Sandy's Brokeback Boys

The model horse hobby is filled with women who never played with dolls as children, but now, inexplicably, have entire collections of expensive, custom made rider dolls. Today's guest post tells the story of two dolls owned and loved by my friend and performance shower extraordinaire, Sandy Sanderson. Thanks, Sandy!

The Brokeback Boys

by Sandy Lyles

It all started a long time ago...  and it's all Lori's fault....

Lori Batchelor and Bill Duncan

I used to just buy pony pouches from her.  Then one Breyerfest, in a small room in the 100 block, or was that the 500s?? Who knows, all I remember it was in a cheap hotel room in a Holiday Inn....  I saw this cowboy laying on the bed. He was an old school wrangler, from the '70's by the way he was dressed.  I had to make him mine. Fifty bucks later we walked out the door together.

Hank and I were together for a lot of years...a versatile cowboy like him, well, we won a lot of competitions.

But time takes its toll on a hard working ranch hand.  Hank's right shoulder gave out...right in the middle of a roping class!!! 

Luckily, it happened in Kentucky, and Lori just happened to be there. Could she hook me up with a younger, less beat up cowpoke? Of course, she says. So off we go to that dank motel room...  Pete was his name. Fit, trim and really tight joints! Just what I needed, and he was dressed a lot like ole Hank! I couldn't resist. 

Months passed and Hank just hung around the tack box, all depressed and such...until Pete asked ole Hank to join him as his ride along on his Chuckwagon race team.

The rest is history. Those two boys got along like peas in pod...

and they immediately started winning.  They even came real close at the Nationals  to earning a Top Ten ribbon two years in a row.

Occasionally, the age difference gets in the way.  When that happens, they'll take on separate gigs....

each a champion in his own right.

Fortunately, they always get back together in the end.  A partnership like this just can't be broken up, not even by Jennifer's jumping mule!

Long live the Brokeback cowboys!

Blue Skies Other Performance

The Blue Skies Live Show was held yesterday at the El Paso County Fairgrounds in Calhan, Colorado.  You probably have not heard of Calhan and there's a reason.  It's a dinky town in the middle of nowhere.  Despite that, this is a really nice place to attend a model horse show.  The hall is big and bright and although the location is somewhat remote, it's not too terribly far from either the Denver Metro area or Colorado Springs.

Blue Skies was a big, multi-division show with a full performance division.  As per usual, the day started with the Other Performance division.  This is Jane Schneider's AA Haflinger resin competing in the Harness class.

Performance shower extraordinaire Sandy Lyles made the trip from her home in Salida, Colorado.  Here she is readying her harness entry. 

I hear these guys have a reputation for being the Brokeback cowboys.

Teresa Buzzell's china Optime looked marvelous in a Jennifer Wilson costume...

as did her cremello half Arabian. 

I did manage to get Tuscalero on the table for the Native American costume class.  He looked nice enough...

but really couldn't compete against Teresa's Lynda Gillette costume or 

Lu Heater's brave, 

or Sandy Lyles' chief.

I never get tired...

of these ladies' costumes!

Jane's Matriarch resin won the parade class with her brand new Wendy Ward set.

Close-up of the saddle--beautiful!

Other costume was next.  This is Sandy's entry.

I love the mountain man! 

There are all sorts of goodies on the pack horse including a beaver trap and snow shoes. 

Valerie McEntee's knight in shining armor.

I had an unexpected entry in the Other Costume class.  This big boy is Regan's Vizcaya resin, Trovao.  Regan is downsizing her collection so he will be living with me for the foreseeable future.  Trovao placed second (behind Sandy's mountain man) giving me my first pink NAN card of the day.

Other Performance was next.  Once again Sandy came away the winner, this time with her jousting entry.

Bridle detail. 

Emma's first outing of the day was this second place endurance entry. 

The division wrapped up with the Scene class, but those pictures will have to wait until next time.  With Sandy and Lu in the house, the Scene class deserves a post all to itself!

TJS Other Performance, part three

The final class of the Jennifer Show's Other Performance division was Scene. Historically, this has always been a strong class in Colorado. I had high expectations for the entries, and I was not disappointed. Like Fun Costume, this was a class where all the entries deserved NAN cards. Since that's not possible, I decided to give each of the top six entries a place in the spotlight here. First up is Niki Hertzog's sixth place Pokemon hunt.

I love this entry and took easily half a dozen pictures of it. Sadly, most of them turned out blurry. You're going to have to trust me that it was awesome. 

Documentation for the Pokemon illiterate. 

Fifth place went to Marilyn Jensen's dog pack entry. This was one of the big winners in the Dogspotting Challenge. Look for more pictures in an upcoming post.

Fourth place went to Niki's other entry, a multi piece circus set-up. 

PHF Ranger Dongle placed third with his Colorado Ranger diorama. 

Sandy Sanderson' ambitious--and chaotic!--starting gate won second place honors. 

This was a really neat entry, with all sorts of things going on. 

Brokeback Cowboy! 

The scene class winner was Lu Heater's First Fling. 

I've seen this entry many times, but it never gets old. Congratulations, Lu, on a job well done! 

Of course, no Scene class report would be complete without a mention of Teresa's amazing but risque trail ride entry.

Due to their adult content, the rest of the photos can be found under the cut.

NAN Custom Performance

I didn't pay much attention to NAN while it was happening, but now that I'm home and rested again, I'm really enjoying all the NAN pictures. 

And thanks to people like Sara Kucharski, there are a lot of NAN pictures!

Today's batch comes from my favorite division: Custom Performance.

Not surprisingly, I recognize a lot of the players.  For example, this ambitious Stockwork set-up is the work of Laura Skillern, whose Moo-ya resin is featured prominently.

This is Sheila Bishop's lovely Chevelle with one of Sandy Sandersen's Brokeback Cowboys. 

I also recognize tack.  That's my tooled English saddle on Niki Hertzog's Rose Reiner... 

and the black and pink pony set on Purdy Mystique. 

I didn't make any of the tack on Teresa Buzzell's National Champion Speed Games entry, but that is my eventing doll!

And who wouldn't recognize Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow?

Of course, there are a lot of beautiful entries that are completely new to me.  I love this Lipizzan set-up...

and this just might be the best posed jumping doll I've ever seen!

What a pleasure it is to see so many wonderfully detailed and ambitious performance entries!

Congratulations to everyone who won awards in this tough division.  Your hard work paid off.  Please take a bow!

Thanks also to Sara for taking so many great photos and allowing me to share them here.