Dartmoor Live 2021

 It's been so long since I've written a live show report, I hardly know where to start anymore! It feels really good to be back to showing though, although I definitely have not missed all the packing and long days!

Our day started nice and early on Saturday as we loaded up far too many boxes into the van. With nearly two years worth of new purchases I decided to take quite a lot of horses, much to Brendon's annoyance! At least we have a van now which makes life a lot easier when it goes to travelling to shows.

After a quick stop at Greggs (a steak bake is a health breakfast right?) we found the hall, there was definitely a moment when we were both driving along going "I know it's hear somewhere" but we found it OK :D

After some quick hellos we unpacked all my eight thousand boxes and I was able to extend back away from my usual corner table which was definitely needed. I left Brendon to unpack our sales table and started to chat to people who I haven't seen in so long! There was much catching up to do!

The show day started with performance in rings one and two and commercial resin and china in ring three. I was judging the performance in ring one (English) and wasn't showing in that division so that was a nice slow start to my day.

It was wonderful to see so many gorgeous performance entries, here is a lovely sidesaddle from the first class of the day English Ridden

And here is another one from that class, also a RubberNedz

As well as English I was also given Scene to judge, always one of the most competitive classes I could have awarded first place to nearly all of the entries. This was a really simple set up with a very cool base and Schleich rattlesnake

This was an awesome kracken with Perseus on Pegasus in the corner! 

This was one of the in hand entries. A familiar face that now has a new owner and is back in the show ring again.

Performance Championship

I had the pleasure of helping to judge this and it was super competitive! It was nice because I got to look at all the Western entries that I hadn't had the chance to judge.

Performance Champion

Performance Reserve Champion

Performance Reserve to Reserve Champion

Each of the winners received a gorgeous rosette, chocolate and a certificate. The section champion also got another box of chocolates! I loved the colours on the rosettes, they were so pretty and the champion ones even had sparkles on!

After performance the OF section was started in Ring 1 and Toy CTF was started in Ring 2. Both very competitive divisions!

One of the gorgeous commercial entries, just look at the shine on this beautiful clinky boy!

One of my own entries, this is CRS Benedict Cumberbatch. You can see the tag on his leg, Dartmoor Live is unusual amongst UK shows in that it is a pre-entry show. This means you have to use tags on your models and send a list of codes in advance. This is actually really helpful as it saves you so much time on the day writing down results. As the models also already have their breed on them you also save time writing your breeds down on post-it-notes! It does require a bit of organisation and tagging in advance but I just sat down and wrote them all in front of the TV. Also once they are tagged they are tagged, I won't have to do it again in future, lots of my older horses already had their tags as they had been to the show before.

This is another of my entries, one of my new additions from the pandemic. This is CRS Angry Pancakes aka Ballynoe the BF 2020 Celebration Horse.

Commercial Resin & China Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

Once CCR was finished it then moved onto Craft Collectable in Ring 1.

This is the new Breyer Marc of Charm model, I'm so in love with with this guy, his colour is just beautiful. I mean look at the shading on the tail!

A really stunning RubberNedz with an unusual dapple grey pattern.

Another gorgeous RubberNedz, this one has a lovely sabino colour.

Lunchtime meant sales and a raffle of course. I browsed the sales tables but didn't purchase anything new, I have bought quite a few new ponies recently so decided I should probably be good for one show.

I did however buy £20 worth of raffle tickets and managed to win most of the raffle....including a gorgeous little BFA that I'm just in love with! I will make sure to share some pics once I have unpacked and photographed him. I also got a Mares in Black facemask which is super cute!

CTF Toy Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

Once CTF Toy was finished that section moved onto CTF Foundation.

This is another of my models that I've acquired over the pandemic. Cicely is a little RubberNedz Andalusian. They don't come with a stand so I use a Schleich tree to stand him up. Brendon says that it looks ridiculous! 

This little splash foal was just too adorable, I mean look at that cute little face!

With the flash you can see the real detail on this model and the purple shading that goes all the way up her legs!

I loved this adorable Spirit and Rain set (Rain beat Spirit FYI)!

This is one of the many Winx models that were on show. This girl won her class and is shown here in the championship.

A beautiful light palomino RubberNedz Welsh pony with another little grey in the background.

Original Finish Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

Once OF was complete we moved onto Artist Resin and China in ring one.

I loved the insane mane and tail on this little RubberNedz circus pony

One of my AR entries. This is Achilles, you can see Brescia just next to him (Patroclus also came but he's a partbred)

The pattern on this Julip foal was so unusual and absolutely gorgeous.

Craft Collectible Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

Once CC had finished we moved onto Vintage OF in Ring 3. Vintage was for vintage moulds not just models so you will see some new models on older moulds.

