Almost wordless Wednesday

The BreyerFest models have started to arrive, and so far, it's been amazing. Here's a recap of today in ModelHorseLand.

Wayback Wednesday

Today's Wayback Wednesday post revisits the 1990 Shining Aspen live show. 

Unlike the pictures I shared last Friday, these photos aren't labeled. The only exception is shown below.

Still, it's pretty easy to guess what's being depicted in most of them. This looks the Original Finish Western callback table.

This is the same, but for the English section.

Other Performance is lost to time, but here are the contenders for Overall Original Finish Champion and Reserve. I wonder which one won?

Another callback table, this one looks like Custom Western.

There are individual entry pictures, too.

When viewed as a group, these entries look very dated.

Still, I suspect a few of them would be competitive today.

This trail entry sports an early (and nice) diorama.

I'd bet money on this being a Carol Williams saddle. So gorgeous, and that pony isn't half bad either!

Bad performance?

This photo of handwritten, index card documentation makes me think, "We've come a long way, baby."

At the same time, this tacking photo shows that some things never change.

The last two photos are group shots of some of the entrants with their models.

This looks like a showmanship class with humans handling their models. Was that ever a thing?

Thank you, Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig for sending these pictures my way. The next group of photos will cover Northwest Congress 1993, 1994 and 1995.

Flat art by hobby artists

The mailman brought me an unexpected package today. Inside I found this gorgeous portrait of Darcy by my friend, Tamzyn Revolta.

I met Tamzyn last year during my trip to the Netherlands. This is my second piece by her. The first is a painting of Ted, the Comtois who took Carol, Leah and I on a carriage ride through Amsterdam.

Earlier this year, I was gifted another piece of original art. This is a portrait of Stealth by German hobbyist, Karina Machentanz. She definitely captured his noble profile!

A couple other not-so-recent additions to my flat art by model horse artists collection include this painting of Thunder in the gelding field by Kylee Parks...

and Kristen Cermele's fanciful depiction of Darcy and Emma cavorting in the snow.

Thank you, Tamzyn, Karina, Kylee and Kristen for immortalizing my canine and equine friends. I love each and every one of these pictures so much. 

NormFest

Every summer, my friend, Trisha's family throws a big party to celebrate (or mourn) their hay crop.

Trisha's father passed away in June. Instead of cancelling the party, her family decided to turn it into his Celebration of Life.

Yesterday I drove eighty miles to the Brown's farm in Wellington to attend NormFest.

I parked in the field...

then checked in at the Norm Shrine.

I signed the guest book and made a name tag. Everyone was asked to include the year they met Norm on their name tag. I thought that was a nice touch. My year was 1988.

I also picked up a Norman Brown baseball card. Norm was a huge sports fan, so this was a perfect alternative to a traditional program.

Part of Norm's baseball hat collection was on display. Everyone was encouraged to choose a hat to bring home with them. 

A local band played some of Norm's favorite tunes.

Trish sang, too. She sounded great.

In keeping with the traditions of HayFest, seating consisted of hay bales covered with horse blankets.

It was a lot of seats, but every one of them got used. 

After the service, we were encouraged to go pet horses while the food was being prepared. 

I was happy to oblige.

Hello, Jacob!

Hello, Miles!

We ate, we drank and we shared Norm stories. 

It was a great party and a perfect tribute to a man who will be deeply missed.