The long awaited WEG diorama team volunteer model. I am excited because I managed to get him out of the box, unwrapped and photographed without anything bad happening to him. Things like to break in my house. Usually when I am not looking but you never know.
Anyway, I do already have a buyer but I have had a couple more people contact me looking for this horse. If anyone else had one they would like to sell I will pass on the names and email addresses.
Next was Regal Lady in her other English performance class. I decided to do a game set-up and we did jumping figure 8's. I think it is normally a western game but I made some cool documentation for this class so I thought I would try it. The judge thought it was worth 6th place.
Next is my Chip resin, Spin A Chip, sculpted by Lori Daniels and painted (and named) by Jessica Fry. His lovely new tack is made by Pam Perkins and the saddle pad was made by Elise Partanen. The wear leathers were also by Pam Perkins. I have no idea who made the boots and I made the doll. I know this guy can be an awesome performance horse but I have not done outstanding with him just yet. Though this cutting entry got 3rd place. 
My other western entry with Merlot was a western riding entry which was good for 3rd place. Not bad really.
Merlot didn't place in arena trail at all because I goofed and didn't realize the he is on the wrong lead according to what the pattern says. I am also not good at figuring out what lead a model horse is on. I guess that is the next thing I need to study. I did enjoy how very matchy-matchy this whole set-up ended up. And the pink colored "X" I chose (to mark the my entry was done being tweeked) was also chosen to match the entry, lol.
My last photo was of Chip in Western pleasure. I think he may have done better if I had given him a card saying he was turing on the rail to change direction. I am not sure really. Merlot had a couple of 2nd's and got into the call backs but didn't win anything but the new set-up looks really good and I think with some work I can have them winning championships next year! For now I guess I will find some good days to go outside and work on some photo show photos to keep me entertained over the winter. 
It was lucky for me that we got full tables this year (we don't always) because I had so much going on at once that I don't think I could have made it through the day (without breaking something) with only half a table of space to use. Several divisions were running concurrently so at times I had horses in, or going into, 4 rings at once. I think next year I might just stick with one horse in each division. I don't know if I can choose between OF and CM. Or maybe I will decide not to try to champs and just see how I can do in a bunch of my favorite classes. Who knows. Next fall is a long way away. Because of how hectic it was I completely forgot to take pictures of most of the classes. So I only have a few photos to share from the show but show photos are fun.
This was Johnny's entry for the other western class. I thought it would be fun to do something a little different so I set up this "pony" ride entry. Of the 6 dolls used in this set-up (I only now just realized I used 6 dolls, lol) I made 4 of them. The little boy on the horse is just a dollhouse scale child doll and the little girl waiting in line was an unmodified Breyer doll. The doll leading the horse is my new casual western doll and I am very pleased with how she turned out. The entry only got 10th place but it was fun to set up. Maybe I will try this again sometime and see if I can improve on it.
Johnny had some decent placings and then some less than stellar placings. He didn't win any champs but the judge was so torn on who to pick she gave him an honorable mention. Yay candy prizes!
This next set-up is my OF Stone jumping horse Smoke N' Mirrors. It's not a clever or original name but I know a ton of magicians (not sure how that happened...) and she's gray so that's what she ended up being. I really got her so I could have something to model in-flight jumping dolls on. My other goal was to see how many classes I could show her in. I think I actually put her in 3 classes, fought her the whole time, and the best she did was 3rd. Not bad for a horse that doesn't want to behave. The tack was made by Cari Chaney and I made the convertible doll. She can take off her pinny, vest, watch and armband and be a casual in-flight jumper. I think she may be for sale, lol. If I get a better stand for the horse I may make another doll.
There were a couple of fun classes at lunch-time. The theme of the show was WEG so one of the fun classes was WEG disasters. I wasn't planning on entering but Nancy, the show hostess, said we needed more disaster entries. I figured I could throw together a disaster pretty quickly. The doll had already fallen off the horse at my table so I grabbed them and the jump pieces and pulled the saddle crooked and set this up. Then I got the extra doll to run over to help the fallen rider. The documentation says something like "Oops! The saddle slipped, the rider fell, the rest is obvious..." this quick set-up earned me 4th place! And it was pretty fun to do.
After that Lady Intrigue got more serious and worked harder. She did well in hunter and many of her other classes. 
It was enough for reserve English champion on the OF division. Lady Intrigue is wearing tack made by Jennifer Buxton and a doll by me.
That was all the fun and excitement for the OF division for me. I think next year I will try to focus some more and maybe I can do better. It was a really fun day though. CM performance tomorrow.
The other side of course has the super long mane. However it is nice and flat and some allowances need to be made (and are) for OF horses so she should be OK. I have had a fully braided horse do very well in OF western classes. I think she will be fine and I asked another friend who judges and she said it should be fine. So I am pretty excited to try out this little team.
I already had the tack and it used to be the set I used on my Strapless model (who has been my main English performance horse for awhile now) until I got my lovely new Jennifer Buxton set. But it fits very nicely on this little mare and, since she is a small model, this little youth doll fits very well on her. The youth doll was originally made as a sales doll but since no one bought her yesterday and she looks like she was custom made for this horse...I guess I have another doll for myself now.
