Happy Trails is Happening!

My in-home pony party/live show, Happy Trails, is always held the first or second weekend in June. This year, though, it didn't happen last weekend due to pandemic concerns. (It hadn't happened in 2020, either, although I did hold a Happy Trails photo show.)

Me judging a vintage foal class in my kitchen in 2018. That's Pat Reed with me.

But, Happy Trails is going to happen in October of this year. 

Last year's show was to celebrate my 50 years in the hobby, so this year it's the 50 + 1 show.

There are classes honoring my two earliest hobby friends, Sue Seese

and Beth Dickinson. (Beth and me at BreyerFest 2017.)

I'm looking forward to having my whole house overrun with friends and models,

from my dining room

 

into my living room

until every flat space from the fireplace mantle

to the pianos and buffets are covered with model horses.

Even better will be that those rooms are filled with some of my dearest hobby friends. (Who are even willing to go outside and do a little stick horse riding in the name of fun and friendship.)

Clockwise starting with the back row: me, Yvonne Rott, Jamie Rott, Michelle Evans, Liz Cory, Sande Schneider, Stan Sollars, Allison Pareis, Steff Bodamer, and Pat Reed. 

It's four months away, but I am so excited to host this show again, it feels like Christmas is coming in October!

50th Anniversary: 1990s BreyerFests, NAN, and Lincoln Land Live

The 1990s were probably the busiest decade in my life. My older kids were in high school and moving on to college, all my children were in sports and church activities, and I was volunteering at church and school. This was on top of delivering the early morning newspapers to vending boxes and the afternoon neighborhood routes with my kids, piano, and other music lessons. Time was in short supply.

I still was able to carve out time for my model horse activities. I missed the first BreyerFest in 1990, but Craig sent me to Kentucky for a "mama vacation" for the second one in 1991. I went all by myself and enjoyed some me-time. Not only did I do the horse park and shop at the Holiday Inn in the evening, but I spent time in my hotel room simply reading and relaxing. 

That started a trend and I was able to attend BreyerFest in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, and 1999. Photo is of Stephanie Clift, Kathy Bateman, and Beth Dickinson with one of the Kentucky Horse Park trolleys during the 1999 BreyerFest.

It was during the 1990s that NAMHSA (North American Model Horse Showers Association) was formed. Live show holders could apply to NAMHSA to have their show become a qualifier for NAN, the North American Nationals. 

NAN is an annual show where the best model horses from across North America compete to be awarded national champion, reserve champion, or top ten in the nation.

I attended the first NAN in 1995 in Lexington, Kentucky. My circus girl set-up had qualified and made top ten. I was very excited about that; I had made everything from the doll's outfit, the tack, and the ring.

Sorry for the poor photo quality - the photo album is starting to fall apart and I chose to not pull the pictures out to scan them because of that.

A the time, NAN was alternating every other year from Lexington to another place in order to make it accessible to more hobbyists. I think the 1996 NAN was in California - too far for me to go. But it returned to Kentucky in 1997 and I was there! 

My Windsong Sherif has top tenned in every NAN I've attended and won reserve national champion, too.

Ouiatenon, tacked up with a Kathy Bateman western saddle, top tenned at several NANs, too. This is the 1995 NAN.

The 1990s were also the time when I took the plunge and held a couple of live shows.

In 1993 I held the Central Illinois All Halter Live Show in a large classroom in Craig's building on the campus of the University of Illinois. Julie (Poremba) Propes was a judge...

... as was Karen (Lebeda) Beeson. Both were studying at the UI back then and are now living in the Chicago area. Karen was a Breyer dealer and she'd call me when a new shipment came in. I loved going to her home and buying new Breyers from her!

I also held Lincoln Land Live I, II, and III during the 1990s. I only found two photos from those shows.

D'Arry Jone Frank debuted her M&M jump at Lincoln Land III. She still has it - she posted a photo of it on Facebook earlier this year. 

Kathy with the awards for Lincoln Land III.

Between family life and model horse activities, I was always on the run. But life got even busier. I went back to school. More on that in the next 50th Anniversary post.

Today is the last day to enter for the embroidered haversack. Comment to enter!

50th Anniversary: Lifelong Friends - Beth Dickinson

Sue Seese was not the only penpal that has remained a lifelong friend. Beth Dickinson also responded to my 1970 penpal ad and we became dear friends and are still writing each other.  

Both women have known me longer than Craig has!

Beth was a lover of drafters and then later moved on to chinas and resins.

She was also vice president of the club I formed, the All Breeds Model Horse Shower's Association. If I remember right, she also took it over when I graduated from high school and went off to college.

