I re-made something

Remember how I said Karen's saddle had fought me tooth and nail during every step of its creation?

Well, it turns out that  the battle wasn't over. Overnight, the saddle's right skirt developed a crack just behind the nail head.

I tried to rub it out. I tried to tell myself it wasn't that big a deal. I tried to ignore it. That worked for a little while, but when I woke up this morning, I knew I was going to be replacing that skirt.

Making new skirts wasn't a big deal. Taking the entire saddle apart so that I could install those new skirts was positively painful. 

Ugh! 

Fortunately, the saddle went back together really easily. Here it is again, better than new. Plus, now it has a girth! 

Hopefully this will be the end of the drama with this particular saddle. Fingers crossed!

Sugar High postscript

In the seven plus years I've been writing this blog, I've posted less than five videos. I'm a words and photos type of woman. Video doesn't particularly interest me.

That said, these videos are both cute and very, very funny. Thanks again to Tammi Palmarchuk for infecting blessing the Braymere blog with some sugar fueled Canadian Craziness!

Post weekend show report

Another day, another live show report...

Today Tammi Palmarchuk describes the competition, camaraderie, candy and craziness of last Saturday's Sugar High Live in Nanton, Alberta. Thank you so much for sharing, Tammi. This show looks amazing!

Sugar High Live

by Tammi Palmarchuk

This past weekend we had the pleasure of attending Shauna McDaniel's show, Sugar High Live, in Nanton, Alberta, Canada.  

Nanton is a wonderful little town  -  it even boasts an AMAZING candy store - how appropriate for a show called Sugar High!  

In addition to the candy store, they have an aviation museum and they had a special event there where they started all four engines on an enormous old war plane called the Lancaster Bomber during the show, since it was next to the show hall some of us that ventured outside were treated to an awesome sight!  

Back to the show... What a FANTASTIC TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Everyone had so much fun, especially and the Champion and Reserve Champions were awarded, and the candy started to really flow....

People started to get a little crazy as you will see in some of the photos along with this post. Yahoooooooo!

The show had many new faces which is always wonderful to see!!!  

Awesome raffle prizes & silent auction items were there to tempt as well as Rayvin Brewer of Khrysalis Studios was on hand with a table of goodies and projects in the works which was a treat to see!

The two day show brought out many beautiful models in all the divisions!

Of course the best part of the show itself are the people... 

We have a great bunch of folks up here, some call us the "Crazy Canadians" and indeed we live up to our name - to anybody thinking of making the trip up here, let me say it's well worth the drive, we'd love to have you! - Hope to see even more new faces next year !!!!!!!!! 

Okay, Colorado friends, who wants to join me on a road trip to Canada next year? Kidding/not kidding.

I made something

I haven't written any studio posts lately because there hasn't been much to write about. 

Oh, I've made a few small things here and there...

but nothing that merits an entire post.

Until today! 

Okay, let me be clear about this: I didn't make this entire saddle today. I have been working on it on and off (mostly off) for weeks, and it has fought me tooth and nail every step of the way.

But... today I finished. Tomorrow I make the girth and maybe the breastplate, and then it's done, done, done! 

Yay! It feels so good to move this one into the finished column. Hopefully, the next one will be a lot easier!

Post weekend show report

The end of the NAN qualifying season is always marked by a flurry of live shows. The last couple posts were devoted to QVPO in Spencer, Massachusetts. Now it's on to Hazel Green, Wisconsin for The Pie Show.

Lindsay Diamond attended this one. Here's her explanation of the show's unusual name: The show was originally called something else, but Brenda Metcalf is the host, and her mom makes lunch and pie for the people there. Eventually, everyone started calling it The Pie Show, so Brenda changed the name.  The pie flavors this year were chocolate, strawberry, cherry and rhubarb, and they were REALLY good!

Another interesting feature of this show is cash payouts to the winners. The first... 

and second place horses in the breed classes received fifty cents and twenty five cents, respectively.

Over the course of the day, Lindsay's horses... 

and ponies... 

earned three dollars and twenty five cents. Woo hoo! Congratulations, Lindsay, and thanks so much for helping me with this show report!

More QVPO

Region X is a hotbed of performance excellence, and nowhere was this more apparent than at last Saturday's Quabbin Valley Performance Open in Spencer, Massachusetts. Today I am happy to share another group of QVPO photos, this time from Brenda Bednar. Thank you so much, Brenda!