This was a really beautiful entry from the AR section. I was getting really tired by this point in the day (it was a really long day and I'm not used to showing) so I do apologise that there aren't many pics of AR!

CTF Foundation Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

We then moved onto custom in Ring 2, again I don't have many pics as I was very much just surviving off sugar at this point.

Bebe is my bloaty foal. Unfortunately she faced much abuse :( Including being told she should be "put out of her misery" and receiving award for Most Bloated Horse?!?!? Poor ickle creature!

Vintage Championship

Vintage Champion

Vintage Reserve Champion - CRS A League of Their Own

This is my own John Henry model, I have had this boy for years. He never stands up on my shelf but for some reason the wonky show tables were his perfect environment and he behaved so well he won Brendon a chocolate and me a rosette :)

Check out this stunning leopard spotted! That mane is just lush!

Artist Resin Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

I judged this model so it was nice to see it taking section reserve! It always feels good when people agree with your judging :D

This is Sparkle Warkle and quite possibly one of the best impulse purchases I've ever made. Everyone loved him!

A model that I've loved for years, she did very well at a show I ran about five years ago and is still going strong.

Custom Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

SUPREME CHAMPIONSHIP!

Supreme Champion - Craft Collectable

Supreme Reserve Champion - Custom Finish

Supreme Reserve to Reserve Champion - Artist Resin & China

Each of the Supremes won a gorgeous rosette, more chocolate, a little sash for their model to wear and one of this personalised Christmas ornaments with the show championship written on them, each one was a Dartmoor pony and were a lovely idea, I'm definitely getting some for the next show I run!

I hope you enjoyed all of these pictures :) No more shows until next year now *fingers crossed* but it feels good to be back writing show reports once more. If you are friends with me on Facebook there are 199 photos for you to flick through :)

Herefordshire Live 2019

Wow! Can't believe it's taken me a week to get around to having time to right this. I am still absolutely shattered, totally burnt myself out prepping for this show but I think it was worth it :D

I am going to start with the thank yous first :)

Thank you so much to everyone who came and supported the show, without your help on the day and generally awesomeness it wouldn't have been such a great day. I don't have enough time or space to single everyone out (but I will single out a few special individuals) but you were all really really awesome.

Special thanks firstly to Laura who helped set up and clear up and generally was a huge help throughout the weekend. Also well done for tolerating my awful taste in music, Westlife is awesome and you just need to accept that. Thank you so much to Jan, who judged some horrendous classes, I promise if you ever run a show I will judge all the really awful classes including Light Youngstock! You were really great and so tolerant, thank you so much x A massive thank you to Donna who stayed afterwards and helped clean up! That was a huge help when I had to pack all my horses! Thank you to Dave for cleaning the kitchen and amusing Brendon for the whole day!

And of course a massive thank you to Brendon for all his help in the run up to the show and on the day. I couldn't ask for a better husband :) Thank you for cutting BMECS cards, helping pack, loading cars, putting out tables, carrying things, selling raffle tickets, tidying, cleaning and generally being my rock for the last few weeks as I've been stressed and working all hours of the day to try and balance work, studying and show prep. I love you so much and you're a complete star x

And finally...thank you to everyone who bought raffle tickets! We raised an amazing £207 for DOTS which is such an awesome charity. Those little doggies are gonna be so happy :D as will their owners of course x

So onto the actual show report, well you may have guessed from my early morning and late night Facebook and Insta posts that I was getting a bit stressed getting ready for the show and getting everything prepped! But in the end I managed to produce three customs for prizes, five customs for the raffle, six tack pieces as prizes and numerous goody bags, raffle prizes and general prizes for the show.

The goody bags were a huge hit, I went major OTT with them and I think most people were on a sugar high by the end of the day but I really hope you enjoyed them :D I do like to spoil people and I hope I managed to do that.

The day started really early for us, once we had managed to find the hall (I did not get lost go me), find the key box and battle through the weird doors we made it in and ready to set up.

The hall is a great space, maybe a little small and seriously lacking in tables but we managed to fit everyone in!



As you can see it didn't take long for Brendon and Dave to start having important man talks. You can see the green goody bags on everyone's tables and the entire stage taken up by a raffle!

The day started with Original Finish in ring one, Performance in ring two and Workmanship in ring three.

Here is one of the workmanship classes, Bay



This photo also gives you an idea of how neat everything looked to start with :p But also how competitive some of the classes were, I mean look at the standard of entries!