Beth enjoyed photo showing and did some really nice set ups.  During the 1980s and 90s, we "leased" models from each other just as people do in the real horse world.

These photos were taken by Beth and are from the 1990s.

Take a look at this early Tiffany Purdy Arabian costume! She had a similar one in red and black at Lincoln Land Live (a live show I held in the 1990s) and I liked it so much that she agreed to make one for me.

Beth loved my 1970s Sherry Cook repaint, Midwest Tumbleweed, and leased her from me for years.

She sold me this Cantering Welsh Pony with gold braids. Sadly, I sold her in the 2000s.

Beth has won big at many NANS. This is NAN 1995 or 1997 in Lexington, Kentucky.

Beth, me, and Stephanie Clift at BreyerFest in 1999. I wish I still had that tee shirt with Breyer's porcelain Saddlebred on it!

Speaking of tee shirts, note that drafter tee she's wearing! Beth and me at BreyerFest 2017. 

I saw Beth in passing at BreyerFest 2019 but she was helping Jennifer Danza with a seminar and couldn't talk. I was only there one day as we were traveling down to Nashville the next day to celebrate Music City Son Cole's birthday, so Beth and I never did get an opportunity that BreyerFest to chat.

Like Sue Seese, Beth is not on social media much. She does have an email address, but we mostly communicate the way our friendship began - through letters sent via snail mail. And you know what? It's still just as thrilling to open my mailbox and see a letter from these two dear friends waiting for me as it was back when we were kids.

Entries end for the cowpokes haversack Thursday night at 11:59 PM EDT. Comment to win the cowpokes haversack and the surprises inside! 

(The horse is not one of the surprises.)

Blast from the Past - 2014 NAN

(In 2014 I attended NAN in Lexington, Kentucky. Here is a post about it from my old family blog.)

Wednesday Craig and I drove to Lexington, Kentucky for the 19th North American Nationals (NAN). 

Kentucky - a place after my own heart. Where else can I get my favorite drink out of a vending machine with a horse on it??

We ate a late dinner in The Horseshoe, the restaurant next to the motel. Only one other table had customers, and as I glanced over at it, one of the women sitting there looked up and our eyes met. It was Karen Beeson, a long time hobby friend who had attended the University of Illinois! And with her was Chris Wallbruch, another U of I alum, hobby friend, and fellow teacher! I hadn't seen either gal in at least ten years - who'd have thought??

We had a nice chat, and they gave me some tips for showing at NAN the next day. I was disappointed that they would not be there, but they'd shown on the previous two days of the show and needed to get back to Chicago and their families. (The third day of NAN was for china, resin, and collectibility classes.)

The next morning we drove to Heritage Hall/Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington and got in line to be admitted to the show.

I'd shown at the inaugural NAN in 1995 and the third one in 1997, so I was a bit rusty at showing on the national level. Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous, although I did not have high expectations of winning much - 212 people were entered along with 5,600+ pieces over the three days of the show.

The show hall was massive and sprawling, with 23 tables (rings) for exhibiting.

It was a very well-run and organized show and a volunteer manned a whiteboard where classes that had been called were posted, their status as to whether entries were being loaded or if the class was closed, and which ring the class was in. I took my clipboard and entry list up there more than once just to keep track of where my pieces were going.

My show string for this year's NAN.

That's Kristina Lucas Francis in the green, a friend from Tennessee and a sculptor for Breyer and Disney (she did some of the The Nightmare before Christmas Christmas ornaments), and other commercial companies as well as her own sculpting. (She specializes in horses and dinosaurs.) It was fun having her nearby and getting to chat throughout the show.

Another good friend, Beth Dickinson, who I have known since we became pen pals in 1971, was also in attendance. She works for Hershey and brought me some special chocolates to try. Thanks, Beth!

Classes started being called at 8:00 AM.

My Breyer Icelandic and my HR Misty.

My North Light Welsh Pony.

My Lakeshore Belgian Warmblood and my Cheval Friesian (he won two Top Tens, one for Breed and one for Collectibility.)

My HR Sherif, a piece that usually does very well at shows. I found it for $4 at an auction in Fairbury, Illinois in the early 1990s. It's from the 1950s and has exceptionally nice detail which is why it often wins the classes in which it is entered.

I thought it might Top Ten, but to my surprise it was Reserve National Champion in Breed!

And my other surprise was when my HR donkey foal, Harry Potter, also was Reserve National Champion in its Breed class!

The show wrapped up in the early afternoon, and so we were home by 7:30. I came home tired but happy, and still more than a bit surprised that I had had such a successful day.