Recently a friend invited me to come to her home this fall and "play ponies." She asked that I bring my earliest show horse and share a little bit about my experience with the hobby as it was getting off the ground back in the early 1970s.
I'm going to be under a lifting restriction for a couple of months, so I figured that now was the time to go through my tubs of hobby ephemera and pull out what I wanted to bring with me.
This is the model that I plan to take, my first custom, a r/r/h (repaint/remade/haired; what customs were called back then.) This is Paces Hi Hopes, a Hartland that was done by Sherri Cook in 1970. I got him in 1971 and he did very well in photo shows, winning championship after championship.
I still need to get him out of my china cabinet in the living room, but I will wait until closer to the get together to do that.
As I went through my tubs, I found a shoe box stuffed with envelopes that had my 1970s show models' names on them.
Pace's Hi Hopes' envelope was very full.
I had forgotten how creative early show hosts had been as they made awards for their shows.
Look at the lettering on this high point award - my guess is that the show hostess put the ribbon through her typewriter. What a challenge that would have been, but the ribbon looks great.
I love the Indian Pony, so this ribbon made me smile. Looks like the photo was cut from a Breyer manual.
A few shows even gave out commercial flats. The one in the upper left hand corner, from a California show held by Sue Seese in 1972, was actually won by another of my models, but I included it to show the range of what hobbyists handed out in the early days of photo showing.
Dittos (mimeographs) were sometimes used, too. Joyce McMaster made certificates for her show and then filled each one out by hand. What a lot of work!
I also found some ephemera related to photo showing that I thought would be fun to bring along, too.
These are results from a 1971 IMPHSA show - check out those performance classes. Western, English... have things changed or what?
Anyone remember Marney's model, In-A-Tiff? It was reserve high point horse in this show.
I founded the All Breeds Model Horse Showers Association in 1972 and ran the club until I went off to college. This is the first issue. Pace's Hi Hopes is featured in the inaugural "Horse of the Month" column.
In addition, I found this response to a letter that I had written to Breyer asking for a current list of model horse clubs. Back then, the only way you could get information about the hobby was to write and ask for it. Phone calls were very expensive because you were charged long distance fees. (The USPS really benefitted from the hobby until it moved online!)
Going through all those tubs and seeing mementos from the earliest days of the hobby was really fun. I'm glad that I was lucky enough to be a part of it as it all began.
