White Creek Fire Company Novice Performance

       I'm sure a lot of people when they hear "novice performance" immediately think of Breyer tack and props and tack made from rubber bands. Stop it. You're wrong. I have not paid too much attention to the novice performance divisions at shows for awhile and that could end badly for me. I am almost exclusively a performance shower, so when I am showing, I almost never know what is going on in halter or in novice. After judging at the White Creek Fire Company show on Sunday, I know this is a big mistake. If you are serious about showing you should not only make sure your own entries are the best they can be, but you should know your competition. Listen up performance people, this is our competition.

      This is Hannah Mahardy. She was the only novice performance shower at the show. That did not necessarily make judging any easier. 

     The novice division followed the same class list as open and I flip flopped back and forth between them. The first class of the day was harness. Hannah had this gorgeous pony cart 

     And also this milk wagon. For anyone that just reads and scrolls, stop. Go and click on all the photos so you get them full size and can truly appreciate the details in these entries. 

     Next up was the stock work class. I had already marveled at Hannah's harnesses and then I got to marvel at this tiny tack as well. 

     I know this is some special type of saddle but I didn't think to get a photo of the documentation. Seriously though, so detailed and IN SCALE. 

      The next class was Western trail and I got treated to some more amazing tiny tack. 

        I have only worked in stablemate scale a couple of times. It's hard. It's hard to get things in scale and add detail. Hannah's tack is detailed and in scale. And did I mention that she makes it all herself? Yeah, she does. This girl has some serious talent. 

     Up next was games and Hannah again made things hard for me with two entries. This horse soccer entry was very cool

As was her pole bending entry. 

Then in Other western she had a couple of western dressage entries. 

Hannah also had lovely, detailed documentation for all her entries. 

The last Western class was western pleasure. I seem to be missing the photo of her other entry. 

     I actually took several pictures of this saddle seat entry. It's simple, right? Wrong. True, she just has the horse in tack on the table, but the tack is incredibly detailed. Again. The stirrups even have pads on them! I don't think I have seen stirrup pads in stablemate scale before. Admittedly, I don't pay too much attention to this scale, but this stuff is amazing. The strap work is incredibly fine and really, just amazing. If you're already tired of me saying amazing, just stop reading now, there is more to come. 

Next was the costume division. Hannah had this really excellent medieval costume.

     And this cute horse dressed as candy costume. The documentation for the candy entry was very cool. 

     I struggled a lot with the other performance class. Mostly because of this adorable entry. It's a therapy pony, and that sort of thing rates very high on my list. So I had to decide if this entry was as great as I thought, or if I just loved it more because of what it is. 

As usual, Hannah's documentation was excellent. 

Her other entry was this cool souvenir photo booth entry. 

     With reference pics from the Braymere custom saddlery blog. I went back and forth with this class for awhile. Eventually the therapy pony won out. 

          Next up was the cross country/jumper/hunter class. This entry was amazing. What a wonderful jumper entry! She had protective boots, including tiny bell boots, perfectly in scale bridle, breast collar. Incredibly detailed. 

And the jump was fantastic as well!

Hannah made every bit of this entry. And every bit of it is gorgeous, detailed and accurate. 

      She also had a hunter entry. I am pretty sure that she also customized this pony. I will say it again. Everyone needs to watch out for Hannah. 

     This was another class that was tough to judge. Though the jumper entry was so detailed and correct it would have been very hard to beat. 

     Next up was English trail. The pony went in with this entry. Blow up the picture if you have not done that yet. It's worth it. 

     This was one of the few times I actually had anything to tell Hannah that needed correcting. It was still a really nice looking entry and I am sure next time it will be flawless. 

     I may have to steal this English games idea. I have never heard of pool noodle jousting, but it is super cool!

     Hannah also had impeccable documentation. I love this idea. I love how it's creative and different. I love that when Hannah moves to open she is going to be tough to beat. 

Dressage was next and Hannah again had a really nice entry. 

     Several people came over and checked out her entries throughout the day. The way she did her flowers was very clever and had a lot of people wondering why they didn't think of this. Making tiny stablemate scale flowers is HARD. 

This entry looks incredibly polished. I really am impressed with all of it. 

     The other English class was a bit tricky to judge as well. This versatility entry narrowly beat out the tandem riding entry. 

     But the tack fit was a tiny bit better on the versatility entry. But both were very nice and well documented. 

     English pleasure came down to the tack fit as well. And the fit was not actually the issue if I am being accurate. The little pony had the strap of the bridle just a tiny be too close to it's eye. 

    The last class of the show was the scene class. This escaping pony was adorable!

     The entry was detailed.

     Documented. 

    And really, just amazing!

     So cute!

       Hannah may be young and she may be new to showing, but she is incredibly talented. She customized her horses, makes her own props and makes all of her own tack. All of it is incredible. Her entries were incredible. I feel they would be competitive against traditional scale entries. From the first class I said that Hannah should be showing in the open division. Having judged both the open and novice division I can say that even in open, Hannah would have dominated. So listen up again performance showers, Hannah Mahardy is going to be a force to be reckoned with. And Hannah, I hope this post was worth the wait. :)