Showing 101: Breed Documentation

Today's guest blogger is Amy Widman, owner of this Smarty Jones along with many, many, many National and overall championships:

As has been hinted at in prior posts, assigning accurate breeds to your models can make or break your shot at a pretty blue ribbon. And providing accurate, easy to read/understand documentation about those breed assignments can only help your horses in the ring. So…..

Necking

Okay, this went from one part…to two…to now three. It could be 8 parts in a week--who knows. And please forgive the interruptions of the last few weeks. I’m not planning on making it a habit. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming:

Just guessing from the hundreds (of thousands) of customs I’ve seen over my years in the hobby, I’d say necks are the body part customizers struggle with most. And I can understand why as a horse’s neck seems to move like it’s made of rubber. It can stretch, twist, and compress as if it had no bones. Trying to recreate that movement with wire and clay is a unique challenge.

Showing 101: Green with Card Envy

Green NAN cards (aka “breed cards”) are the most common type of NAN card, and likely the first you will encounter. They are given to the first and second place winners of breed classes in halter divisions. OF Breyers, Stones, resins, customs--they all win identical blank cards (on which you fill out your name, your horse's name, and the name of the class it was won in.)

Individual shows have a fair amount of flexibility to create their own classlists. But if they are giving out green cards, it means that each class is formed around a specific breed or breed group. Typical breed classes include Appaloosa, Morgan, and Arabian, while typical breed groups are Carriage, European Warmblood, and Stock Pony.**

**These groups all tend to contain the same collection of breeds from show to show (with some variation.) Stock Pony generally includes Paint Pony, Quarter Pony, Pony of the Americas, etc. European Warmblood covers a long list of breeds including but not limited to Hanoverian, Trakehner, Dutch Warmblood, German Warmblood, Selle Français, etc. Carriage…deserves its own entry.

Winner of a "European Warmblood" class (shown as a German Warmblood)

Showing 101: Breed Assignments

This is a new feature featuring an older feature that was new when I wrote it. And then this was all supposed to go up last week during what we’ve since come to know as the Great Blogger Blackout of ’11.

I'm reposting and rewriting some of the material from my now slightly defunct Showing 101 blog, in addition to adding some new content.

Stand Up Straight

Required Reading

“Brands I Prefer: Everything Else”

As I’ve mentioned before, I love working with these old Love molds, but the legs on these guys can be atrocious. Without digging up a china copy to compare, it’s hard to tell how much of their turned out legs are part of the original sculpture, the outcome of imperfect casting, or the result of abuse received after leaving the factory.

Riding Ponies is an Unsafe Activity

I'm having an interesting few months. My focus has been on self-improvement, but beyond the diet and dance lessons I’ve decided to finally fix this:

Mid-back