50th Anniversary: Photo Showing Records & Ribbons

Photo showing is what really connected the early hobbyists. It allowed us to meet and interact with others across the country (and sometimes, countries), share ideas, sell tack, "breed" our model horses by sending each other sire and dam lists, and so much more. I felt like I was Alice and had stepped into Wonderland. These were my people!

My blue Windsong Stables binder brought back a lot of memories from those heady days. In some ways, you can trace our 1970s hobby history through its pages

Doris Rau, Marney Walerius, and Ellen Hitchins all have passed away but were active in the hobby for years. (Lynn Martin is me - I hadn't yet married Craig.)

Not everyone had access to a typewriter or ditto machine, so some results were written out in hand - a very time consuming chore.

D'arry Jone Frank, and Linda Walter were active in the 1970s and are both still in the hobby. I've often wondered what happened to Charlotte Rogers (Barococo Stables) and Cynthia Gardner.

Jo Maness (I think she is still in the hobby) and Teresa Rogers (still active, a major Hagen Renaker collector as well as one of the kindest women you will ever meet), plus the famous *Alconbury Hill owned by Linda Walter. (Reserve Champion Appaloosa.)

I liked *Alconbury Hill (the asterisk indicated he was imported; any model that came from outside your country received one) so much that I looked for years to find one for myself. In the 1990s I got the second version, Pavoratti, and then, FINALLY (and fifty years later) I bought Simone Smiljanic's first version, the aptly named Worth the Wait. (Simone is still in the hobby - super nice lady!)

I held photo shows myself. I had a typewriter and used carbon paper to make copies of results. Still, it was tedious work as you could only make 3 or 4 good copies. You'd then retype the entire results again to make another set of 3 or 4. You repeated this process until you had enough copies for all your entrants.

I was puzzled by the name Lynn Smith in the first class - Pace's Hi Hopes was my horse. Why was I entering my own show? That didn't seem right!

And then I remembered - Lynn Smith was the hobbyist that I bought him from, and this show was the show where I first saw him.

Record keeping was another fun activity connected to photo showing. After my SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) came back with my results and ribbons, I would write down the winnings under each model's name.

Many people were quite creative with awards - you never knew what you'd find in that SASE! (The one on the left has a stamp similar to mine.)

If you were really lucky, the showholder bought real ribbons for their show - that always merited a squee moment!

Aren't these lovely?

Beth Dickinson is still very active in the hobby and we have been friends since 1971!

Many hobbyists cut up the Breyer manuals to make awards. (I didn't - mine all had circles and notes on them for models that I wanted to have.)

Photo showing in the 1970s was tremendous fun. I have found it ironic that, fifty years later, we have circled back to our roots due to the pandemic and are photo showing again. Both iterations have had the same result - bringing hobbyists together when circumstances won't allow in-person gatherings. Win-win!

Next up? Some of my early show photos.

Don't forget to comment if you want to enter the second giveaway and win the circus pony haversack!