Equilocity AOTH

    Recovery from horsefest is turning out to be a very slow process for me. I am still super exhausted, which isn't helped by having to get up fairly early to get Travis ready to go. Naps are my friend, and I have enjoyed many of them since getting back in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Though I guess I am right on schedule with things. I got everything unpacked, for the most part, on Wednesday when I got up. All the laundry is finished and put away. Yesterday was Thursday and I struggled through the day, which seems about right. I still didn't get enough sleep last night, not even 7 hours, and as soon as Travis got on the van I went and took a nap, with my feet up. This is important information. I have been dealing with somewhat painful swelling in my feet for several days. Yesterday I did a long soak in Epsom salt with lavender oil. And I went to bed with my feet up. This morning I napped with my feet up. And now my feet are almost back to normal. Walking is not nearly as painful. It seems that 55 miles of walking in a week and eating less than ideal food caught up to me. But I am recovering. 

     Today we are going to talk about Equilocity, the Art of the Horse Show. This was an all workmanship show, and the first of it's kind. There may have been other all workmanship shows out there, I don't know of any, but I have never heard of a show that had a dolls/props/barns division. It was quite exciting to see the class list! Even without performance I was excited for this show. Though I woke up when I meant to be at the hall. It turns out the alarm I set was a school alarm, which repeats every weekday. And it was a Saturday, so that alarm didn't go off. I panicked for about 30 seconds and then decided it wasn't that big of a deal. The only division I really cared about was dolls, and that wasn't going to be happening until after tack. Two tack sections actually. So I had time. 

     We did eventually get to the hall, and I had missed some of my tack classes, but that was OK. I really wasn't bothered about that. The first class I showed in was braided western headgear. That may have not been the official name of it, though braided was in it. 

      This first place in doll related props was not as exciting as it looks since I had the only entry in the class. I was going to show one of my backpacks, but I couldn't find mine. I have a bunch I made, but I have a pink plaid one I made for myself. And it is currently missing. 

     The first class in the doll division was western pleasure and it had a lot of entries. The two dolls I brought to show didn't even place, though quite a lot of the dolls in the class were ones that I made. It was after this class that I decided I would stand the dolls, even without stands (I forgot to bring some). I do have the ability to do that after all. 

     The next class was working western dolls and my super bendy cowboy got 4th. He is a bit old and tired at this point, but he is still pretty good at his job. Which is bending. 

     Little Elecktra managed third place, which was fun. This was a class that I didn't make any new dolls for, and it was nice to see that some really old dolls managed to do well. 

     The next class was gymkhana and this was a new doll that was actually made for an order and rejected. So instead of making myself a new doll to show, I showed this one. She is currently for sale. 

     I have hunt seat dolls, but I made this new one specifically show show at Equilocity. She has already been sold. 

     I don't have saddle seat tack currently, so this doll was also made specifically for the show, and has been sold. 

     Since jumper allows for more interesting coat colors I wanted to do someone a bit different so made this teal jacketed lady. She, and several other new English dolls, are wearing helmets that were made for me by my friend George. This one was glossed, though mostly I leave them as-is. 

This eventing lady was another brand new doll, and she is still available for sale. 

     I don't have upper level dressage tack, and I'm really only comfortable showing in lower levels, but I do love to make upper level dolls. Especially now that the rules have changed and they can, or have to (I can't remember) wear helmets now. I don't love making top hats, even though I do love making fancy driving hats. 

     I got lazy for the judge doll class and didn't get a ribbon photo. Mine is on the left and got second. I agree with that placing. He forgot his hat (actually, he has a really big head and none of the hats I had with me fit him. If I had remembered to bring a judge's kit with me, he might have done better (maybe) even without a hat. But I didn't have any with me at the show. 

     The final class list changed after I printed out the show packet. An Arabian doll class had been added. This was the only class in the doll division that I didn't have an entry for. But I absolutely loved this doll! Her entire coat glittered and it was just amazing!

The last class of the day was other dolls. And there was quite the variety of other dolls. 

All sorts of dolls. 

And there were a lot of them. 

Some of them were quite unusual. 

