Little Things

       I am still dealing with somewhat of a mental block when it comes to making saddlebags. I did manage to get 4 more sets finished up the other day, I have 2 more sets cut out that need ironing as their next step, and I have new micro print fabrics that would make super cool saddlebags, but I am not sure I will be able to talk myself into making them. I am not even sure if I can talk myself into the last two sets I already have in the works. I am really hoping I can get them done, but currently I have no desire to work on them. 

      Speaking of the micro print fabrics, I was just thinking maybe I will make a couple of special bareback pads with cute prints. Printed bareback pads are not super common, and are usually animal prints, but I think they could be fun. And for the most part a bareback pad on a model horse is likely to be for a fun photo, maybe a scene. I might make some. It sounds fun in my head. 

         I was talking with my sister, Cathy, about remote classes recently. She is a teacher and her students haven't been in the building all year, but recently started in the hybrid model. My students started in hybrid, the town was not responsible over the holidays and COVID numbers spiked so we went back to full remote. Next week we are going back to hybrid classes. It is a weird model and has some things that are tricky with the technology. Anyway, I mentioned to Cathy that I participate in a lot of seances and she was unfamiliar with this (though I am sure she has experienced it). So I sent her this meme. 

      In my experience the freshman don't like to unmute much at all. Unless it is to disrupt the class. Online school is definitely tricky, very different, and does not work for everyone. We do what we can but not everyone is engaged no matter what we do. It's tough. 

      This week I judged youth performance at Breyer Boot Camp. I have been judging for something like 12 years (maybe more) and have judged both open and novice at many live shows, as well as in photo shows. I ran into a class that was very tough to judge. Most of the time that means that the entries are, for the most part, super good and it makes narrowing down the top placers really challenging. Youth and Novice classes are often no acceptation to this, though most usually need a bit of work. This time I ran into different issues. My top 2 placers were fairly easy to determine. They were correct, clean, and safe. In almost all of the rest of the entries I found safety issues, or a doll really hurt the entry. The top 2 was easy but the rest of the top 5 was not. I went with entries that didn't have safety issues, even if they were not overly correct. It was a struggle. And I think people are mad about it. I don't love judging Youth/Novice online, there is not a great opportunity for teaching. Anyway, I got a message asking how I judged that class because the top entries were less correct than some entries that didn't place at all (that was in the message). I started to second guess myself. So the other night I went through the class again, one photo at a time, and I found the same top 5 I had in the first place, They ended up in the exact same order, and I stand by my judging. They were the most correct of the safest entries. It's rough when a comment makes you second guess yourself. I know that I am allowed to answer questions after the judging for the whole show is wrapped up and the champs have been announced, and hopefully I can clear up any confusion on why I placed the classes the way I did. I know it is disappointing to not place well, but it is also an opportunity to figure out how to make your entries better. 

     I still have some of the smaller items to make for my live sale, which will he held March 27th at 2:30 pm. EDT. I will hopefully have a catalog of available items I can post before the sale.