The BYO 2015 - Other Performance

When I left off, I was explaining just what The BYO is, and sharing my longhorn photography story.  So without further ado, let's jump right back into the show report, shall we?

The BYO starts off the day with Other Performance.  This is good for me, since I rarely have a lot of horses showing in the Other Performance Division, so it gives me plenty of time to get set up at my table and finish tacking and adjusting horses for the later divisions.  It also gave me time to socialize, and take pictures of everyone else's Other Performance entries.

Native American Costume entry owned by Val Tudor.

Parade entry owned by Chloe Hinton.

Other Costume entry owned by Christie Partee.

This year, I had one horse showing in the Other Performance Division - Goodness Gracious, or Grace for short, my Artist Choice "Hickory" resin sculpted and painted by my friend Sheila Bishop.

My goal for this year's BYO was not to do any tack changes.  So, Grace would be showing in the Halter Showmanship class, and then I decided that with the same halter and handler, she could also show in Other Competition with an In-Hand Trail set up.  Sue disagreed however, and as I was setting up my entry for Other Competition, she told me she'd rather it go in the Western Trail class, since despite being a tackless entry, the halter was a stock-style halter and the handler was outfitted in Western style attire.

So, Grace only got to show in one class at the BYO this year, Halter Showmanship, but at least she came away with first place and a NAN card.  :)

Goodness Gracious, first place in the Halter Showmanship class.

Two of Christie's horses wound up winning the Other Performance Division Champ and Reserve, and then we were on to English!

Mid Kansas Live All Performance - Mini Division

Last but not least, the Mid Kansas Live All Performance show Mini division!

Continuing on from part 3 of my show report...

The Mid Kansas Live All Performance show didn't leave mini fans disappointed.  There was a full performance division just for the tiny athletes, although OF, CM, and AR minis all showed together.  I don't show mini performance very often anymore, since I prefer to only show my minis in performance when they have their own division, and that doesn't happen very often at shows.  So I was excited that Mid Kansas did offer a separate division for the littler guys.  Since I don't show minis often, I only have one Stablemate ready to show who is tacked up and has documentation for his entries - my English horse, Naughty By Nature.

Naughty By Nature is an etchie of the SM G2 Warmblood that I etched myself (and added shoes!) sometime back around 2007 or so.  I know I started showing him in 2007 anyway.

The thing with mini performance horses is, once I tack them up, they stay tacked up forever.  I learned early on with mini tack that I didn't have the patience to tack and re-tack such tiny horses.  So unlike his larger barn mates who show in multiple divisions, Naughty By Nature only competes in English.

I toyed around with tacking up a Western mini performance horse as well and getting entries ready in time for the show, but sadly I ran out of time.  So Naughty By Nature was the only mini horse I showed at Mid Kansas, and therefore English was the only mini performance division I entered.

The Mini Performance Division ran in the same order as the OF Performance Division, so Other Performance was first, Western was next, and English was last - which meant I had nothing in the mini ring for most of the day.  By the time the Mini English Division started, it was crunch time!

Luckily, Naughty By Nature started off strong.

Naughty By Nature won first in the Jumper class.

Again, I asked the judge if we could swap the Hunter class with the Cross Country class, since I didn't want to have to tack his little boots off and then put them on again.  Luckily she agreed, and Naughty took first in both of those classes as well.

Naughty By Nature won first in the Cross Country class.

And another first in the Hunter class.

Naughty scored another blue ribbon in the Indoor Trail class, but only a third place in Outdoor Trail (which I didn't get a picture of unfortunately.)

Blue for Indoor Trail.

He came back with another first place win in the Dressage class though, even though the time crunch made me leave out his arena base.

Naughty with his first place in Dressage, and documentation that is WAY bigger than he is.

We finished up the division with a fourth place in Other English with a games entry and second place in English Pleasure - not too shabby!

Naughty was bested by some pretty cool Other English entries.

He finished out with second place in Pleasure.  He is probably in need of  an updated tack set one of these days.

All the hard work earned us the Mini English Division Championship!

Naughty By Nature - Mini English Performance Champion

It was a close call for overall...

Naughty By Nature was awarded Mini Performance Overall Reserve Grand Champion.

Naughty By Nature - Mini Performance Overall Reserve Grand Champ

And that finally concludes my show report!  It was a long drive to Kansas, but the show was a blast and the trip was well worth it!

Mid Kansas Live All Performance - OF Division

Sorry I've been dragging my feet on getting this show report finished.  Maybe the separate posts don't actually help me get them done in a timely manner.  But oh well, such is life.