Some didn't have heads (I don't know why the head is removable, it just is)

     The other doll class got split into 3 sections, though I can't currently remember what they were. My showmanship doll got third, in showmanship (which I am almost sure was one of the sections)

     My Jester doll got 2nd in her section, which may or may not have been the same section as my vaulting doll. 

My vaulting doll got first, just laying around on the table. That was fun. 

The callback tables were insane!

      This is my first place crew. 

     And the rest of the doll callbacks. 

     Being the first show of its kind, the classes in the tack/props/doll classes were not usually very large. I made a point of entering (almost) all of the doll classes. It would have been irresponsible of me not to. I did show a handful of horses, but I didn't get any spectacular placings. I am not a halter shower and I don't necessarily have horses that are super awesome for halter. I did bring tack to show but I missed a lot of the classes, and I didn't mind that. I went to show dolls. Thank you Erin Corbett for making an entire division just for me! (she didn't, but I make dolls, so she kind of did, lol). 

Resin Renaissance

     Last Thursday started the days where I had things I actually needed, or planned, to do, while I was in Kentucky. Thursday I judged performance at Resin Renaissance. In some ways, being asked to judge was what made me commit to going on the trip in the first place. I had been considering it, even strongly, but when Jackie asked me if I was still able to judge (I had forgotten she asked me to) I said yes. And then I was committed. And I am glad of it. 

     I was really looking forward to judging. I haven't judged at a live show since 2019. I was pleased to see I still remembered all the things I knew before. I was a little bit sad at how small the division was. I think the largest class had 4 entries. The smallest had zero. But there was a lot of lovely and creative entries and I am glad I got to judge them. Maybe Heather and Jackie will let me judge again and I might have a larger division. 

     I also showed some horses in the mini and the micro division. I was really tired and didn't take as many photos as I wanted, I also don't have the energy to label anything. So enjoy the show photos, all potentially in random order!

 

Horsefest the Aftermath

     When Travis and I got home at dark o'clock this morning, the only thing I did was make sure nothing had gotten broken. This morning though (or later on in the morning when the sun was up), it was time to start unpacking for real. I know that some people leave that, or parts of it, until much later, but I can't do it. I can't leave dishes in the sink, and basically if something needs doing, I do it. I might take all day, as I did today with getting to the dishes, but I will do it. This was the start of the unpacking. I haven't washed a dish in 8 days. Until today. It was great.

     This was the excitement that none of my bourbon or glassware had broken on the trip. 

     And this was a bunch of unwrapped resins and a lot of laundry sorted and ready to be washed. By the end of the day, all of the laundry was done, folded and put away. I don't like to leave things. I even went on a side quest and went through most of my clothes and pulled out stuff I just don't wear. I am sure there is more. There always is. 

     The beautiful custom zebra I bought suffered during the journey. She wasn't tacky, until she got wrapped up, and then she got tacky. The plastic she was wrapped in got stuck in her finish and made a mess. I am going to let her sit for several days and see if the tackiness goes away, and see if a coat or two of gloss will fix her up. She is such a cool zebra!

    I have most of my special runs, the set of event stablemates, and some other things in a box in the hands of USPS. That should be here Friday and then I can do a proper loot photo. Currently though, we are home, not well rested, but somewhat rested, the unpacking is finished, and now I just have to sort some stuff that I kind of just put into the studio without putting it away. Almost time for back to real life, but not just yet. More posts about horsefest are still to come!

Horsefest Trip Heading Home

     This morning (yesterday morning) I decided we needed to actually go out for breakfast. And even though we can go to Cracker Barrel at home, that is where we went. Our server was really nice and the food was good. Plus it wasn't a sandwich, so that was nice. After breakfast (which actually happened at about noon) we went back to the hotel to finish packing up, to do the double check that we hadn't left anything behind, and then headed out to do some last minute wandering before going to the airport. 

