BMECS 2018

It's that time of year again, you know when it takes 3 days to build up the energy to even write this Blog post because I'm so exhausted!

As always BMECS was an exhausting yet brilliant weekend. I only took 20 entries and I am still absolutely knackered! It was great fun though and I must say it was nice to have to time to chat and mess around with people instead of constantly feeling that one had to run here and there every two minutes to get a horse!

The team did a great job, the prizes were absolutely lovely (just you wait until you see what Donna made for the Craft & Foundation championship)! I was really happy with how my horses did, out of 20 entries I took home 12 BMECS cards and two Top 10s. The highlight of my weekend was Ruby getting a Top 10. I've owned her for many years and always felt she hadn't quite lived up to her potential, I'm delighted that she finally has :)

I have selected a few images to include here (including all the champions and Top 10s) but if you want to see all the 761 images and are my friend on Facebook then please just click here :D

For those of you who don't know BMECS is the UK version of NAN. Horses being shown here must have qualified by placing 1st or 2nd at a qualifier show (held through the UK & Europe, NAN cards are also valid at BMECS). So the horses that win at BMECS really are the best of the best!

The show takes place over two days with Original Finish, Performance, CTF Plastic & Craft/Foundation on Day One and then Custom, Artist Resin, Workmanship, Commercial Resin/China and Animal Artistry on Day Two.

There are also extra awards for Best UK Finishwork, Best UK Custom Work, Best UK Sculpture, Best UK Tack Maker & Best UK Prop/Doll Maker.

Horses are show in individual classes. 1st place models then go through to Group Winners (usually 5-10 classes in a group). Group Winners then go through the section championship. Within this a Champion, Reserve Champion, Reserve to Reserve Champion and 7 Top 10's are awarded.

Now onto the pictures! I am going to start off with the nice pictures of the nine champions.

Champions

Animal Artistry Champion 2018

Artist Resin & China Champion 2018

Commercial Resin & China Champion 2018

Craft & Foundation Champion 2018

CTF Plastic Champion 2018

Custom Champion 2018

Workmanship Champion 2018

Original Finish Champion 2018

Performance Champion 2018

And now onto the individual show pictures. I've selected a random assortment of pictures, enjoy :D

Below is one of the Cross Country entries, there were a lot of Copperfox ISH's in the performance section!

One of the group winners from the Julip section, a really nice example of how gorgeous Julips can be!

A very very very cute little Equorum Group Winner! I mean did I say he was cute?

Fiori who decided that BMECS would be the perfect time to demonstrate standing on three legs *shakes head at horse*

Craft & Foundation Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

Reserve to Reserve Champion

Top 10s:

Performance Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

Reserve to Reserve Champion

Top 10s:

Above is one of my entries :D My live show scene!

My favourite entry of the entire weekend was this pair of Suffolks. 

UK Tack Maker Award

Below is a better shot of the tack on the winning piece

UK Prop & Dolls Maker Award

Proving that size is no issue! A tiny little unicorn

Original Finish Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

Reserve to Reserve Champion

Top 10s:

CTF Plastic Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

Reserve to Reserve Champion

Top 10s:

We now move onto Day 2 and the very expensive fragile anxiety inducing models!

Check out this stunning circus horse AA

A beautiful grey custom Warmblood

Part of the HUGE raffle on day 2!

A lovely custom Breyer Zippo

A lovely custom Breyer Stablemate Mustang

UK Finishwork Artist 2018

UK Custom Work Artist 2018

UK Sculptor 2018

My own Dionysus showing off in the show ring

Workmanship Championship

Workmanship Champion

Workmanship Reserve Champion

Workmanship Reserve to Reserve

Top 10s:

I am incredibly proud to see this model (what I painted) get his second Workmanship Top 10. The mirror is a really lovely touch!

Animal Artistry Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

Reserve to Reserve Champion

Top 10s:

I love how scared this horse looks!

A really gorgeous Group Winner from the CCR section

Commercial Resin & China Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

Reserve to Reserve Champion

Top 10s:

A shot of one of the rings being set up for the custom championship

Custom Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

Reserve to Reserve Champion

Top 10s:

Artist Resin & China Championship

Champion

Reserve Champion

Reserve to Reserve Champion

Top 10s:

CRS Risky Ruby getting a top 10 (above). A Dancing Daisy resin painted by Deb Brown.

And finally I shall leave you with this little cutey having a nice shot taken :D

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Feel free to add me as a friend on Facebook and use this link to see a LOT more:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10156493020385155&type=1&l=10a8a9114a

If you would like a copy of any of the images of your horses please email catriona@chestnutridge.co.uk and I will send one over.

2019 Safari Models

Safari have announced their 2019 range. You can view the full range here: https://store.safariltd.com/collections/whats-new

In the meantime here are my selected highlights:


Good luck minis beavers! YEP TINY BEAVERS! OMG!



Merhorse



Chinchilla


Thoroughbred


Tinker - I love this one

New Arabian Mould

With the new Breyer website has come a better image of the new Stablemate Arabian mould that is due to be released as part of the 2018 Stablemate Club.



I can't say I'm a massive fan (but I wasn't based on the silhouette either), it will be interesting to see how it translates into plastic. Afterall one can't really make a judgement until one has the model in hand to look at!

The Julip Hoard

Wow, what a 24 hours it's been! I've finally sat down today and gone through my images and catalogued the 18 Julips I'm keeping out of the lot (spot the missing one :p).