Continuing on from Part 2 of my show report...

OF Performance ran concurrently with CM/AR Performance, however the class order was different so that if you were using the same tack for your OFs as for your CMs/ARs, there wouldn't be conflicts.  While CM/AR Performance order went English, Other, and lastly Western, OF Performance order went Other, Western, and then English last.

I was only showing one horse per division at this show, and my OF horse was Arrietty - a FCM Stone "English Pleasure" Palouse Design-A-Horse.

The Other Performance Division is one I'm only just starting to show in more.  I don't have much in the way of costumes and haven't been brave enough to give harness a try yet.  So, my first OF Other Performance class of the day was Native American Costume.  I was showing with a new costume I had purchased right before the show - it wasn't as historically accurate or elaborate as the competition, nor did I have a doll, but I documented it as a costume from a modern day show where costumes don't have to be 100% historically accurate.  My documentation earned Arrietty a blue ribbon even against some very gorgeous, intricately detailed costumes belonging to my competition.

Arrietty in the OF Native American Costume class

Our next class was Sidesaddle, another new class for me with a new piece of tack.  I used Arrietty's regular English bridle despite it being brown rather than black like the saddle, and we still managed a first place.

Admittedly not my most polished entry, but it was good enough to beat the competition.

Next up was Showmanship.  My entry was the only one with documentation, and Arrietty trotted away with another blue ribbon.

Arrietty with a "Hunter In Hand" entry - we've done well with this set up before, and this time was no different.

Our last Other Performance Division entry was for "Other Other Performance".  I tried another freestyle agility entry but was bested by some more elaborate set ups.  My agility entries can really be hit-or-miss depending on what else is in the class and the judge's preference for tackless entries.

I really wasn't too upset with a third place - the first and second place entries in this class were awesome!

Arrietty won enough ribbons to earn the Other Performance Championship!

Arrietty - OF Other Performance Champion

Next up was the OF Western Division.  So far, the day was going at a pretty good pace for me.  Arrietty wasn't competing in every single class in her first two divisions, and in the CM/AR division, All Glory was doing Other Performance and only had a few classes.

Western started off with Indoor Trail.  This was a pretty large class for this show, with eleven entries on the table.  Arrietty won first place though!

Arrietty won first place in Western Trail - Indoor

As much as I love showing Arrietty in as many classes as I can, she's not quite the perfect do-it-all Western horse, and my Western tack that she competes with isn't either.  Arrietty managed to bounce back and forth from first and second places in her classes, mostly with our main rival competitor (Ruth and her Stone ISH "Night Fury"), and sat out a few (such as Roping and Reining).

Arrietty won second place despite not being the best stockwork horse.

Another second place with this Team Penning entry.

Arrietty sat out the Games - Barrels class but won first place in Games - Other.

Arrietty won first place in Other Western with our Western Dressage set up.

Ruth's Night Fury and my Arrietty were neck and neck.  Western Pleasure was split up Stock Type and Other Type.  Arrietty won first place in the Other Type class, while Ruth won the blue in the Stock Type class with a different horse.

Another blue for Arrietty in Western Pleasure.

At the end of the Western division, the results were close but Arrietty took the champ honors.

Three blues and three reds earned Arrietty the OF Western Performance Champion.

Ruth's Night Fury was close behind with three blues and two reds, and earned the OF Western Performance Reserve Champ.

This is when things started to get tricky!  Mini English Performance had just started, and now I had horses running in all three rings.  All Glory had to get tacked up for the CM/AR Western division, and Arrietty had to get tacked up for the OF English division.  I decided to go ahead and show Arrietty without a doll since I didn't need the extra hassle at the moment.

Arrietty didn't need a doll though, and powered through the English division.

While she is best suited as a Hunter, there were three separate Over Fences classes for Jumper, Hunter, and Cross Country, so with some carefully researched documentation, Arrietty competed in all three.

First place in the Jumper class.

First place in the Hunter class.

Arrietty proves that a good low level cross country entry can win!

Arrietty continued her winning streak in the rest of the English classes...

In retrospect, I think I would place that leading hoof inside the box next time, but Arrietty still won first in Indoor Trail.

Another first place with a competitive trail riding entry for Outdoor Trail.

First place in Dressage - more proof that a correct low level entry can be competitive against higher level entries.

First place in Other English with a games entry.

And First place in English Pleasure.

At the end of the division, Arrietty was the clear champion.

