In 2019 Heather Malone hosted Candyland Live in Colorado. It was the first show where I saw an interpretive class list in performance. You were given a prompt and then were free to come up with whatever you thought best fit the theme. Often it is a regular performance class that can fit in, but a lot of times it was an entry with wild out-of-the-box thinking that topped the class.
For 2021 Candyland Heather turned it into a photo show, which allowed me to enter. I love photo showing, I love interesting class lists, and I love unconventional prizes. For Candyland, Heather has CANDY prizes!
There are in fact some other prizes, including horse pouches, some tiny rosettes, stickers (I LOVE stickers!) and a variety of other things. I don't (usually) eat sugar so for the most part the prizes were incredibly fun but not something that necessarily works for me. But whatever, there was a performance show with a cool class list (and a super low entry fee!) I was totally there!
I did enter some halter classes, which were cool since they were all basically workmanship/color classes and you divided up your horses according to which candy/sweet thing you think they best represented. I didn't place in a single halter class even with some halter photos that I know were pretty great (I have been practicing, got critiques and tips, doing all the right things) and I was not even a little bit surprised. Or disappointed. I really am not a halter shower and in super deep halter classes I am very unlikely to place at all. This has never been a surprise to me. But I am a good performance shower so I was pretty sure I would at least get a handful of placings.
The first class in the show was Happy Trails (21 entries) and I entered Mocha Latte with her endurance riding photo. The one taken in normal photo mode instead of portrait mode. The portrait mode one is way cooler because it blurs out the bushes in the background and looks more realistic. But it also blurs out the reins and that sort of thing doesn't work out that well in performance.
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| 3rd |
I also entered Purdy Zippin Chick with her western trail setup. I really love this photo, this pattern and almost everything about it. I do think I could do it a bit better. I need to tweak the angle so the poles she is trotting over actually show.
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| no placing |
The next class was Barnstorming (14 entries). Barnstorming means a couple of different things but it used to be a daredevil stunt where people would go out on the small planes and performance tricks while standing on the wings. In my entry Emily is convinced that vaulting is just as much of a daredevil sport as barnstorming. Elecktra doesn't agree but is helping her anyway.
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| no placing |
Send in the Clowns (9 entries) was next and I needed to put in my selfie girls with Purdy Zippin Chick. It does seem like very clown-like behavior to be constantly posing in your own bubble and not noticing, or interacting with, the people around you. I am not against selfies, I take my fair share, but I also know how to put away my phone and have a real conversation in the real world. These girls clearly don't.
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| no placing |
My other entry for Send in the Clowns was my jester setup that I created for another creative class (which was Jester). I almost never make a doll for one particular class, but it was too much fun not to. And I occasionally find a way to reuse the setup.
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| 5th |
The next class was Something Wicked This Way Comes (22 entries). I struggled with ideas for that one and went to looking through other photos. Purdy Zippin Chicks entry from Naked Performance in the Pandemic Performance Panorama seemed like it could qualify as wicked. I didn't think I would ever have the opportunity to use this photo again.
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| 5th |
Mocha Latte also had an entry for Something Wicked This Way Comes, which was another self-absorbed person on a cell phone (I wonder if it irritates me when people are glued to their phones instead of paying attention to their surroundings). This was what I could come up with to reuse my stock horse saddle seat entry I put together. It really is (or at least was) a thing, please don't try to tell me it's not. I got the tack set and doll in a trade and this was the first chance I had to try it out.
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| no placing |
Might As Well Jump (22 entries) was next and Purdy Zippin Chick went in with her handy hunter entry.
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| no placing |
For Mocha Latte I tried really hard to think of something creative, decided I was not feeling creative, and put her in with a regular jumper entry.
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| 4th |
The next class was Do The Conga (24 entries) and I really had no great ideas for that. I don't really conga any molds and I wanted it to be a performance entry. And I was not feeling like putting in maximum effort but wanted something. So I came up with bareback follow the leader. It's like a conga line, lol!
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| no placing |
Red Carpet (18 entries) was one I had a couple of ideas for. I thought about putting in Caramel Latte with her fancy Neighs of Our Lives entry from PPP, but then decided to stick with the horses I had been using because most performance shows go by points for each horse. So while that entry is fun it would really only be in for fun. So Purdy Zippin Chick went in with her showmanship entry.
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| no placing |
And Mocha Latte went in with her parade entry. I sort of wish I had put in a bit more time with these, but I lack for time.
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| no placing |
Cosplay Away (18 entries) was a costume class in my mind. Cosplay is usually characters from super hero movies, comic books, or video games, but I was taking it strictly as a costume class. I already own a pink panther costume that fits a model horse so I didn't have to make a brand new comic book character costume for a one-off entry.
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| 5th |
Rocket League (22 entries) had me a little bit stumped as well. I had nothing particularly creative and Purdy Zippin Chick went in with her lunging entry. I think the commentary was mostly an implication of how crazy horses can be after a long winter.
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| no placing |
Mocha Latte went in with her speed game. Funny enough this candy race photo was taken for the Mares in Black Spooktacular show. It was fun to be able to use it again.
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| no placing |
Family Portrait (28 entries) was likely to be full of horses that looked alike in some way. And why not? That totally makes sense. I don't necessarily have a bunch of horses that look like they could be a family so I decided to stick to literal interpretation of portrait. Crystal is painting a "portrait model" of Mocha Latte.
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| 1st |
Pony Club (15 entries) had to be full of kids in my mind, but I again didn't have any super great ideas for it. Especially for a cantering horse. So I decided to just throw on a halter with a looped lead rope for reins and a couple of kids. I had any extra kid as well. I could have also put him on the horse, but I like it better with just the 2.
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| 4th |
Sparkle Motion (16 entries) was one I didn't have super fantastic ideas for. But this photo that I took for PPP worked pretty well. It is Purdy Zippin Chick's entry, even though it is Beauty Queen in the front. But look at the sparkle in that arena!
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| 2nd |
I had no brilliant ideas for Mocha Latte, so I put her in with a western pleasure entry that is not even particularly sparkly. But it is western pleasure, so it is a little sparkly.
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| no placing |
I had a vague idea for Rainbow Brite but forgot to actually put it together so that was the only performance class I didn't enter. I did enter Country Club (12 entries) and thought again about putting Caramel Latte in with her Neighs of Our Lives entry (she looks so fancy!) but decided that the real meaning of country club was likely shoveling horse poop.
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| 4th |
Animal Farm (16 entries) was a fun class though I had already seen Jennifer Buxton's PERFECT Animal Farm entry and didn't want to go the same (perfect) route as she did. So I just went with an arena full of animals, lol.
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| no placing |
Friday night Heather was posting champs in the Candyland Facebook group and I was trying really hard to stay up for it. Close to 11:00 I gave in and went to bed. When I got up in the morning I saw that Mocha Latte was champion of the fun performance division AND Best in Show Champion! That was a really great morning surprise!
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| Fun Performance champion AND Best in Show Champion! |
Thank you so much to Heather Malone for hosting such a cool photo show. Thank you also to Erin Corbett for judging performance and to all the judges who had some super hard classes to wade through. Thank you to all the donors, shows are hard to run without them, and thank you to everyone who entered! I had a really great time looking at all of the photos, especially in performance.
What am I going to do with all that candy???
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