OF was also hugely competitive and there were some stunning horses on show, here is a really nice PSA



Performance was also really well represented, I only had one class with a single entry over the entire day which was great! Here is a CF ISH approaching a cross country jump



And just because I love these little Schleich models here is a little Schleich cross country entry



My first yay moment of the day was getting a Workmanship Division champ with CRS Mona Lisa :D Now touched up she can finally hit the show ring again,



Uti also did really well as always, although Curtis was mean to him so he did cry a bit. Mean Curtis.



All of the sections had division championships as well as section championships, here you can see the stunning rosettes made by Inspirations Rosettes in front of a gorgeous Julip dressage entry



As you can see some of the classes had lots of variety in them which was nice. This is OF Paint horse



The leopard spot class made my eyes hurt! This is one of my favourite Harleys, a Kim Burd paint job



It was great to see lots of newcommers and younger showers having a go at performance as well, look at this lovely Roxy in Western tack



I just love the colour on this ISH



This was the other spotted workmanship class, less eye hurting than leopard but still SO MANY SPOTS



The part colour division champion, another favourite model of mine, this little pinto Hazel is just gorgeous



I was over the moon with Muir Woods :D He took home his second BMECS card and got a reserve division champion! Such a clever boy :D



Who doesn't love a Smarty Jones in Western tack? This rider looks like she is really going for it!



There were some really creative entries on the day, especially from the newcommers, look at this lovely Marabella in costume



WORKMANSHIP CHAMPIONSHIP

Prizes donated by Chestnut Ridge

Workmanship Champion



Workmanship Reserve Champion



Workmanship Reserve to Reserve Champion - CRS Mona Lisa (painted by Deb Brown)



These little mini whinnies were having great fun next to a stream



And because he was mean to Uti here is an embarrassing picture of Curtis



A gorgeous little CM Valegro (fun fact this guy was UK Workmanship champ at BMECS a few years ago)



PERFORMANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

Performance Champion



Performance Reserve Champion



Performance Reserve to Reserve Champion



Obviously the day wasn't thrilling for everyone



At lunchtime we had three fun classes, one of which was Apple most like Horse. I must say that everyone became worryingly competitive over this class. Some strange things went on with these apples!



At lunch we also had the raffle which took a very long time because genius here acquired A LOT of prizes. But Brendon was happy because he took home two teddies and I was happy because I got yet another teapot (I had managed to cut down to just three teapots). I think everyone got something, it was great to see a young hobbyist win the little artist resin I donated! They were over the moon! I can't remember who got the stunning AA Mule but it was such a beautiful donation, thank you Donna x Thank you so much to everyone who donated something, you were all so generous x

Anyway back to the show and on with OF!



After lunch we then started the CTF section, Albert did me proud (again), I swear this horse has so many rosettes I could build a fort out of them. I can't believe Donna was worried I wouldn't like him!



ORIGINAL FINISH CHAMPIONSHIP

Original Finish Champion



Original Finish Reserve Champion



Original Finish Reserve to Reserve Champion (nice to see the King Arthurs are still going strong)



The AA section then ran after OF. So at this point we had AA in ring one, CTF in ring two and CM in ring three.

Look at the paint job on this guy it's just gorgeous



Because I love bays and I love shiny china things, a really nice little bay AA TB



One of my older customs still doing well and taking home a 5th in CM Fantasy



We haven't had any cuteness in a while so check out the CTF Pony Youngstock class!



Another gorgeous paintjob, I just love the dapple on this AA model, and I don't normally like dapples!



CUSTOM CHAMPIONSHIP

Custom champion



Custom Reserve Champion - CRS I Am Spartacus (painted by Deb Brown)



Custom Reserve to Reserve Champion



Judging all of the classes was tough and required a lot of concentration! Also check out Brendon in the background, caught in the act of sweet stealing!



CTF CHAMPIONSHIP

CTF Champion



CTF Reserve Champion - CRS Albert I (RubberNedz Trakehner in Bay)



CTF Reserve to Reserve Champion



This was my favourite model of the day by far - I am just in love with her!

ANIMAL ARTISTRY CHAMPIONSHIP

AA Champion



AA Reserve Champion



AA Reserve to Reserve Champion



The prizes, rosettes, trophies and certificates for the Supreme Championship, some amazing things on offer for the winners, they also all got goody bags!



Waiting for judging...the custom champions



Herefordshire Live 2019 - Supreme Champion



Herefordshire Live 2019 - Reserve Supreme Champion



Herefordshire Live 2019 - Reserve to Reserve Supreme Champion



Don't worry I won't share the embarrassing pic of you all stood behind your models on here!

Thank you so much to everyone who came :) I hope you all had a wonderful day and your models did you proud. I look forward to seeing everyone again next year :D Now ROLL ON BMECS!