Two shows in two weeks!

Compared to the US, the hobby in Australia is TINY. While we might have, say, 100 hobbyists (and that's a generous statement), the capital cities are pretty spread out, and so are its inhabitants. Check out this image I shameless stole found on someone else's blog:

We also have about one-tenth the population of the US. So as you can guess, we certainly don't have the same amount, or frequency, of live shows that our American friends have. In my state, there are two shows that run annually - Mini Mania, run by my friend Lisa Winkworth, and my own show, Melbourne Live.

I only started my live show, Melbourne Live, because there were no shows, and had been none, in my state for a good ten years or more. I'm taking a break this year from running ML, so instead, another hobbyist ran her own show, Knox City Live, to fill in the blank left by ML in this year's calendar.

For a reason I wasn't privy to, the weekend following Mini Mania was chosen as the date for Knox Live. It sounds great in theory, but when it's something you're not used to, well, I am thoroughly exhausted! I am a huge performance junkie so although I only had one performance entry for Mini Mania, I had about 15 performance set ups for Knox. I didn't do very well at Knox, but such is life I suppose.

My baby dp. On the Prowl at Mini Mania. He won Western Pleasure, took 2nd in Western Trail, and 1st in Western Bareback. He did end up winning Champion Western Performance (!) but I don't have a photo of him with his ribbon.

And some photos taken by a friend of a few of my set ups at Knox:

Above: dp. Last Chance, Honey with her pony club gymkhana entry. Bridle, saddle pad, doll and sack by me; saddle by Robyn McCrae.

Above: dp. Astral Fairy Wings in English Flatwork. Bridle and saddle by Robyn McCrae, although I made the browband.

Above: Rosie in her leadline set up - its first time out! Rider doll is by Lori Batchelor and handler doll is by Joan Yount, and lead by me.

Above: Rosie got Reserve Champion English Performance for her leadline setup! :D There was a handler class she was entered in, hence the lack of saddle.

dp. Certainly Stylin in Western Trail. That's the lovely Erin Corbett saddle you might remember from my blog last year. Lisa kindly let me borrow it for Delta. :)

dp. Deal Me In in Other Western Performance.

dp. Streetwise, my dear Fluffy, in English Flatwork. The adorable saddle pad is by Jana Skybova. Saddle is a Robyn McCrae and bridle is by me.

Missy with her Handy Hunter setup. Saddle pad is also a Jana.


My next live is Black and Gold Live (affectionately called BANG, lol) over in WA in two weeks. I still have to decide who and what will fit in my suitcase. Eek!

Bridle, boots and breastplate

I might have been neglecting the blog, but I have been busy!

Brown bridle is for WH (she supplied the lovely RDLC bit, one I haven't worked with before); boots are part of Dan's never-ending order, and breastplate is for the customer who purchased the DUN fundraiser racing set. 

In between all of this I've finished Fluffy's pleasure harness, finally, and just need to take proper pictures of it.

I'm not at all feeling inspired or optimistic for my Mini Mania donation, so I'll create a voucher for that instead - good if the winner only halter shows their minis, as they can order something in trad or classic scale. I still need to make donations for Orange Blossom Live (June 12), Knox Live (May 7), Black and Gold Live (May 29), Central Coast Live (July, er, something), Ultimate Gold Live (July 31), and whatever else pops up. Oh my!

Harness

I'm starting to feel all harnessed out.

Lisa's collar for her harness is still causing me grief. While I now have a general idea as to how I want to proceed, I have another issue - I don't have any leather left. The gloving leather (0.3mm kangaroo) I have, I bought as offcuts from someone off ebay. He has since moved overseas and has no stock left. I emailed Robyn but she could only suggest using TWMHC's stuff - but that only comes in natural and dying is not something I feel comfortable tackling right now (plus I can't afford extra accessories).

Trawling ebay has found me no bargains. I tried skiving down my roo offcuts from Amazing Oz, but I couldn't get it consistently thin enough. I've emailed them to see if they know of anywhere I could find some gloving leather - that's not lambskin or pigskin. If they don't know of anyone, then I guess Lisa will just have to deal with a breastcollar! :(

I received my pleasure cart for Fluffy (extreme custom Breyer Man O War by Sue Kern to a QH stallion) the other day so I'm challenging myself to see if I can make a pleasure harness for him before Knox City Live, which is exactly one month away.

Trying to find good reference photos is driving (ha!) me to tears. Either pleasure driving (the class for stock breeds) is not as popular as I thought, and/or I'm not using the right terms. I have a total of three or so large photos of the harness to work off of, and don't get me started on the overcheck. That is one area I know zilch about. Plus there's conflicting information on them too. Sadly I can't get away without one - Aus QHA specify it must be used. I'm just going to guess and hope I get it vaguely right.

Still alive... Sort of

Last week saw me suffer a tummy bug and then no computer for a week, so I haven't been online or making tack until a few days ago.

But I am still kicking around!

DUN donation almost finished

Almost there...

Finished at last!

For something different, how about an almost wordless Sunday? Dan's harness is done.I didn't notice the breeching was sitting wonky until after I had uploaded the pictures (of course).

 

I have an ISH!

On Friday I received mail of the exciting kind - an ISH body!
 
I've been looking for one for ages to use for my tack, as he is an extremely popular mould, and I had heard that he is a bit smaller than the Breyers. Even though there are $25 bodies in the US, the cost of shipping them to Australia would probably be around $25 again.

