A Surprise from Great Lakes Congress

Midway through Saturday's Great Lakes Congress Show, Jamie Rott and Liz Cory stopped the show to make an announcement.

They explained that every year a club member was recognized for service to the club. And then they called my name.

I was named GLC Most Valued Member 2019 for the work I had done in researching and writing GLC's history. (Go here to begin reading it.) Did that catch me off guard!

I got a beautiful trophy that has the signatures of past winners on it. I get to sign it and then keep it for a year, returning it next spring so that the GLC MVM 2020 can have it.

It was a lovely gesture, and to all the GLC folks out there, thank you very much!

Show Photos from GLC

I took a small show string to the Great Lakes Congress show last Saturday - just two tubs. Some pieces I bring to every show because they do well; others were new ones I'd not tried before.

My Hagen Renaker Sherif is beautifully shaded. It won the Light Foals class in the china division.

This time around it also took Overall Reserve Champion Foal.

I brought along two of my Chevals, and Vader Too took first and Tinker Toy took second in Carriage Breeds.

 Harry Potter won the Longears/Exotics Foal class.

 I've only shown Windsong Georgia twice, and both times she has won a NAN card.

 Breyer's Sanibel is really beautiful. It NANed.

Purdue Pete has been in my collection for years but I have never taken him to a show. Glad I did this time.

 In the Anything Goes class my celebration of Thelwell's 60th birthday entry won second place.

One of the best parts of a model horse show is seeing the beautiful pieces others have in their collections.

Such as Marilou Mol's Horse with the Golden Saddle by Donna Chaney. I'd seen it in grey, but never in bay before. Stunning! And there were plenty of other unusual and beautiful horses in attendance to look at and enjoy.

Tomorrow's post? A surprise from GLC.

GLC and Some Wild Weather

Saturday's Great Lakes Congress show was, as always, extremely well run and so much fun. And after two weeks of teaching the alternative middle school class, I was ready for a break and to have fun with friends who share the same love of horses and collecting that I have.

Earlier in the week Marilou Mol had called me and asked if I might be interested in splitting a motel room with her Friday night before the show.

Not only is Marilou a good friend, a horsewoman, and a collector, she is also a teacher and a principal. We had so many things to talk about, and chatted so much that I was a bit hoarse on Saturday.

I did not bring a large show string, so set-up did not take long. I also volunteered to bring a few extra copies of Nancy Kelly's book to sell, just in case anyone had not gotten one at the last show or new people were in attendance.

Jamie Rott and Liz Cory are in charge of the GLC shows and are two of the nicest people in model horsedom. They check in with every shower and offer extra support to any one who is new. 

Shopping is half the fun of model horse showing. (That's Heather McCurdy in the grey hoodie.)

GLC sells yummy chocolate bars (tubs in foreground) and always has an extensive raffle (tables with cups) as fundraisers. The other tables in the photo (except the very last one) are vendors who have set up to sell. I didn't buy anything this time, but I had a great time looking at all the offerings.

GLC shows are always well attended, but there was a looming winter storm coming with 5-8 inches of snow expected to roll in by mid afternoon. Several showers cancelled, but there were still a good many of us in attendance. 

Chris Walbruch (in green tee bending over the table) judged the Original Finish Plastic division. She has a terrific sense of humor and it is always fun to have her at a show. (She's a good judge, too!)

Jenna Murphy (facing camera) and DeeAnn Kjelshus double judged the Custom/Resin division for breed and workmanship.

Everyone was keeping an eye on the weather as the show proceeded. The snow began falling around 10:00, with huge, heavy flakes coming down at a fast pace. I kept peeking out the door to check the roads - it was above freezing despite the snow, but as long as the roads were just wet and not getting icy, I planned to stay.

I also knew that we were on the southern edge of the storm, and that I only had to drive twenty miles or so to get away from it. That was no problem since I was going far more than twenty miles south to get home!