    We got to the airport, returned the rental car, and went to check in for our flight. Even though we were almost 3 hours early because I couldn't figure out what else to do with our time. While we were waiting in line to check in I checked my texts and found out our flight was delayed! So now we were over 5 hours early for our flight. That sucked. I did double check what I was seeing with the American Airlines agent, he checked for other flights out of Charlotte that might get us to Hartford sooner, but there was nothing. Whatever, the biggest issue is how long we are now stuck in Lexington waiting to leave. But I do have to say, TSA in the Lexington airport takes those sunflower lanyards very seriously. They were all extra patient and extra nice to Travis. Though at this point Travis is basically a rockstar traveler and can follow all the instructions with only the tiniest delay. TSA actually complimented him on how well he followed the directions for the metal detector. I guess a lot of people can't handle that. 

    So we were sitting in the terminal and I looked across the way and found Robbie Ramirez! So now I have another airport buddy, but this one will talk to me. And it turns out we are on the same flight to Charlotte. What are the odds?

      Many hours later, after they delayed our flight 5 or 6 (or was is more?) times, we were still in the airport. Robbie was already going to miss his connection so he changed his flight all together and was going to be stuck until morning. That sucks! Travis was still awesome through all the waiting. 

     A plane! And this one was definitely for us. It was fun to watch it pull up to the terminal. More fun that they let us get on it. The flight was not very full, and when I chose the seats I chose carefully. Travis and I were all the way in the back with no one around us in the two rows next to us or the two rows in front of us. But everyone had a lot of space on that flight. 

    Once we got on the plane they announced that Charlotte was still under a weather advisory and we were going to sit on the tarmac for more than an hour. Airplanes are just not that comfortable. But the flight attendants gave us drinks and snacks right away, Travis faked a nap (he may have had an actual short nap) and he looked out the window. 

     And he continued to look out the window the entire flight. Something I discovered on this trip was that Travis LOVES flying. I asked him, more than once, if he wanted to watch a movie, listen to music, or look at his book. Nope, he wanted to look out the window. Even while we were just sitting on the tarmac waiting. I also happen to love flying, though mostly I enjoy takeoff (and with Dramamine right from the start I did enjoy it yesterday again). 

     With our multiple delays once we boarded in Lexington, and then a wait in Charlotte-Douglas to actually pull up to the terminal, we had 14 minutes to get to our connecting flight to Bradley. Travis and I are now those people that run through the airport! I was surprisingly calm about the whole thing. I figured if we missed it because we only had 14 minutes they would have to rebook us for free. Though I REALLY wanted to make that flight. Travis ended up towing me along at a few points. I reminded him I was just not as fast as he is, especially carrying stuff. His bags didn't hinder his speed in the least. He hooked arms with me and pulled me along. 

      We made it to our terminal, which had switched to a slightly closer one, and I was grateful, and got in line. There was no chance we could get on the plane first. So I started talking to Travis about the plane. I said we were going to get on it when there were already lots of people on it. He was totally fine. We got to the desk and had to go off to the side and wait. With all of the delays and rebookings they didn't actually have us properly booked on the flight and they needed to rebook us. So we ended up getting on the plane last. And I had to shoo someone out of Travis's seat. She thought the flight was closed and she could get a row to herself. Nope, Travis needs that window to look out of. The agent in Charlotte was actually quite super as well. She said she had him booked by the window, and me on the aisle, so he had more space. I still sat right next to him. And he looked out the window the entire time. 

     That flight was a little longer, about an hour and 40 minutes, we had some water and cookies and I took another nap. When we got to Bradley we deplaned when it was our turn, and we went to baggage. The luggage wasn't lost, we snagged it easily, and I checked my Breyerfest album to remember where we parked in the garage. We eventually found the car, got everything loaded, and $158 later (it ended up being 9 days of parking) we headed home. Finally. 

     We had a really good time in Kentucky, a really good time at horsefest, and it was amazing to see people I have never seen in person, or haven't seen in person in a very long time. Travis was a rockstar through 2 horseshows, a whole ton of hangouts, and so many long waits at airports. If you haven't figured it out, I started this post yesterday and am finishing up today. After sleeping. With all the delays it took around the same amount of time to get home as driving would have. The difference is I only had to drive for about 35 minutes instead of 13 hours. It has been probably 20 years I have wanted to go to Breyerfest and I finally got to do it. I have a whole bunch more posts planned, but first I need to unpack.