The Horse World

Awareness of the outside world. “Lunar Communion Sunday is still celebrated annually at Webster Presbyterian.” History.com: Buzz Aldrin Took Holy Communion on the Moon. NASA Kept it Quiet, Blakemore, 2018, updated 2019.
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Last week was a festival of passive participation. Television coverage of the Tour de France. Livestream of the Lexington Horse Show. Virtual Breyerfest. Three events; three modalities.

Naturally, the Tour de France had the best production values. Full-time reporters following the race. Professional commentators covering every move.

Personal favorite was Lexington because I knew people. More tomorrow.

The most varied content award goes to Virtual BreyerFest. Hours of live and recorded coverage. Talks. Workshops. Art contests. Demos.

Wouldn’t it be fun to combine them?

Imagine a horse show with a virtual component to watch from the comfort of your couch. Full coverage of the ring(s), of course. Real-time results. Barn tours. Interviews with riders, trainers, and owners.

RVP tries to add value to their coverage. They stick a microphone on front of every winner as they come out of the ring. While I admire the effort, this is not the optimal time for quality interviews. Trust me, you will not get anything coherent.

On the way out, the folks from Richfield Video interviewed the winners. I talked five times to the poor man holding the microphone. I managed a usable soundbite once. The rest were the same ‘It was great. The horse was great.’ drivel that I used to get when I covered horse shows.

Team Awesome, Pro-Am 2016

Much of the information exists, but one has to cobble it to together. Schedule from the show. Results from a horse show recording page. Livestream from the videographer. Stills from the photographer.

Wouldn’t it be fun to have a landing page with all of this accessed from one place?

Okay, not every horse show, but the top handful from each discipline. Local shows tend to get watched by family members. Although, would grandparents pay to watch a few classes? Would a parent who couldn’t get off work? Fellow barn rats?

And maybe not TdF-level money, because then we get TdF-level scandals. But take some of the coverage ideas.

It wasn’t all watching. There was shopping.

Say what you want about content and fan-engagement, Breyer is a business. Their prime directive is to sell plastic ponies. BreyerFest makes it disturbingly easy to buy plastic ponies. I went a wee bit nuts with the shopping. I will confess to the extent once they arrive.

An outsider’s view,

Her horse is the lightsaber and Han Solo in Star Wars; the ring as well as Samwise in Lord of the Rings. The call to action and the companion.

Gizmodo: 72 Hours in Model Horse Mecca, Menegus, 2016

Later,

Make a horse walk funny and horse people lose their shit.

Ibid

Model Horse [Archives]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. Huffington Post: Everything You Know About Obesity is Wrong.” Hobbes. Counterpoint, USNews: Everything You Know About Obesity Is Not Wrong, Markey. All of this was back in 2018. Still a worthwhile discussion. I want to say both sides have good points, but we can’t use the term “both sides” anymore can we? Anyway. “Just as horrifying as the disease itself (scurvy), though, is that for most of those 300 years, medical experts knew how to prevent it and simply failed to.” Hobbes. “What messages prevail isn’t just about what doctors put out, it’s also about what consumers pick up.” Markey. Assist to friend who posted on FB.
~~~

Me. (Goes out to check footing for possible afternoon ride.)

Milton: I vote for bath!

Rodney: Yes. Bath.

Me. (Considers weather. While temps not as hot as they will be later, humidity says summertime. Considers horses sweaty from simply standing around.)

Me: You are not wrong.

(By bath, they mean rinse off with hose. One of their favs.)

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Images, Little Plastic Art

Awareness of the outside world. BreyerFest Artisan’s Gallery 2020. Sales pages, but it doesn’t cost anything to look.
~~~

Additions to the herd since BreyerFest last year. [Model Horse Archives]

Classics, i.e. what you think of when you think of a Breyer model. Only one (two) new, La Molina & Masella. Silver filigree mare with blue filigree foal.

Breyer, Products: La Molina & Masella, 2020 Winter Decorator Web Special

Model Horse Madness: Black Beauty and La Molina & Masella!, December 2020

La Molina, Identify Your Breyer: Andalusian Mare

Masella, Identify Your Breyer: Andalusian Foal

Freedom, i.e. the middle size that seems neither fish nor fowl to me. One that I won in a raffle and am hoping to rehome. Two model lines is enough for me to keep track of.

Stablemates, i.e. the little dudes. At first, I was only tracking the big horses. Therefore my Stablemates records are spotty. Valiantly resisting the urge to get lost in a data update. These are the ones I know are new within the year.