Despite the weather, I was able to stay and make every class in which I had horses entered. After packing the car and clearing the windshield and windows, I was covered with the big wet flakes and ready to warm up.

And I was right, twenty miles south of the show hall there was just rain and no snow to be seen.

 The weather had another surprise in store for me - I saw a cold air funnel as I headed home.

It didn't touch down (they rarely do) and cold air funnels are very weak, so I felt comfortable stopping the car to take some pictures.

What a day! Time spent with friends and horsey activities and then a wild bit of weather on top of that! I certainly got that break I was looking forward to.

Next up - more show pictures and a nice surprise from GLC.

Life Can Be Crazy!

How can going back to work, even for only five weeks, change life so much? Suddenly there are not enough hours in the day, even though I am only working for six and a half hours a day.

I leave home at 6:30 every morning as students begin arriving at 7:15. That means that I have had to change the time that I go out to the barn. It has worked well to swing around there as I am coming home from work (I finish at 2:45 and am usually packed and ready to go by 3:00.)

Tim is back from Europe and has begun rotating through the pastures again. The growth of the grass is still not enough to sustain the herd so we will be feeding hay a bit longer. But the horses are happy with the change in scenery anyway!

They are all in various stages of the shedding process; Sultanna still has a beard!

All the horses are glad to have the warmer, dryer weather and are in good spirits. (This is Guppy, a gelding belonging to Tim's other boarder.)

Going back to work has derailed my progress in putting together the IKEA shelves and then switching them into the places of my old shelves.

I came home from work one day to discover that Craig had put several of them together for me in one of the spare bedrooms. What a huge help that was to me!

He moved one into my office only to realize that I had not yet cleared a shelf of model horses and that he could not install them until I did.

I am also in the throes of preparing for a Great Lakes Congress show this Saturday (fortunately I had made my list of entries and prepared my documentation before going back to work!) While show packing adds to the list of things that need to be done, the show is going to be a much needed break from school for me.

My five week assignment is with thirteen middle schoolers, all of whom have been expelled. They come from four different middle schools in the area, and they are pretty rough kids. But... they're still kids, and my goal is to remember that as I work with them instead of reacting to their rudeness, disrespect, and insolence. This is my second week in the class and their behavior and language is already much better. They have begun to accept me and are getting their school work done (for the most part) now.

Still, I come home every day with my ears ringing and very ready for about thirty minutes of quietness before I feel recovered enough to resume my activities at home. Going to a model show this weekend is just the thing I need to clear my mind.

My Spring Wreath

I found a beautiful horsey wreath to hang on my front door for spring and on into summer.

 Horseshoe shaped, it is made of dried spring flowers and greenery, and it smells heavenly.

 I am hoping that, since everything is dried, I can use it again next year and the year after that.

The IKEA Shelves are Here!

Last February I joined my daughter, Lisa, at the Indianapolis IKEA to help her look at some shelves for her home. She came back to Lafayette with some beautiful blue bookcases, and I came home with some ideas. I had fallen in love with IKEA's Billy shelves.

Currently, my office is a hodge podge of shelves. As my collection grew, I would add in a set of shelves, bought wherever I could find a sturdy set that was not too expensive. But for a long time, I have wanted matching shelves. The Billy shelves would serve that purpose, and they were taller and wider so that I could get more horses onto them.

I thought about buying them for a month, measured my office, and made some floor plans to figure out how many Billies I might need. White shelves would go best with the trim in the room, and I finally decided to take the plunge after doing a lot of measuring and math. Even better, I discovered that the white Billy shelves were on sale and that to deliver the entire set of nine shelves that I needed, IKEA would only charge me $100. I made the purchase.

The shelves arrived Friday afternoon, and since I was at school teaching, Craig accepted the delivery on my behalf.

He even carried them all upstairs and into a spare bedroom for me, then decided to open each box to be sure that the shelves had arrived without damage. Sadly, two sets had cracked boards and will need to be replaced by IKEA.

