MODEL WEST 2003

I was bummed out when I heard that BreyerWest, like all Breyer tour stops, was being cancelled this year. I was particularly saddened as I had so many new horses to show. Live shows are pretty few and far between in Canada, mostly because of the distance between cities and travel costs. I don't have time to photoshow any more either.

To the rescue came Castle Toys, Calgary's Breyer booster. Dick has held annual Breyers nights for over 5 years; he is a very good friend of the hobby! Together with Twyla Wehnes, ModelWest was born.

The show was held at the end of the Stampede, July 12 and 13. It was also held on the weekend of a large dog show. The timing worked out perfectly for Winnipegger Ivy Olensky, who brought her Wheaten terriers to town. While Ivy had fun at the show, her mother showed the dogs. Other dog-showing hobbyists such as Bobbie Mosimann and Mary Ann Dalton were absent. ModelWest had a good turnout considering how busy July can be. I even entered Mom again!

Dick was fortunate to secure an awesome show space - the vacant Mark's Work Wearhouse store next to Castle Toys. It was bright and room and even had a raised wooden stage where the show rings were placed. Even better, the air conditioning was turned on - the temperature on Saturday was a wilty 31 C.

Mom and I packed up the horses and wheeled them on down. The good thing about going to the show was that I didn't have to get a ride out to Spruce Meadows - it was an easy 10 minute walk from the Chinoook LRT station. I brought what favourite OFs I could find - most of my horses are still packed up or at my parents. I was also proxy showing for Renee Charron. She sent 8 of her beautiful Stone horses. Mom brought her Atlantis Bey and donkeys. I lent her some of my new Stablemates to show as well. I would soon come to regret that decision.

I flitted about the show hall with Bud's digital camera. I had never used it before and he wasn't sure how strong the batteries were. The pictures came out great :-) Unfortunately, I drained the batteries fairly quickly by using a flash and the view display. Oops.

Saturday was quite good for halter. My china Hagen-Renakers did well. My H-R donkey mare and foal, Bobbette and Blinky (gotta love last minute names!) NAN'd in breed and gender. The OF China and Resin division was small but hard - I envied Laureen's North Light Irish drafter very much! Val Ganzert judged this division.

OF halter was interesting. There were so many Peter Stone horses. Mom paid more attention to the class calls this year and I didn't have to remind her so much to grab which horses. In fact, she only missed one class :-D I was quite put out, however, when the horses I lent Mom started to bring in reds and blues! My eyes popped when my buckskin SM Appaloosa NAN'd - he had shown several times before and hadn't won at all! Mom was thrilled and took every available opportunity to rub it in. My OFs did moderately well, grumble grumble. Local artist JoAnn Shaw judged most of OF halter. As I showed Renee's horses, I wished that she was there. Three of her drafters NAN'd.

CM performance was done on Saturday as well. Krista MacPherson returned with her herd of resins, including her ever popular Extreme Justice. I love the model but it makes me cringe when he wobbles on his wooden stand. Twyla judged CM Performance.

The star of the show was Ivy Olensky's 8-horse hitch. It is a project that has taken Ivy almost 13 years to make come true. Her father helped her set it up on Saturday and it rightfully won the working harness class on Sunday afternoon.

The show did really well for time. Laureen, Agnes, Ivy, Mom and I zipped over to Chinook Mall for lunch and to hit the bank machines. Ivy, a gal who knows her minis, was tempting me with an SM CM Warmblood stallion by Heather Gould-Hawke and SM tack. I sadly had to pass on the tack but bought the WB. Laureen owns his brother, oddly enough. Beacon Hill's brother is darker and has a large white muzzle.

Just outside of the show hall, Stablemate painting was going on. Mom and I took a break and painted. Mom picked a mule and painted him a dark muddy brown with a wide blaze. I started painting a TB mare. My plan was to paint her buckskin, but it didn't work out all that well! The next day I went over her with a paint marker and she came out a dark muddy brown too. She came sixth in the "I did it myself non-pro" class.

Things wrapped up around 5pm. Laureen and Agnes ducked out early to go to the Blue Mountain Antique show at Canada Olympic Park. The last hour or so was a frenzy as I plunked down my horses, Laureen's horses and my horses on the table. We went for dinner afterwards at Luciano's.

Sunday was exhausting. I was running on too little sleep all week. By the time 4pm hit, I was instantly tired and wanted to go home. I didn't have any of Renee's horses to show, so that made things easier. The novice division was held on Sunday and again Mom's horses did very well again. She bought a new Schlieh donkey foal from Castle Toys that morning and he took a second in the donkey class. Mom's Sicilian donkey won another red ribbon as well. There were lots of novices of all ages, proving that you can never be too young or too old to show models. The girls from Fairlight Freya Farms and Bar-Vee both had Strapless models. Now that I have seen Strapless in person, she seems to be quite a likeable model and very leggy!

I was excited about Sunday as I was eager to show my two resins - the Horsin' Around riding pony in bay and my PF Bach painted by Myla Pearce. Ivy squealed over my riding pony just as I drooled over her SM TB by Judy Renee Pope. Although Ivy was showing only a few horses, they were all good ones. It was great to see her Libretto once again too. The pony, dubbed Beautiful Dreamer this time, placed third, IIRC. My PF Bach took 1 fourth and 2 fifths. The WB class was very tough, especially with Krista's resins in the mix! I gave the SM WB from Ivy to Mom to show, and he took fourth in Warmbloods/Sporthorses.

The staff of Castle Toys also put on a Sunday lunch that was made up of chicken, veggies, brown beans and the best potato salad I have ever had. There were tons of cookies floating around as well :-D

Despite the small size of the show, there were lots of collector class entries. Both Laureen and Mary had bovine-centered displays. Terri had a wild decorator entry and Krista trotted out her collection of woodgrains with the title of "Wouldn't you like a woody?" (cue giggles). It was Brent who won with his ISH collection.

Dick also received many nice donations to the show, including artwork and a SM drafter from Twyla and lots of tack. I won a raffle for a Seattle Slew, who I think I like much better than Lonesome Glory. It was a really great show and I hope Dick has another one. Compared to BreyerWest, it was nicely paced and not too stressful at all.

Onto the pictures!

More live shows...