Show Prep

     I have not done much show prep in a lot of years. I haven't had the need, since I haven't been showing. I think, maybe, some people wonder about that. It started with COVID, which stopped the shows for a while. Then it turned into there weren't many shows, or I was busy that weekend. And really, the thought of getting up gross early, on a weekend, was just awful. When I started dancing a bit over a year ago it really became impossible to imagine getting up super early on a Saturday after being out so late on a Friday night. But our Friday dance spot is closed and now we dance on Wednesdays (and for the Summer, a friend of mine and I go and dance in Connecticut on Tuesdays) but I showed at Resin Renaissance, because I was already going to be close to the show hall, I was already prepared to not get enough sleep the whole time I was in Kentucky, and I did actually have a nice time. I got to talking with my friend Danielle, one night in Kentucky, and she said there was a local show coming up in August. So I decided to look into it, the show was still open for entries, and then all of a sudden, I have show prep I needed to take care of. Alright then. 

     A lot of my recent show prep, which started as soon as I got back from Kentucky, was laminating my documentation. Yes, I bought a laminator just to do this. Part of that was I have had the same paper documentation for years and some of it is getting a little worn. Some of it was when I had my documentation on the table for my judging clinic at Breyerfest the wind kept trying to blow it away. I thought laminated documentation was a better idea. So that is what I am doing. I also, after many years, got a new documentation binder. Little things make me happy. My new binder, which is so neat and perfectly organized, makes me happy. It would be better if it was also pink, but sadly, it is not. 

     Another little weird piece of show prep was sorting miniature books. I had zero need to do this, I could have just grabbed a bunch of random books, but I decided to pull out mostly books that I was at least familiar with, preferably ones I had read, and not dark romance. It amused me to do it, so I did. Anyway, I have a whole ton of miniature books and I feel like now I need to come up with some more ideas that use them. And I am sure I will. 

      There are cows on my porch that just finished getting their clear coat and I have a note on my computer to do some tack fitting tomorrow. I also need to get the show stuff, and my table, make sure everything is clean and probably pack it in my car so it is easier to leave on Saturday morning. I am already tired thinking about getting up early. But I am also looking forward to the show. I will get to see friends I haven't seen in a while, and I will play with a horse. That should be fun. I am likely going to show just one horse again. It's an easy way to do it. 

      So anyway, after years of not showing I am doing show prep and trying to remember all the things that I didn't have to think too much about. Like things I have to remember to bring. And I have to look for my tweezers that seemed to disappear after Breyerfest. 

My Ordinary Life

     If you take all of the random things I have done in my life, and put them in a paragraph, sometimes it seems like I have this exceptionally interesting life. Until you realize that I have had 46 years on this planet and you can fit all the exceptionally interesting things I have done in a paragraph. The reality is that while my life is not typical for most people, it is pretty ordinary. And that's OK. I actually really love my ordinary life. Once in a while I do some really interesting things, but all of the ordinary makes the interesting stuff that much more interesting. 

     So what do I do with my ordinary life? Other than work and pay bills, which I do plenty of. Well, I do a lot of puzzles. And I mean, a LOT of puzzles. I happen to love puzzles. Jigsaw puzzles, word puzzles, escape rooms, word searches, cryptograms. I love puzzles. This was my latest puzzle. I got it at the Mary Todd Lincoln house in Lexington. The paint bottle is for scale. This small 7" diameter puzzle took me 2 days to finish. It made me twitchy and I had to walk away from it several times. But it was still fun. It's my first round puzzle. 

     Members of the miniatures club know that the club has now come to an end. The cost of everything has gone up quite a lot recently. That includes postage. Those facts, coupled with my extreme lack of extra time led me to the decision to discontinue the club. I have been considering it for probably a year. But now seemed to be the time to do it. Jennifer put together this cute photo with one of the July miniatures (the cabinet). I love Jennifer's photos. They are always so detailed. 

Photo by Jennifer Buxton

       I love to read and I do a lot of it. Even when I really don't have a lot of time, I read a lot. Yesterday, I was at my friend's shop and I picked up a journal by this name. My friend asked if I had read the book, I said no, and asked if I needed to. She said it would make the journal make a lot more sense. So I picked up the book. If nothing else, it is a hilarious read! Not for people that are offended by profanity. It's technically a self-help book, without being a regular self-help book. So far, what it is is a book reminding us that sometimes life sucks, and to learn to embrace it, and keep going. To be happy with the knowledge that sometimes life isn't all rainbows and butterflies. I do a lot of that already. More than one person lately has asked how I am always happy. The real answer is I am not ALWAYS happy, I am just happy much more often than not. And I do that by not dwelling on what I don't have or can't have. No, I don't aim for positivity in all things, I am snarky and sarcastic quite often. But I do acknowledge that I have a lot of really excellent things in my life. And I am happy with ordinary. Not every day needs to be an adventure (that sounds exhausting!) and not everything needs to be bigger, better, or more in some way. I have a lot of stuff, but better than that I have what I need. The fact that I have more than that is a bonus. 

     Mostly I wrote this post because there are people that want me to post and enjoy reading my blog. Sometimes that really does surprise me. In general, my life is fairly ordinary. Sometimes I get to do cool things, and sometimes I don't have much to say because it's just another week in my life. Summer is a bit more laid back than during the school year, but this summer I am still very busy. How did that happen? Well, I started working with a Spanish tutor, and I have 3 lessons a week with him. I also started going down to a dance studio in Connecticut on Tuesdays for a couple of lessons. But that is a whole outing in itself because the studio is about an hour away, there are usually several people that carpool, we usually get dinner before the lessons. Wednesdays I teach dance and there is a social dance after the lessons. And sometime in the week I usually have a private dance lesson as well. Friday I have my coffee date with Travis. I still have to work in the studio because paras don't make enough money to live. I have more time to read, and I like that. But even though I have a lot of things I have to do in a week, and the fun things I get to do might shift a bit depending on the time of year, I do have a pretty ordinary life. And most of the time, I really love that. 