A few months ago, Stone had second-quality bodies in their eBay store for about $20. I was contemplating buying one then, but they sold out before I could purchase one.

By the looks of the seams on this guy, I think he may have been one of those second-quality models. Good thing I'm not a customiser!
 

Collar day

(Technically Dan's harness is finished, but there are a couple of adjustments she would like fixed before I share it with my readers. So, you'll just have to wait!)

Yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and attempt a practise collar for Lisa's harness, using the tutorial found in issue VIII of the Model Horse Magazine.

(Apologies for the photos - I don't have a scanner.)

With only the picture to try and copy the pattern from, I ended up drawing it free hand (with lots of guessed measurements to try and keep it even). Unfortunately the tutorial does not mention how high the curve should be, nor the distance from the middle or anything else that may be of help.

After turning the collar right side out, I found it look like something a little familiar.

I didn't have any 'felt scraps', so I found some ugly brown felt that I swear had been waiting for this project, and chopped it into tiny pieces. Stuffing the collar took longer than I expected - around fifteen minutes - and by the time I'd finished, I had invisible bits of wool felt everywhere over my skin. Worst feeling ever.

Stitching up the hole was difficult - sewing the collar earlier had been difficult, but this was just downright hard. My poor finger. :( I attached the hames, and yay!

According to the tutorial I'm all finished, but either I missed something or the tutorial missed a step. Because my collar shouldn't be able to do this.

Or this:

On a real collar, the hames are definitely fixed in place and do not move around. I looked at many different pictures of collars, and the only difference I can see is that there is a deep groove or channel on the collar that the hames sits in. That's all I can see that would hold the hames onto the collar in such a fixed position. Unless they are using glue or something behind, but I doubt it.

I think I will need to use some black thread in places where it won't be seen in order to keep the hames tight against the collar. I'm reluctant to use glue in case it discolours or causes damage to the hames, and I don't want to leave the hames loose as there is just way too much potential for damage to a model.

Other than that major issue, it looks nice from the front.

I am considering whether I should adjust the pattern slightly, since it seems like the curve came out steeper. Unfortunately Lauren hasn't provided any side-on pictures of the collar in the tutorial, and it seems her website is no longer available. I'll need to do more thinking before I decide to change the pattern or not.

Visit, and Lisa's harness

Yesterday I spent most of the day at Lisa's new property. Her previous location was on the other side of the city, around 2-3 hours from me, and now she only lives half an hour away! This is very exciting as now I can go drool at her ponies as often as she will let me.

We had several goals to accomplish while I was there. First and foremost, to meet her new Welsh ponies, Trinity and Precious (who are adorable). We also had to brainstorm out the rosettes we are going to order for our joint-run live show, Performance Extravaganza, which will be in August this year, and also work out new colours to be used for her live show, Mini Mania, in May.

The last goal was to attain measurements of her Depeche resin so I can start on his harness. Of course I forgot to take my measurement list with me, but I guess I can always go up and take new measurements if needed. ;)

We had some time to kill after lunch, so also went through her (huge!) tack collection to cull out the items she no longer uses to put up for sale. I think Lisa has more classic saddles than traditional - which is curious as she has far more traditional-sized models! We discovered a number of pieces that could be better (and fetch a better price) if spruced up, so I've taken those home to have a play with and see what I can do. These items are from when she first started collecting in early 2000s.

So here are the items, untouched, and what I plan to do to them.

Smallish classic Western saddle. I intend to redo both cinches and put etched buckles on. Remove the tapaderos, since they are only legal for Western Parade and this saddle isn't all that flash. Add straps to the breastplace, and possibly make a new one. I may also play with putting some excess leather underneath the cantle to push the back up, as the saddle is not made on a tree.

Black large classic Western bridle with black and white romal reins. I will put on a new headstall and bit. The reins are pretty cool - they are posable like rawhide, but feel more like waxed cotton or something, so I don't intend to play with those.

Traditional one-ear Western bridle with carved cheekpieces , rawhide romal reins and fancy bit. I really like the bit on this bridle. It looks handmade and is really different. It almost looks like a parade bit. The cheekpieces will stay, but I will give it a new headstall and change the buckles to tongue buckles. I will probably also upgrade the reins.

Traditional bridle with nylon purple brow and nosebands. Basically I will only be salvaging the hardware from this bridle, and using it on a purple and white racing bridle for Lisa.

Classic hackamore bridle with rawhide bosal. The bosal is REALLY cute. I would totally be buying it if I had any young horses to use it on. New headstall and cheekpieces, new reins (will attempt to tie a mecate too!)

I REALLY want to start working on this right now, but since the carts are finished, Lisa's harness is more important. I think I will keep these spruce-up items as treats to do once the harness is finished.

Almost there!

So close, and yet so far.

Dan's entire harness is about 99% finished. At this point all I have left to do is the browband as I'm waiting on some 6mm blue leather to appear. And then I'll be finished!

Not quite rejoicing yet though. It pays to be cynical sometimes - there will probably be something that needs changing once it's in Dan's hands. I hassled her for about 30 different measurements during the week before she sent Ricky off to be repainted, and I am fairly confident that the blinkers will be sitting correctly.And if not, well, we won't find out until Ricky is home again, closer to the end of the year.

I was going to post pictures, but as I was editing them, I noticed a few bits that needed some work, so for once this will be a pictureless post!