Coming Full Circle (and Beyond)

No, I am not branching out into tack sales, especially tack for live horses, not model.

But yes, there was a lovely bridle plopped down on my sales table Saturday among my sales items and my show string.

Shannon Rodgers had dropped by and was making a delivery - one that had had quite a circuitous, cross country journey before landing in the middle of my pouches.

Special delivery for Dani Boiko! She was also going to drop by and pick up an order of haversacks that I had made her, so Shannon asked if I minded if she left the bridle there for Dani. Of course not! Both women are friends and I don't mind helping them out.

Soon Tiffany Purdy was at my table chatting to Shannon, Dani, and me, and the story of the bridle began to emerge, at least, as I understand it.

Tiffany has an older mare, Sassy, that she'd recently put back into training. To prepare for that, Tiffany had bought three new bridles for her mare. Then, Sassy became ill, the bridles were not needed, and Tiffany passed all three bridles on to Jennifer Buxton for her mare, Olive.

Two of the bridles, the prink and the black, fit Olive well, but the purple bridle did not. (Photos of Olive and the bridles by Jennifer.)

Since Olive already had several bridles, Jennifer did a give away on her blog to get the bridle into the hands of someone who could use it, be it for tack making, use on a real horse, or as horsey decor for home.

I entered, Dani entered, and Shannon entered along with a host of other folks. Shannon was the lucky winner and so Jennifer mailed the bridle to her.

Now, here is where I am not clear - the bridle going from Shannon to Dani. I do know this - Shannon is a very generous lady, and it would not surprise me if she'd originally intended to keep it herself but then found out that her friend Dani had wanted to win the Tiffany/Jennifer bridle to use for her own horse.

And so arrangements were made for Shannon to drop it off at the October GLC show where Dani would pick it up. Since Dani was also picking up an order from me, my table became the drop-off spot, and since Tiffany was at the show judging, we all ended up standing around my table, talking and laughing at the circuitous route that that bridle had taken to get to Dani.

Talk about coming full circle!

Other things to talk about? Breyer is in full steam ahead mode: they've released the 2024 retired list of models, opened the Collector and Deluxe Collectors Clubs, dropped a new model for their Wild Animals Series (Mangoky, a Lemur done on the Valegro mold), and switched BreyerWest in Denver to BreyerMidwest in Salina, Kansas. Their annual holiday catalog has begun arriving in homes and photos show that  Hagen Renaker's original Zara has been shrunk down to Stablemate size! (Fellow blogger Kirsten Wellman has an excellent article about this and its historical significance here.)

Hobbyists who track when things are released are saying that the BreyerFest 2025 Celebration model should be revealed in early November. Personally, I am expecting it to be a "Wow" model - it will be celebrating Breyer's 75th anniversary and I think this will be a very special BreyerFest as a result.

As always, stay 'tooned! (And good luck keeping up with all the Breyer news!)

Great Lakes Congress: TIhe Show! (Part One)

Great Lakes Congress is held in Huntley, Illinois, which is a four hour drive from where I live in Indiana. Liz Cory invited me to stay overnight at her home, so I drove up Friday afternoon and helped her set up the show.

The show hall is at her local park district's community center, and the park district already had the tables and chairs up and ready when we arrived.

Sam, Liz's husband, helps her set up for every show, and the two of them really didn't need much help from me.

They had the raffle tables and the judges/show managers area set up in less than an hour.

Liz allowed me to set up Horsiemama's Haversacks and Mercantile early, and that was really helpful to me.

I'd paid for a vendor table in addition to my show table, and ended up being really glad that I had - I needed every inch of space.

After we'd gotten the show set up, we went to dinner at one of Sam and Liz's favorite restaurants, a mom and pop one that had yummy food (with a dish of ice cream as part of your meal!) Then we headed back to the house and chatted a while around the kitchen table. We didn't stay up too late - we had to be at the show hall by 6:30 the next morning.

I had to smile when I saw the hand towel in Liz's guest bathroom. I made that for her last year.

The show hall officially opened at 7:00 AM, but when we arrived at 6:30, folks were waiting in the parking lot.

That's normal for GLC and people are let in as soon as the GLC hosts are there so they can start unpacking and getting ready for the day's show. 

Shannon Rodgers came hurrying over - she had a new circus horse and knew I was looking forward to seeing it.

She was still in the process of tacking him up (the tack is by Lindy Pinkham; I don't remember the artist's name) but even so, he was still gorgeous!

My "other side of the Wabash" friend, Kelsey Kramer was there, and she was repping for Purdue again. (It is so much fun to have another hobbyist in town!)

I'd only brought twenty models to show, but they were out, their documentation was ready,

and it was time for the show to begin!

(Last three photos courtesy of Great Lakes Congress.)

Shannon's Surprise

I was in Joann's last week and took a moment to wander through the clearance aisle. I was looking for small storage ideas for sewing notions, but since I had a few moments, decided to look at appliqués. 

 When I spied these large horseshoe appliqués, I snapped them up.  

I had a project in mind that needed large horseshoes and had been thinking about embroidering them since I have a variety of horseshoe designs in my digital files.

But those horseshoe appliqués were the perfect size and would save me a lot of time. Unfortunately, I needed four horseshoe appliqués, and there were only three available. I brought them home anyway and decided I would look for more online.

A day later, I got a nice card from my friend Shannon Rodgers. Guess what was tucked inside?

Three more of the horseshoe appliqués! Shannon had found them while shopping and thought I might be able to use them, even though she had no idea I was looking for more!

Shannon being Shannon (she is very generous), she'd found some other appliqués that she included in her surprise gift. 

Thanks, so much, Shannon! I will put these appliqués to go use and appreciate your thoughtfulness.

A Mini Pepper!

 Many of you know that my dog Pepper is a retired Seeing Eye Dog.

Pepper in harness guiding Sarah on campus for graduation in 2019.

Pepper loves retirement.

She REALLY does.

Does this look like a dog who knows how to take you safely around downtown New York City, threading you through crowds and around obstacles, and so forth? She may not look like it, but she can! (And has.)

Her training does surface occasionally, though. Last  month she "traffic checked" me while we were out walking. Traffic checking is a part of intelligent disobedience where the dog makes a decision to disregard your command due to safety issues that she can see and that you (presumably) cannot. I had started to cross the street knowing that a car was approaching but confident that we had time to cross. Pepper disagreed and stepped in front of me so that she was blocking my way forward. (Good girl, Pepper!)

Aside from those Seeing Eye behaviors that happen every now and then, I don't think about Pepper's former life much any more. A little while back, though, I got a little reminder in the mail from Shannon Rodgers.

A mini Pepper! A teeny tiny black Lab in working harness!

The grip handle that the dog's partner holds while they are working together even moves forward and back, just as a real one does!

Thank you, Shannon, for the gift! That was so thoughtful of you and I keep it right here next to me in my horse room.

(I'm up to three black Labs in my collection, but not to worry - I do not collect dogs any more than I collect Stablemates...)