Southern New England Winter Round Up 2012

Audrey with Rose
Top Ten CM Breed & Top Ten CM Workmanship
Southern NE Winter Round Up 2012
CM Breyer Pony by Danielle Feldman

We finally made it our first show in Region X! There were many, many nice horses and equally important, many, many nice people. We had a great time at Southern New England Winter Round Up and give kudos to Brenda Bednar for hosting a great show. 

I consider it a small miracle that I was able to make it a show during busy season and even more so that I was able to finish 2 minis to show, both of which earned a NAN card. Of course, their photos turned out blurry, so I'll have to post pictures of them another day.

Azulito
Top Ten AR Workmanship
Southern NE Winter Round Up 2012
Constantine Resin by Kristina Lucas Francis
Painted by Danielle Feldman

Showing in Region X is a little different than the shows I attended in the midwest. Instead of champions of each subdivision, they awarded a top ten and champion and reserve over the entire division. We were tickled to earn a top ten in resin workmanship and both a top ten in breed and workmanship in the custom division. I give credit to Audrey for her breed research and documentation to help with the winnings.

We had a great time and are already looking forward to the next show!

As Handsome Does earns his first NAN card!
Ahab resin by Sarah Rose
Painted by Danielle Feldman

How I choose a performance horse...

Tomobí
Stormwatch resin by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig
Painted by Danielle Feldman
Tack by Jessica Swaney

So, Anne Field started a series of posts on choosing a versatile performance horse on her blog, Jen Buxton then made a post about selecting a performance horse on her blog, then Tiffany Purdy posted on her blog about her method of choosing a performance horse. I thought I'd join the party and make my own post!

My style is much like Tiffany's, though she has quite the knack for working with customs and I tend to stick with resins. I have an ample supply of plastic bodies, but find resin easier to work with. Anyway, I love to customize a bit to make a horse more performance friendly or find a way to, like with Stormy above, show more challenging sculptures in performance. I may not be as daring as some (nod to Sir Sproing!), but I like my horses to be able to cross over from the halter class to the performance ring.

Castañateo
Brioso Resin by Sarah Rose
Painted by Danielle Feldman
Bull by Carol Herden
Tack by Susan Bensema-Young

I gave this set up a whirl many years ago, but the double bridle on a Brioso was alot of work with his mane and small head, so I'm still trying to find a replacement horse to wear the tack. Much like Tiffany, sometimes you just gotta find/make the horse to go with the tack! Other times, I indulge and get tack to fit the horse, like this Working Girl custom I started awhile back. I managed to snag an amazing Sm scale hunt set from Anna Kirby and can't wait to sculpt tiny braids, paint the horse and show it off.

And I've got this Western version, for whom I still *need* a tack set. :)

So many projects, so little time.