People of Horse-fest

    At long last, the post that I am pretty sure everyone was waiting for; people of horse-fest! So many times in our hobby we take photos of horses and don't even think to take photos of people. So anyone that came to say hello because they read my blog, knew me from online, or because they bought a doll from me, I took a selfie with. Some people I know from showing in region X. Some people I know because we are actually friends and have hung out, even if we don't live in the same state. What everyone has in common is we all went to horse-fest and we all love model horses (even Travis). A lot of people told me during the trip that they really loved seeing all the people when I did my post about people last year. I did see other people that I either didn't have time to take a pic with (because I was showing or something). I didn't get a chance to go to the Dappledown Soiree at all, which I am bummed about. So with limited text interruption, I give you, the people of horse-fest! I am in every single photo so I will just say who else is in the photo with me. 

Travis Field

Andrea Brygidyr

Shauna McDaniel

Tiffany Purdy

Jackie Rossi

Danielle Miller

Sue Bensema Young

Heather Malone

Robbie Ramirez

Heather Jackson-Lain

Lindsay Diamond

Erin Corbett

Robin Briscoe

Fabian Rodriguez

Sara Bowman

Lynn Rhea

Grace Manson

Jennifer Pomerance

Wendy Chetcuti

Rhonda Chilsolm

Dani Boiko

Morgen Kilbourn

Nikki Hertzog

Carrie Sloan Meyer

Kat McDermott

Danielle Feldman

Sarah Townsend

Julia Nichols and Korin D'ascenzo

Stacy Faraci

Resin Renaissance

     It had been a very long time since I had shown in performance. TRXC of 2019 was the last show, right up until Resin Renaissance a little over a week ago. I had judged a bit, and put a few horses in some halter classes while I was judging, but I hadn't done anything in performance. It was time to see if I could still do it. 

     Mocha Latte has been an excellent show horse for many years for me. She suffered breaks to both ear tips on the trip to Kentucky. I glued her ears back on in the hotel, the night before the show, but I had nothing to touch them up with. Which is why she got 2nd place in her first class, which was other costume in the other performance division. After this class I borrowed some things to touch her up a bit, just so there was a less glaring flaw on her. 

     For her scene class I set up a NaMoPaiMo scene. I originally set this up for a photo show, I believe a Mares in Black photo show, with a slightly different setup. I couldn't find my 1:9 scale folding table (I might have sold it) and adding a piece of wood on top of a barrel I was already using for other classes was easy to pack. Part of my mission was to bring as little as possible, since we flew to Kentucky. Mocha Latte got 4th in this class. But the entry got a lot of attention from people at the show. 

     The last entry I put down in the other performance division was this vaulting entry. I have documentation for it, nice documentation, but it wasn't at the show. I know I pulled it out so I really have no idea what happened to it. Hopefully I can either find it again or I have a copy of it on my computer. This entry also got a 4th place. 

    Next up was the English performance division. Mocha Latte's first entry was Jumper, and she didn't place at all because her bit had popped. How annoying. So I fixed that and then asked Tiffany Purdy to look at my horse and tell me what was wrong with her. I could tell something was off but I wasn't seeing it. Have you ever had that happen? It's very annoying. Tiffany told me my saddle was a little too far back and I needed to tighten my girth. OK, done. I fixed that stuff and fixed the doll and went into hunter. Mocha got 2nd place. 

     The next class was English games and I entered with a housewife scurry. I love this class because the needed equipment is very small. It got 4th place. 

     After that I finally started counting how many entries were on the table. English trail had 12 entries in it. This was my and Tiffany's entries. 

    Mocha got 2nd place. I wasn't at all upset about it. 

 English pleasure other (not sport type) had 11 entries.

     I definitely wasn't upset about this one. Tiffany is such an amazing shower that beating one of her entries is hard to do. This was the only time I managed it. 

    Dressage had 8 entries and Mocha Latte got a 3rd. 

     She also got a third in other English with a versatility entry I apparently forgot to get a photo of. Overall she ended up with reserve champion in the English performance division. 

    Next up for me was the poles/barrels class. Mocha got 6th out of 8 entries. It was not a great entry so it's actually pretty cool that it placed at all. 

     After that was the western games class. Mocha went in with a jumping figure 8's entry which didn't place at all. I was struggling to get the bridle and reins to behave. I was glad that I could switch it after this class was done. 

     The next class was reining/western dressage and it went a lot better with a 2nd place out of 9 entries. 

    Then was western trail, with 12 entries, for 5th place. 

    Western pleasure stock type had 11 entries and Mocha latte snagged 2nd place. 

     For the other western class I showed my versatility entry again. There were 9 entries in total and Mocha Latte won the class. 

    In the end Mocha Latte didn't get champ or reserve in other western, but there were struggles throughout the class. She didn't show in all the classes and some of her entries were just kind of mediocre. But for the first show in nearly 5 years I wasn't at all disappointed in her placings. In the end she had reserve champ in English performance, runner up for high point horse, and runner up for the versatility award. 

    It was good to know that even after such a long break from showing I do still know how to do it. I also got a bit of a push to want to really plan for a show and get some new or more interesting entries on the table. I do still seem to enjoy showing, though I had forgotten just how long a show day can be. Maybe for the next one I will bring my computer so I can research while I wait for classes to be judged. Or I can always conjugate Spanish verbs. One of the other.