There are still two, however, that I'm not sure on the mould of, I think I've got the rest right but feel free to correct me if you think there are any errors! And if you can ID the mould on the two that I'm not sure on that would be amazingly helpful :)

For those who aren't on Facebook here is where these came from and their story:

So a few weeks ago I came across a very interesting auction online.

It was described as 18 Julip horses and accessories and had one very poor photo that basically showed some boxes and a black horse stood up.

After much computer based inspection I could make out what appeared to be a few originals, enough that I knew it was worth taking a punt on and enough that I could set a maximum.

So I spoke to Brendon (and my parents) and he agreed that he would drive me to Cornwall to pick them up if I won. He also agreed they could be my birthday present and we set a maximum we were prepared to pay (afterall for all we knew there could be 18 modern HOTY models in bad condition)!

Last Wednesday I sat in my parents hall, praying to the gods of internet connections, and watched half an auction until my lot came up.

I bid. And bid. And came very close to my maximum! Someone in the room was bidding which gave me confidence that they weren't all awful. In the end we paid less than our maximum including fees which was nice :D

And so today we got up at 4.30am to drive to Cornwall to find out exactly what I got. I had set my hopes low, but I knew at the price we paid there only needed to be 3 originals for it to be worth while.

Well what can I say. There are some moments as a collector you just get lucky. Lucky you found the thing, lucky nobody else found the thing and lucky you were prepared to take a risk (and an amazing husband).

In total there were 19 (somebody can't spell) horses. 18 Julip Originals and the black thing I could see in the listing that is maybe a custom? Maybe a repair job? No idea.

There were also 8 riders, a huge amount of tack, a few little bits and bobs, some 1980's catalogues and a fox hound :D (o and a metal comb which obviously I am very excited about).

I am so over the moon with these guys :) 18 of them are staying with me, one is going to live with someone very special who I think needs cheering up. I've named one of them but the rest are yet to be named! The dapple grey has been named Cloudberry, it just seemed to suit her.

Some of them were tagged with breeds and I do actually have the name of the original owner as one of the boxes was addressed. Sadly none were tagged with names :( But they've come to a good home, they'll live with me and the rest of my extensive Julip herd (they've already met Crackers...) for the rest of their lives :D No more cold auction rooms for these babies, just a cold pony room instead!

(I'm afraid to say some are going back into boxes if they can't stand to help preserve them, the rest are going in the glass cabinet with the other vintage Julips).

Enjoy the eye candy :D I know I can't stop looking at them!

Now onto the models, each one now has a name :)

(1) CRS The Dark (Pebbles)

Child's Hunter Pony

(2) CRS The Death of Lorca (Lorca)

Show Hunter

(3) CRS Decameron (Deca)

Dartmoor

(4) CRS The Devil's Discus (Discus)

Child's Hunter Pony

(5) CRS Cloudberry (Cloudberry)

Arab Stallion

(6) CRS Big Red (Red)

American Quarter Horse

(7) CRS Doctor Zhivago (Zhivago)

Shetland

(8) CRS Droll Stories (Drolly)

Shetland?

(9) CRS Ecstasy (Ecstasy)

No idea! Any ideas?

(10) CRS Elmer Gantry (Elmer)

Cob Mare

(11) CRS Fanny Hill (Fanny)

Fell

(12) CRS Feast of the Seaweed (Seaweed)

Thoroughbred

(13) CRS Fifty Shades of Black (Fife)

Heavy Hunter

(14) CRS Frankenstein (Franken)

Highland

(15) CRS Forever Amber (Amber)

New Forest

(16) CRS The Fugitive (Fugi)

Welsh Pony

(17) CRS The First Circle (Cicle)

Welsh Pony

(18) CRS God's Laugh (Laura)

Also not sure about this one? Any ideas?

And finally we have CRS Grapes of Wrath aka Grape the Foxhound :D

New Breyer Website

Breyer have launched a brand new look website, I can't say I'm massively enamoured with it but I'm sure one will get used to it!

It was really easy to activate my old account, go to the homepage and enter your email address, click the link, create a password and you'll have access to all your old orders as well as any Collector's Club etc. memberships.

You can view their new site here: https://www.breyerhorses.com

BMECS Fun!

It's that time of year again :D With just one week to go we have a range of fun and games both for those attending and not attending BMECS this year!

Guess the Champion

Each year on Facebook we ask you to guess what breed/colour/performance type you think each champion will be and this year is no different.

From Monday - Friday we will put up posts for each section. All you have to do is comment underneath what you think will win.

We will choose a winner randomly from all those with correct answers and they will win an extra special prize, I'm not revealing what the prizes are this year but they are pretty cool :D

You can find our Facebook page here

T&Cs

For a full copy of our competition terms and conditions please email competitions@chestnutridge.co.uk

Some important things:

(1) Winners are responsible for postage costs on their prize - these are £2.95 to the UK but will vary for different international locations
(2) One entry per person per post
(3) The winner will be chosen at random from all correct answers - where there are no correct answers no prize will be issued
(4) All entries must be in by 7am GMT on Saturday 29th September 2018.

BMECS Treasure Hunt

Find all the items on our BMECS Treasure Hunt whilst at the show and you could win a very special prize.

Add your images to Instagram with #BMECSTreasureHunt or add them on the Facebook post.

Not Attending Treasure Hunt

If you aren't attending BMECS this year don't worry you could also win a prize! Your treasure hunt is below.

Upload to Instagram with #BMECSNATreasureHunt or add them as comments on the Facebook post for your chance to win a prize.

ENTRY DEADLINE: 6am Monday 1st October 2018