Judging Clinic at Breyerfest

     Thursday of Breyerfest I judged English performance at Breyerfest Live. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I taught my clinic on judging performance in the hands on hobby tent. 

     I taught this clinic last year as well, and it was fun, and I learned a lot. Teachers should always be learning, and I learn a little bit from each of the clinics I teach. Last year, for the hands on portion of my clinic, I had 2 trail classes and 2 pleasure classes. This year I thought I would do a bit more, in the same amount of time, and I added over fences and games. I really liked the change. 

    Last year, I forgot to take photos of my sample entries all set up. For this year it didn't matter too much, other than I wasn't totally sure which horse had which setup. The tack, dolls, and props are all mine, but the horses are supplied by Breyer. Every performance shower knows you need time to tack up horses and if you have to adjust the tack to fit each model on show day, it can be very stressful. 

     Part of my problem when prepping for this year was I wasn't totally sure I remembered which horses I had available to me. So I had to go back through old emails and figure it out. I have some of the molds here, so I could size tack and be at least somewhat ready. Setup for the clinic was still lengthy, especially on the first day. (and yes, this games entry is set up wrong).

     All of my games entries used props and documentation I purchased from Carrie Sloan Meyer. I have a variety of stuff to set up games classes, some of it is from Carrie, some is stuff I found and made myself, and potentially some of my stuff is from other prop makers. I have been showing for a long time and I have a lot of stuff. 

     But last year I got a whole bunch of new stuff from Carrie and I only went to one show since I got everything. This was a great opportunity to use a lot of my new stuff!

      The weather was not as extreme this year as it was last year, but the humidity was still messing my my glue dots. After I got all the entries set up I checked them constantly for slipped bits and other messed up things, right up until it was time to start teaching. 

      The sign hanging up in my clinic area said judging expert. I made sure to tell people that just means I have been doing this for a very long time. No one knows everything about everything. But I have a lot of general knowledge about judging model horse performance. And Breyer made the sign, not me. 

     The first part of the clinic is talking about what I look for when I judge and going over the handout I give everyone. This year, it was also stressing often that judging real horses and judging model horses is not at all the same thing. A lot of real horse judges come into model horse performance, as showers or judges, and they get upset about how they place (because they feel the judge is doing it "wrong") or they place according to the one set of breed standards for judging that they know. I pointed out that model horse judging can't stick to one particular set of rules. Plus we have to use at least bits of imagination when we judge because our entries don't move. 

    For the most part, people really seemed to enjoy the clinic, especially the hands-on portion where they judged several classes. Some people were nervous about it, they had never judged before, but I said as long as you can justify all of your places, you are right. I think that made it easier for a lot of people. 

     After the judging portion we got back into a discussion about our placings. We talked about the games class, which I didn't prep anyone to judge, just threw them into it, and said that judging games is actually like that. It's a class you can't really prepare for because there are so many types of games out there, and people can, and do, make up new games all the time. 

     Every one of the clinics had great questions that added so much to the discussion. The first day, after the judging, one of the people said they thought the Fill the Bucket game was set up backwards. I said it totally was. I also said that no, I hadn't done it on purpose. I pointed out, over and over, that I am human and I also make mistakes. I set up 6 different entries fairly quickly and didn't overthink things, which means I made some mistakes. And I knew it would happen and I wanted it to happen. We all learn from our mistakes; mistakes really are an opportunity to learn. The first day I found that I set up the fill the bucket game backwards. I also realized I really needed a barrel for the game, but I didn't have any with me. So I covered my Zots box with paper, slid it off, and filled it with trash. I told everyone it was a beautiful, super realistic barrel. And everyone would laugh about it. But it also gave a great lesson on suspending reality a little bit while judging model horses. 

      I really enjoy teaching the performance judging clinic at Breyerfest, and I love the wonderful questions people ask. I get asked, a lot, if having a doll in your entry gives you an edge. And I always tell people that it depends on the entry, and what else is on the table. Adding a doll, but not taking the time to position it properly, will detract from your entry. Having a riderless entry, that is done so well you could imagine an invisible rider (suspend that reality) will definitely give you an edge over an entry with a sloppy or incorrect doll. At least that is how it should be. At the end of the day the answer to a lot of questions is "it depends on what else is on the table". And my other most common answer is "it's model horses. It should be fun. It's not that serious"