Show String: New Faces

Last month I sent off my first entry for the 2017-2018 show year with MEPSA.  The results for the first division (OF) came out yesterday.  I thought it'd be fun to share several of the new faces that went to the show.

However, first is an old face, he showed last year, but I'm happy to say that he placed 2nd in the Arabian class at this first show, qualifying him for next year's Championship already.

His name is Denar.

Some of the "new" additions already had names and have gone to some live shows before we all moved to Japan.

All of the rest of these pictures were taken last October at the beach, looking east across the Pacific.

This is Strawberry Fizz:

Big and Rich:

Now to some horses that needed names.  I pulled inspiration from song titles and...  mostly from Game of Thrones.

Shameless, named after a song by The Weeknd:

Party Monster, another The Weeknd song.  She placed in Light Type Mare and the American Saddlebred class:

The North Remembers, from Game of Thrones.  He placed 2nd in Appaloosa color, qualifying him for the Championship next year.  He also earned top tens in Light Stallion and Carriage Breeds.

Kissed by Fire, another Game of Thrones-named horse:

Red Viper, another from GoT:

Cookies n' Cream, my daughter actually named him for me a few years ago.  I set her pictures of a few unnamed horses, before I went to a live show, and that's what she named him.  For his MEPSA debut, he placed 3rd in Appaloosa breed, qualifying for the Championships.  He also got in the top ten for Stock gelding and Appaloosa color:

Attraction, he's one that's had a name for a while now.  I named him after the theatre group that does stories using shadows, they were on Britain's Got Talent (or some related show) and were amazing:

Oathkeeper, another Game of Thrones-inspired name:

Galaxy, he's had that name for a long time:

Eastwatch, another from Game of Thrones:

Breaker of Chains, one of Daenerys Targaryen's (many) titles in Game of Thrones:

Jose, a little Donkey custom that I painted a looong time ago:

Samuel, another Donkey foal that I painted many years ago:

Roberto, the third amigo, Donkey foal custom I painted a long time ago:

Stormborn, another of Daenerys Targaryen's names in Game of Thrones:

Siglavy Estaria, someday I need to create a mare named Estaria, this is already her second son.  I also have an old custom Lipizzaner of mine that I named Pluto Estaria:

Dark Words, another inspiration from Game of Thrones:

Blackwater, yet another Game of Thrones name.  He placed 2nd in the Clydesdale/Shire class!:

Spoils of War, another from Game of Thrones, but the phrase is a common one anyway:

Chimney Sweeper...  I have no idea, he looked sooty, his tail is kind of sweeping the ground...?  Sometimes I come up with epic names, sometimes I don't.  Haha, I still like this one though:

I'm eagerly and anxiously awaiting the results from the AR and CM divisions of this first show.  It's fun to show OF, but the AR/CM horses are the ones I'm most invested in.  ;)

Epic U.S. Trip - BreyerWest Open Show

Yeah, this happened almost...  3 month ago, but: better late than never?  I had a GREAT time at BreyerWest and have been intending to share about it for a while now.  


BreyerWest 2017 was March 24-26 in Albany, Oregon.  After my 30 hours of travel, over a 41 hour Wednesday, I spent Thursday trying to recover and making last minute arrangements for the show and Swap Meet.

The Open Show was on Friday, the 24th.

For me, the show started with a bit of a bang.  In the very first class I was in, OF Mini Arabian G1 Arabian, my little Denar won 2nd place and a NAN card.  Woot!

(Denar is a good little show horse, he's also been showing in MEPSA and is on his way to their Championship Show...  Well, a picture of him is on its way.)

Here was my half table.  Space was tighter than some shows I've been to, but I liked it because I was able to chat with my neighbors.  (says the Introvert - who has been suffering severe model horse withdrawal over the past couple of years).

As a last minute idea, I had brought part of my Japanese horse items collection.  I set them all up on the end of the table.

 Included in my traveling collection was a range of the Hachinohe horses, from large (the largest I could bring anyway) down to tiny.

I had also made myself some little wooden sign cards on our laser, to say who I was.  (Side plug: These are available to order, I can make them in about any color, size, shape...)

A first for this show, I used my phone for documentation.  I have a history of forgetting to use documentation and with the insanity of this whole trip, I had certainly forgotten it!

Here is the string of mini customs that I had brought to show:

More phone documentation.  Below is Pepper.  I painted her and her sister, Salt, several years ago.  At the time I had it in mind for them to be British Spotted Ponies, but I hadn't used a specific reference photo.  At some point afterwards, I had come across something that led me to believe that they are only leopard patterned.  Well, dang.  However, for this show, when I brought up documentation on my phone, right on the home page for the Society was a pony with a blanket pattern.  Score!  Ha...

