I think I can say without bias that ML is the biggest show in my state of Victoria, and quite possibly Australia. Despite me taking a year off from it last year for assorted reasons (some of which continue to make me wonder whether I should bother to continue with the show), it still had a big turnout this year: 22 entrants, including several proxy entries and three interstate entrants. We had over 600 horses at the show, which broke the record for the number of models that were at the last ML which was a two-day show. Those numbers might not be much compared to the turnout our American friends get with their massive, frequent shows, but it's pretty exciting stuff for lil old Australia.
Performance was judged by Lisa Winkworth, who is a pleasure to show under, even if she is terribly tough - especially moreso when she's your friend! This year we decided to try following Lauren Wood's strip-down method for the class list, so we started out with Harness for the first class.
Dear little Teddy in his last-minute fix-it harness and his first time in this cones setup. (I LOST his original harness and so fixed up a two-year-old harness for this class.) I was pretty thrilled when he came equal first (out of two entries) with my BFF Stacey's turnout entry with her big old Darcy painted by Sommer Prosser. Well, she is big compared to Teddy! My cart is by Cheryl of Argyle Farms (her surname escapes me currently), the dolls are by Joan Yount, and the horse is a drastic custom classic WB stallion by Sue Kern. Oh, and the props are by me. :)
Stacey had an entry in the Scene/Diorama class with a lunging set I made a couple of years ago on her Ricardo resin, with a new paintjob by Karen Zorn. He won his class! I don't have any pictures though.
My next class was Other Performance, in which I had another sort-of last minute entry. dp. Last Chance, Honey, very nearly didn't come to the show - everyone has seen her setups and they are looking a bit worn. Still, at the last minute she replaced the horse I was going to use in this Horse Agilty set up, and got a first for her efforts. I didn't even get a chance to look at the other entry as I was running my butt off by this stage.
Next up was the combined Handler/Showmanship class. I had been super-excited to enter this class with my new handler doll from Joan Yount, but the horse she was made for, Fluffy (aka dp. Streetwise), didn't arrive back from being repaired in time, so new nameless doll got paired with dp. Deal Me In (Chip) for Western Showmanship. Surprisingly, he came first - against an entry from resident performance queen, Katrina Sterry too!
(I was looking at his picture before and realised I have the pattern reversed - oops!)
Second went to another of my entries, my other new Sue Kern custom, dp. Nabraska, with my English Yount doll, Evie. Yay, DUN cards!
What wasn't surprising was to see Stacey's Darcy take Other Performance Champion. (See pic above.)
Western Performance was up next, and my other, other new show string model, dp. Firestar Lady, earned a DUN card in Other Western with her riding set up. I was pretty thrilled with that as I suck at translating patterns and leads! Chippy came fourth/last with a bareback entry (perfectly fine, his reins were miles too long and I forgot to shorten them before the show).
Chippy then got to sit out Western Pleasure and Trail as he had suddenly gained weight overnight and his new saddle no longer fit. WTF? Dixie went in alone and took 4th in trail and 6th in pleasure, in classes of 5 and 8 respectively.
I had no jumping entries, but it was fun to see a sold-unpainted custom by Aussie artist Karen Grigson (who is currently doing a commission for me) painted up and entered in the jumping class. I believe this was originally a Valentine (Giselle) and she was painted by Sherry Clayton.
Missy came in with another last-minute entry in the Other English class and took a second (and another DUN card, yay!) for a new mounted games entry. I don't usually use dolls as they just don't ride the models properly, so I didn't expect this entry to do anything. The doll is a Battat doll I found on ebay, dressed by me.
Nab came third behind her with her trail entry.
Hacking/English Pleasure came next, and Flambeau earned a very respectable 5th out of ten entries.
Stacey's Ricky came third with his cute new sidesaddle setup.
She also owns the donation model Karen Grigson CMed for DUN last year. The model has just come back from being campaigned at NAN and a few other shows in the US after being painted by Sommer, and this was her first show in Aus. The tack set is mine and made by Alex Noble - I believe it was her first classic set too.
Dressage is always a tough class. Stacey came second with her Deputed Duke resin behind Katrina with a Lohengrin. Little Beau got 6th, and then Katrina's dressage entry went on to win English Champion.
I've really dropped out of minis these last six months, so I didn't bring my micro mini Prowl, who normally does well in the Mini Performance classes. Oh well.
Stacey's Darcy was eventually awarded Supreme Exhibit Performance - yay, go Stacey!
(On a side note, check out how awesome the prizes are. Great, hey? *nudge nudge*)
After that, the rest of my show report is really boring. The class list was a bit over-ambitious, so I missed most of my classes because I was stewarding my ass off. Thankfully we did finish at a perfectly reasonable time for over 100 classes - judging finished at around 5pm. We did lose a few entrants who decided to leave early, unfortunately, so not everyone saw the final awards handed out.
Grand Champion and Reserve CM/AR Mini:
Reserve Grand OF Mini (no pics of Grand unfortunately):
Supreme Mini Exhibit, owned by Lisa:
Grand Champion and Reserve AR TR/CL:
Grand Champion and Reserve CM TR/CL:
Grand Champion and Reserve OF TR/CL:
Supreme Exhibit TR/CL, also owned by Lisa:
No comments:
Post a Comment