This historic farm harness entry belongs to Brenda and features two brand new dolls by Anne Field. Brenda asked Anne to make a turn of the century (1800's) farming couple similar  to the parents from Little House on the Prairie. This is what she came up with. Aren't they wonderful?

Speaking of wonderful, I also like this tiny little Arab costume...

and this much bigger, Hollywood type costume.

Onto Western! 

Here's another look at Linda White's giant Duero resin. So cool. So big.

This excellent steer roping entry belongs to Brenda, and features a Time Lapse resin sculpted and painted by Kimberley Smith and another great doll by Anne Field.

The trail class was filled with a number of eye catching entries, including this one belonging to Danielle Feldman.

This Knightly Cadence is a Colorado horse. He belongs to my friend, Fabian Rodriguez, but was shown here by Anne Field. You can read all about Anne's adventures in proxy showing on her blog.

Because she is just that awesome, Anne also showed several performance horses of her own. This one is Shades of Godiva, a Morgen Kilbourn Godiva resin painted by Liesl Dalpe. I like the fact that instead of paying attention to what she's doing, that rowdy Massachusetts doll appears to be reading the bulletin board on the back of Darleen's fence.

Moving on to English, here's another one of Anne's nifty trail entries. This time the doll is focused on the job at hand!

This Sheila Bishop Charity resin was painted by Tara Louiselle and belongs to Laura Rene. Love those dapples!

Here's another neat horse. This is Bob, a custom Salinero (?) by Gail Hildebrand. 

He is proudly owned by Brenda, who showed to many good placings throughout the day.

I'll close the post with one more of Brenda's horses. I really like this entry...

and it looks like the judge agreed! 

Congratulations, Brenda, and thank you so much for allowing me to share your photos!

Weekend show report

My Facebook feed was filled with model horse show photos yesterday, the best of which came from the Quabbin Valley Performance Open show in Spencer, Massachusetts. Tackmaker, Darleen Stoddard posted this report on her own blog and was kind enough to allow me to share it here as well. Thank you so much, Darleen, and congratulations on all your wins!

Quabbin Valley Performance Open

by Darleen Stoddard

I had a blast yesterday at Quabbin Valley Performance Open.  To say the competition was stiff would be a *HUGE* understatement!  It seemed to me to be as stiff as showing at Nationals, at least from what I remember of my last time showing at Nationals.  My usual style of showing the same tack set with minimal changes in a bunch of different classes just does not really fly anymore.  I’m slowly convincing myself that making tack for my friends and living vicariously through them is sounding more and more where I want to be.  I’m getting too old to change tack/accessories for every single class, and I really hate holding things up for the judge.  Woo, stressful. 

Speaking of huge, the horse pictured above is owned by Linda White.  He is 1:6 scale and dwarfed the traditional size (1:9 scale) horses pictured in the background.  That said, I would have a blast making tack for something that scale.  There’s so much more detail that could be added to something that size!  And the doll?  Wowza!  He looks real!  I want to say that can used for the barrel is large baked-bean size.

Here’s Jackie Arns-Rossi’s horse, Heidi (Morgen Kilbourn Hazel resin), with all her champ ribbons for the day.  Jackie does not have a problem with multiple tack changes, nor does she have a problem with showing multiple horses in multiple divisions.  She claims this is “fun”.  Love my crazy hobby friends!  

And you know how I have said that my tack either tends to stay in our region or come back to our region?  Well I spotted a couple of my sets owned by Danielle Feldman, who moved to our region some years ago.  I’m always glad to see that they are not only still loved, but still being shown! 

I can’t remember when I made the Southwestern themed set (I think 2006), but the Celtic saddle is over 10 years old!

And Danielle Miller was showing her cross set as well.  Pretty sure this one is also over 10 years old.  Love this custom breyer by Tiffany Purdy:

My new Morgen Kilbourn Ranch Mare, painted by Liz Bouras arrived in time to bring to the show.  She’s more of an all-around horse, and I’m still trying to figure out what to do with her, but she’s fun in both English and Western.  Alas I didn't get any shots of her under English tack. Here she is doing her ranch sorting thing:

She did take reserve champ in the really tough Stockwork division.

But my champion of the day was my Carol Williams Victrix p/b Ann Harris.  Chromie hanging out with my one *HUGE* can of Dew, waiting for his western classes:

He received some much coveted NAN/Regionals cards in Showmanship and Parade, took reserve champ in costume, and went on to win the Four-Square Championship.  

I've never shown a standing horse in more than 1 class before, was a fun challenge!

Thanks again, Darleen. That was great. Be sure to check out Anne Field's blog for more QVPO stories and photos!