How much does a show string cost? - Why money doesn't equal success

I see this a lot 'my models are cheap how can they compete' and it upsets me. Maybe the UK is different to the US but definitely in the UK money doesn't always buy success. OK so there are always going to be very expensive beautiful top LSQ resins (for example) that do very well (the same is probably true of those very pricey Equorums) but there are those of us who don't have many pennies and who are doing perfectly well without such things in their life!

So I thought to myself, how much did my show string cost? Good question....

Now many of these are just estimates, I don't know exactly how much because I forget these things! But it will give you an idea.

I have 25 horses in my show string, here are their stable names and cost (not value per se), they are in order of successfullness!

1. Smexy - £90.00
2. Spartacus - £95.00
3. Acorn - £20.00
4. Icicle - £20.00
5. A Winning Ticket - £20.00
6. Harmonie - £30.00
7. Caprice - £112
8. Heredites - £65
9. Catriona - £112
10. Irish Cream - £25
11. Inti - £5
12. Acapello - £35
13. Flea - £2
14. Kuchi - £30
15. Sparkle - £4
16. Dulce de Leche - £20
17. Calico - £10
18. Squish - £7.50 (although bought unpainted and painted by me)
19. Daisy - £3.50
20. Adam - £100
21. Sun (P) - £20 (horse), £40 (handler), arena wall (£20) (tack made by me)
22. Chubusco - £30
23. Olivia - £5
24. Sun (H) - £20
25. Julie - £45

So what's the total? well one thing to note is one horse is in their twice so I've included him only once obviously :p Also note that one horse I painted (obviously if you bought this you'd have to pay for a paint job, which from me including paint job would have cost £35) and also I made the headcollar for a performance set up (again off me that would cost £20).

So total.....

*drum roll please*

£966!!!

OK so that is quite a lot, but that is on average £38.50 per horse (or there abouts). But there are some important things to note, there are few models that are on the upper end of pricey, some nice china AA's and a couple of quite expensive customs.

But the majority were cheap...

So what is there?

Let's look at actually what my show string comprises of! We have:

Equorums - 1
Customs - 7
Performance Set Ups - 2
China AAs - 2
Breyers - 6
CollectAs - 1
Schleichs - 3
Artist Resins - 1
Julips - 1

The majority are customs. These include 5 Deb Browns, 1 Yvonne Davey and 1 Kim Burd. The AR was painted by myself.

It is also important to note that I have models in my collection, that I do show, that cost a lot more, for example a £350 custom or a £300 OF. My premier models work out at around £200 each including shipping and customs! I have plenty of £100+ customs that I show that have not done well enough to reach my show string.

I think that is important to remember, just because a model is expensive doesn't mean it is amazing.

My third best horse was bought as a body, my fourth and fifth best were also bought very cheap.

My 11th best horse is just a CollectA and my 13th best is a SM Mule I bought for £2 in the UH shop!

I've been live showing since 2006, that is around 9 years worth of shows, I've been collecting since 2003. So this collection has been built up slowly over the years. I didn't start with this! (although Acorn my third best was with me at my 2nd live show where he got CM champion)!

Lots of these models were also gifts, in fact at least 5 were presents, I have a suspicion that Acapello was also a present. In fact the presents come to £294 in total! So that is nearly £300 off what I personally have spent.

So as I say, money doesn't buy success, and a show string takes time to build up. You may be surprised, that £2 stablemate may do better than you think!