Saturday morning I got to work on the switch-out. I started in the corner by the door and plan to work my way around the room. I really cannot do more than one shelf at a time because I have to remove the horses and put them somewhere before carrying the old shelves out of the room.

My craft table can just barely hold an entire shelf's herd of horses.

 It took me a couple of hours to make the first switch out. (Those are the two carpet herd pieces that were on that shelf and are old favorites of mine.)

I was very pleased with how the shelves looked after I got the models back on them.

Next I tackled this corner, a place where it is clear that I was running out of room and adding shelves willy nilly.

 Not only did it take my craft table to handle the numerous models,

but it also took a card table. Everything just barely fit between the two.

I wrangled the old shelves out and down to the spare bedroom. (Using a towel underneath the shelves allowed me to push them through the halls and rooms which have hardwood floors) 

Then I put together the next set, got them onto the towel, and pushed them back across the house and into my office. That's another carpet herd member trying out his new abode.

This morning I finished filling that shelf with models and am happy with how it turned out.

Two down, seven to go!

The Palomino Metlox Poppytail Circus Pony

For years I drooled over the one, single photo I had found of the white Metlox Poppytrail Circus Pony.

Photo taken from Google Images, owner unknown.

It was so charming and saucy, and due to my own personal love of circus ponies, I wanted to add it to my collection.

I did numerous online searches, scoured antique and thrift shops, and kept my eyes peeled for years with no success. A very dear friend even tried her own quiet search without my knowledge, wanting to find one for me as a surprise gift. (Heartfelt thanks, you-know-who! It still makes me teary when I think of your generosity!)

But no luck. At least, not until last May when Heather Wells and friends held Clinky Mania in California, selling the late Karen Grimm's collection. As I looked over the photos before the sale, there was a white circus pony! And to my great surprise, a palomino one, too! (Go here to see photos of the Black Horse Ranch Metlox Poppytrail pieces.) Someone had once mentioned that they thought that there was a palomino, but never in all my online and other searches, had I seen any photos to confirm that rumor. Now I knew that the palomino version did indeed exist.

Unfortunately for me, the BHR circus ponies were not available and my search was still on. Only now I was looking for both the white and the palomino.

As I wrote yesterday, I found and bought both pieces recently. Here is the beautiful palomino.

 I love the contrast of the cream colored mane with its dark palomino coat!

Under its belly it has the Metlox seal, but it does not have the Metlox Poppytrail sticker on its shoulder that its counterpart does.

I still cannot believe that I have finally, after decades of looking, found these two pieces. I'll put them in the china cabinet that houses my other Metlox pieces, but in the meantime, they are here in my office where I can see them and enjoy them. 

The Search Comes to an End

The search has come to an end! After years and years of looking, I finally found the two horses that I have wanted more than any others. They are very difficult to find, and it is only the second time that I have even seen them come up for sale. In fact, I wasn't sure that one of them actually existed - I'd heard rumors, but never could find pictures to prove its existence.

In 2016 I began saving up my money in the hopes that I would come across one or the other. (I never expected to find both, especially at the same time.) I knew that they would most likely be expensive so I wanted to be prepared.

Even with the money saved up and earmarked for these two pieces, I thought long and hard before I purchased them. My decision was helped along by the fact that I was offered an emergency vacancy in the alternative school and went back to teaching. Because of that, I had an extra financial cushion and I would not have to touch my savings.

So I took the plunge.

 At last, the small Metlox Poppytrail Circus Pony is in my collection.

When the box arrived, I let it sit for a day - I just could not believe that I had finally found my most wanted pieces.

While both pieces stand very well, I have them temporarily lying on bubble wrap. I'll put them in the upstairs china cabinet soon, but in the meantime, I like having them in my office where I can look at them.

The white piece has two stickers - one on its flank and the other under its belly. The stickers are in terrific condition, especially considering their age.

I am still pinching myself that my dream has come true. Tomorrow I will talk about the other one, the one I only just discovered really did exist.