(There will be more about Pepper later on in this planned series of posts about BW.)

Moving on to the other horses in attendance, here are some of my favorites from the show!

Unfortunately I was tied to the OF Mini and then CM Mini tables, so I didn't get to see much of anything else.  I didn't get any pictures of the Performance classes, or the larger scales, outside of a few.  I did get pictures of every. single. custom. mini (I'm pretty sure).  However, I'm only going to share a few favorites here, in the interest of getting this post up before NEXT BreyerWest.

If you happen to see one of your horses here and/or know the artist, please let me know!  Also, if you'd rather I take the picture down for whatever reason, no worries, again just let me know.

I was able to get pictures of some of the larger scale customs once the Workmanship classes started.

Here are a few of my favorites, from the handful I was able to catch:

To recap my results...  they weren't that great, but it was still an incredible day and the custom divisions provided me with a TON of inspiration.

Heat of the Night, OF G1 Swaps:

Raistlin, OF G2 Andalusian:

Irish Cappuccino, OF G1 Native Dancer:

 And my big winner - Denar, OF G1 Arabian stallion:

After a long day, and dealing with some wicked jet lag, it was finally time to check in to the room at The Phoenix!

But there was to be no rest - oh no, not yet!  After the Open show was the Swap Meet!  And I had brought a bunch of goodies...

(to be continued)

MEPSA Sleepers

Yesterday I began the daunting process of verifying just who all is qualified from my photo show string to go to the MEPSA Championship Show next month.  Last year I'd started showing with MEPSA just in time to go to the last Mini qualifier.  I had a few horses earn their way to the BIG show right away, but...  I didn't send them.  I reasoned that it wouldn't be "worth it" to send just a few pictures.  And then I kicked myself for months afterwards.  I swore that next time I would send whoever I had qualified.  I also swore that I would enter every single Mini Specialty qualifier for the next show year, and possibly a couple of others.

I'm proud to say that I did it!  As this show year comes to a close, I can report that I successfully entered all four Mini Specialties AND the Vintage Specialty as well.  There were a few others I'd hoped to enter, but it didn't happen.  No matter, I stuck to my original goal and followed through - which is sort of a big deal.  I'm all about making plans, but, uh...  yeah.

I started pouring over the spreadsheets of qualifiers and comparing them with my own results.  I decided that the best way, for me, to do this was...  low tech.

Bring on the scraps of note paper!

I scribbled down every qualified horse, the class they were in, placing, and how many were in it.  In MEPSA 1st-3rd gets a qualification, but if there are over 100 entries in a class, it's 1st-6th.  

Wow, I have quite a few from my meager string that made it in.  

This is one of my "sleepers" an ordinary horse that I had no grand ambitions for.  He went to the beach, got a few pictures taken, and off he went to the shows.

I named him Granite Range, he shows as an Icelandic stallion.  I can't even say where his name came from.  I decided I wanted to show him, he had to have a name, that's what he ended up with.  I wish he had some cool, meaningful story, but..  nope.  Isn't that the way it goes sometimes?  

In three shows (he wasn't sent to the first one) he's been Champion Gender once and Reserve Champion Other Breeds twice.  He's qualified at every show, double and triple or more.  

It amuses me that I have him only because I saw him in one of those mystery foals sets a couple of years ago and thought, "Huh, I don't have that mold yet."      

Another sleeper is Backflip.  Oh, Backflip...  He's been mentioned in my blog before.  Some have heard his story, I'll quickly tell it again.  He is one of my old customs and he has never been a favorite, just something...  I don't know.  Despite that, in true pony style I suppose, he insists on doing well at the shows.  He's qualified in every Mini Specialty, in Pony stallion and/or British Pony class.  

I just shake my head.

The last sleeper, of sorts, is Not Today.  She is named from Game of Thrones: "What do we say to the God of Death?  'Not today.'"  I like giving these sassy little ASBs equally sassy names.  She is another older work, though not as old as backflip.  I've always thought she was pretty, but not particularly a favorite.  She has qualified in the Black color class at every Mini Specialty for the show year.

Those three will be joining other obvious favorites, like Wild Honey, and all of the other qualifiers in a "trailer" over to The Show very soon.  Just as soon as I make sure I know how to properly enter the thing and get all of my ducks (pictures) in a row.  

I'm also looking ahead to the next show year, which starts in August.  I'm hoping to increase (double) the size of my show string.  Also, I'd like to branch out from the Mini Specialties and try to enter some of the regular shows and other specialties.  

And...  I'd like to dip a toe, or three, into performance.  *gulp*