AfterNAN

If I learned one thing from this year's NAN experience it's this: NAN is completely unpredictable.

I sent eight horses, one mule and one donkey to NAN.  Collectively they won one Championship, one Reserve Championship and three other Top Ten placings.  That  fifty percent success rate is more or less what I had expected.  However, the specifics of who did and didn't win as well as exactlyhow they won...  that I never would have guessed!

As everyone knows, my biggest winner of the day was Rune.  I can't say that his victory came as a complete surprise.  After all, Rune has a classic NAN winner's pedigree--he's a popular, correct sculpture that was painted by an artist with a proven NAN track record.  I didn't actually expect he'd win, but I was pretty confident he'd do well.

Rune Champion Traditional Arabian
photo by Kellye Bussey

Of course, the same could be said of Validator and he was unable to crack the Top Ten in his class.  It just goes to show that you never can tell!

On the flip side, I really wasn't expecting much from either Sweet Side or Gimme S'more.  Not surprisingly, Sweet Side was an also-ran but not S'more.  He ran away with the silver cookie in the Other Pure/Part/Grade Foals class.

Gimme S'more Reserve Champion Other Pure/Part/Grade Foal
Photo by Kellye Bussey

It's also worth noting the peculiarities of NAN's scoring system has a significant effect on the results.  Each class is judged by three judges, and the winner is not just the horse with the most points but the horse with the most points who also placed first under at least one judge.  Under a points only system, Rune would have tied for third and the winner would have been Lisa Sharpe's lovely Mochaschka painted by Sheila Anderson Bishop.

Mochaschka at last month's Springamathing Live Show

Of course, a points only system would have also turned S'more's silver cookie into a gold.  You win some and you lose some, I guess.

NAN Registrar Jim West doing his best to not to take it too seriously
Photo courtesy Lu Heater

Which leads me to the other thing I learned from this year's NAN.  Like model horse showing in general, you just can't take it too seriously.  Sometimes the best horses win, sometimes they don't and sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!