Arrietty - OF English Performance Champion

Having won all three OF division champs, Arrietty was awarded the OF Overall Performance Grand Championship.  The prize was this NIB Topsails Reinmaker.

Arrietty - OF Overall Performance Grand Champion

Last but not least, I'll post about the Mini Performance division in my next post!

Mid Kansas Live All Performance - CM/AR Division

Mid Kansas Live All Performance show report, continued from Part 1...

The CM/AR Division started out the day with English Performance, which happens to be my favorite.

All Glory was tacked and ready to go, and I was feeling confident and prepared.  Despite only  having a couple of weeks to get ready for the show, most of my preparation had already been accomplished beforehand for the Mid Ark show, so I only had a handful of classes that I had needed to create or update documentation for, and most of my props and such were also complete and ready as well.

Morgen Kilbourn's "Hazel" resin is a wonderfully versatile model.. however to get her into every class sometimes takes some creativity since she is going at a full gallop.  I managed to plan entries for her in every English and Western class offered regardless, and my thorough research and documentation set her ahead of the competition.

The first class was Jumpers.

Glory won first place!

Next up was Cross Country.  Originally it was supposed to be Hunters, but I convinced the judge to switch the order so I wouldn't have to take off Glory's boots and then put them back on again.  I also opted to gently put on a pinny that was from a Breyer doll rather than the nice Cross Country safety vest and pinny that Anne Field made to go with this doll - that way I could save time by not having to take her off and put her back on again.

Another blue ribbon for Glory.

My set ups were simple, but if I do say so myself, correct and well documented.  I was one of the only exhibitors really using documentation and explanation cards for my entries, and I got many compliments, especially from the judge, on the information I provided (and the format it was in).

The Hunter Over Fences class was next.  This one I had to get creative with because Glory/"Hazel" is not a typical refined hunter...

First place in the Hunter class!

Luckily my documentation did the trick.  I referenced a real beginner hunter over fences division from the local Arkansas Hunter Jumper Association as well as citing their rules, complete with photos from local shows, of the casual turnout of horses and riders.  While "Hazel" is supposed to be going at a gallop, she also looks like a horse who is hopping over a low obstacle.  The judge seemed to agree!

The division continued with Indoor Trail...

This IS actually a trail entry, not a hunter or jumper entry.

and Outdoor Trail...

Documentation was provided for how Glory was competing in an actual competitive event, not just "galloping along on the trail", which I think helped set my entry ahead of the competition.

And Dressage, another event that required a lot of research to find a fit for Glory since she's not a typical Dressage horse either.

The judge actually is a Dressage trainer, so winning first place in this class was especially validating.

Other English and English Pleasure wrapped up the division.  By the end, Glory had galloped away with all of the first place ribbons and was the clear winner of the CM/AR English Performance Championship.

All Glory - CM/AR English Performance Champion

The Other Performance Division was next, and I was able to relax slightly since Glory would only be competing in three of the ten classes, especially since I got to leisurely change tack over lunch.

Glory won first with this parade set up.

My other two entries in the division were not nearly as fantastic as some of the competitions', but Glory managed two second place ribbons and finished the division with the Reserve Champ honors.

All Glory - CM/AR Other Performance Champion

The CM/AR Western Performance division started just as the OF and Mini English Divisions were starting, so suddenly I was competing in three rings and had two tack changes to do on the fly.  That was not fun at all, but I was able to get Glory tacked up and into her first class, although without her rider.

Glory won first place in the Western Trail - Indoor class.

She continued to go riderless in the next class until things had not only calmed down...

Not having a rider didn't stop Glory from winning first place in the Western Trail - Outdoor class either.

but until it because absolutely necessary to have one since someone needed to hold the lariat in my breakaway roping entry.

The rider doll was lent to me by my friend Sheila Bishop.  Thanks again, Sheila!

Although Western is not my strong point, thorough research and documentation once again set me ahead in this division.  While I think I still have some improvements to make on my Western entries, Glory won first and second places again and again.

Glory in the Other Stockwork class.

By the end of the division, Glory had a nice collection of ribbons which earned her the CM/AR Western Performance Championship.

All Glory - CM/AR Western Performance Champion

Glory's end-of-the-day total was very impressive, and she was the clear winner of the CM/AR Overall Performance Grand Championship!  Instead of a rosette, the prize was a NIB Poker Joe model.  This was the first time I'd ever won a model as a prize, and it was pretty cool.  :)

All Glory - CM/AR Overall Performance Grand Champion

Next up, the OF division!