in Texas! But that was ok really, since it meant I could take my time and focus on getting Arrietty in the tack I wanted her in for the English subdivision (I had to do a bridle change after realizing that the one she wore for Other Performance didn't have long enough reins for the doll to hold them properly). I took lots of time to adjust the rider doll juuuuuust (hopefully) right as well, which I think paid off in the end! I also had time to wander around and admire everyone else's entries, which I love to do.
The Western subdivision ended right before lunch, but since I wasn't showing during it, I had actually already eaten by the time everyone else took their break. So, while everyone else ate, I set up my English entries in the Performance ring - there were markers for the first four classes, so I set up everything I could minus the horse from all but the first class. Then I could sit back and relax - so I thought! Lunch ended, and the English judging began at a quick pace.
 |
| Arrietty won 2nd Place (out of 6 entries) in English Games - off to a good start! |
 |
| I decided to "cheat" a bit and left my Huntseat rider on for my Cross Country entry. As fast as the judge wanted the classes to be moving, I knew that taking her off for Cross Country and then having to put her back on for the next class and spend a bunch of time *hopefully* getting her sitting and adjusted properly again just wasn't worth it. So the rider stayed on, even if she wasn't dressed for a proper Cross Country set up, and I still won 1st Place (out of 3 entries)! |
 |
| Arrietty won 2nd Place (out of 5 entries) in the Jumper class - proving that with proper documentation, a trotting horse CAN successfully be shown as a show jumper. |
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| And another 2nd Place (out of 10 entries) in the Hunter class. I was quite pleased at this point!! |
The classes were really flying by (turns out our Performance judge had a plane to catch!) so most of my afternoon involved making sure I had as many performance scenes ready to go as space allowed, and then moving my horse from one entry to the next with minor tack changes in between. I only had a few horses in the Halter division, so I only had to make a few trips here and there to the other end of the show hall. But my mind was totally focused on the Performance..
 |
| Arrietty only managed a 3rd Place (out of 11 entries) for my simple Arena Trail set up. |
 |
| She bounced back with a 1st Place (out of 4 entries) for Natural Trail. |
 |
| Impressively, Arrietty won 1st place (out of 8 entries) in the English Pleasure - Sport Type class! |
It was at this point, that I started doing a little math in my head... It seemed to me that I was doing pretty well by now.. and that in most of the classes, the blues and the NAN cards were going either to Arrietty or to Christie Partee's mare Color Me Pretty. I wondered how our ribbon counts would add up in the end...
 |
| Another 1st Place (out of 7 entries) for Arrietty in Dressage. |
 |
| And we finished out the division strong, with another 1st Place (out of 3 entries) for Other English. |
It was finally the moment of truth.. English division call backs. Color Me Pretty had already been sitting on the callback table with 5 blue ribbons beside her while the Dressage and Other English classes finished up. But the last two blue ribbons put us on top for sure, and Arrietty won English Performance Champion!
 |
| Five Blues, three Reds, and one Yellow earned Arrietty the OF English Performance Championship! |
If that wasn't amazing enough.. the Overall Performance callbacks were next.
 |
| Christie Partee's Color Me Pretty was the deserving winner of the OF Performance Grand Championship (she had won Costume Champ, Western Reserve Champ, and English Reserve Champ). |
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| And Arrietty won... OF Performance Reserve Grand Champion! |
I was truly amazed at how well I had done in OF Performance - it really was well above my best expectations for the day. I really felt like I went up against the Big Competition and was able to hold my own, which means a lot to me. :D
By the time the Performance division was finished, my halter horses had finished their classes as well. There wasn't much exciting to report there - I only had four entries in the Custom division and six entries in the CM Mini division. The best I did there was my CM Stablemate Mule to a Zebra won 2nd Place, two of my CM Ponies won some 3rd places, and my CM Mini Morgan that I painted myself won 6th Place in Breed and 6th Place in Workmanship which I thought was pretty spiffy considering I had painted him about 16 years ago when I was just a kid.
I also sadly didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked as the day went on. I was tired and rushing through Performance entries, and often the only chance I had to take pictures was of my own entries to document my placings. But anyway, all the photos I took from the show can be seen on my Facebook album here.
So, I'd say my first time showing at a Big Texas Show was a success. Plus, it was a lot of fun, and that's what really matters! I'm definitely looking forward to coming back to A Midwinter's Night Ball next year!
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