Stablemates Club

Atticus, bay

Breyer History Diva: Atticus, Cassidy, and the Box of Mysteries

Identify Your Breyer: Clydesdale Stallion

Hendrik, palomino

Breyer History Diva: The Latest in Stablemates

Identify Your Breyer: Standing Friesian

Tobias, Appaloosa

Model Horse Madness: Tobias is Here

Breyer History Diva: Getting Artsy

Identify Your Breyer: Appaloosa

Miscellaneous

Justify, who jumped into my cart when I ordered Atticus in February. Identify Your Breyer: Thoroughbred

Prince, arrived with strained leg, at vet for repair. Collector’s Club bonus for 2020. Identify Your Breyer: Fighting Stallion

Conga

Magnolia (purple), arrival date uncertain, came as part of Mystery Unicorn Foal Surprise in a random treat yoself purchase.

Silver Magnolia, my first MH$P purchase, end of 2020

Pearl, Triple Mountain, March

Identify your Breyer: Magnolia

Border colors from this year’s BreyerFest logo

Tempus Continues To Fugit
Real-life intrudes on the model horse world.

Breyer is saddened to hear of the passing of Janice Cox, a longtime model horse hobbyist best known for being the creator and webmaster of the reference site Identify Your Breyer.

Breyer – My Collector Story: Janice Cox

Spoke with her once by email. After citing IYB extensively for the 2020 post, I asked if she had a donation button. She said no. Quotes and credit were fine. [Carpet Herd 2020]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Words … of a sort

🧍

🏢 🍽️ 🛏️

🏢 🍽️ 🛏️

🏢 🍽️ 🛏️

💡

✈️

🗽

✈️

⛩️

✈️

🗿

✈️

🏠

⌨️

📚

💰

🎥

💰💰

~~~

🧍

🏢 🍽️ 🛏️

🏢 🍽️ 🛏️

🏢 🍽️ 🛏️

💡

🔫

🏦

💰

🏃

🚓

🏃

🚔

🔒

~~~

🔗 (Links)

🌎 😀 ☀️

🐪👁️

Driving

Awareness of the outside world. Dueling chyrons. CNN, ‘Biden speaks out on Trump’s Big Lie’. Fox, ‘Unhinged Biden goes on tirade against election fairness measures.’ The words may not be verbatim. I was too mesmerized by the difference to think of taking a photo. You get the idea. It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.
~~~

This year’s membership brass from The National Horse Brass Society (UK).

Horse brasses float in a sea of topics that fascinate me, but that I never get around to doing anything about. I feel mildly guilty about this. I should fish or cut bait. Not leave so many loose ends flapping around.

Each year, I join the NHBS. I get the membership brass. I hang it up. I write a blog post. And that’s about my level of commitment to the topic or the club.

The newsletters arrive. I ignore them, both digital and dead tree. Oh, I enjoy the newsletters, both the content and how the club feels slightly different than a US club would feel. A slim, brown mailing envelope arrives with foreign postage. I think ‘Oh, goody. I’ll read that.’ And then I put it aside and never do.

Other interests that hover at this level are beads, stamps, Geocaching, The Braid Society (also UK), Postcrossing, and so on, and so on. I jump in, poke around, find a way to wedge it into the blog, and wander off. I’ve even had to stop myself from buying new LEGO sets when I have so many unbuilt ones.

Today is the first day of Virtual Breyerfest. I sense model horses slipping into the loose ends category. I will “attend” this weekend’s festivities, walk the virtual 5K, and then probably not think about plastic ponies until next year.

And that’s ok.

At least, I’m trying to tell myself that.

I’m trying to give myself permission to do as little or as much as I feel inclined. First do no harm. If I want to join, get the horse brass, and then ignore the rest of it, who am I hurting?

Anyone else’s brain work this way?

[Bold As Brass, National Horse Brass Society 2019, 2020] with links from previous years.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding Journal

Awareness of the outside world. Again, I had no idea this was a thing. The problem, yes. The law, no. HealthLine: A Beginner’s Guide to Using a Restroom Card When You Have Crohn’s Disease.
~~~

Pony Solo ride for the old lady! A pony ride in spirit. No actual leading performed.

I got on! We all took a deep breath! We walked! We trotted – technically!

Improvement from last time! [Milton Goes Back To Being a Pony Ride Mount Jan 2021]

Will we do it again in 2021? Will we see you in 2022?

Time will tell.

Yes, Milton is wearing the Santa hat from our Christmas basket. [Blogger Gift Exchange]

It makes great fly protection. We offered it to Rodney. He declined. [Rodney Say Nope]

~~~
Post #3400

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

The Horse World

Warning. Another downer today. Come back tomorrow for Milton.

Awareness of the outside world. United Professional Horseman’s Association.
~~~

In 2013, the first show I rode in that was photographed by Sandra Hall. [Horse Show Today, MSSP 2014]

In 2018, the last show of mine she photographed. [Sandra Hall Captures The Moment, Show Photos, Nationals 2018]

Horse show photographer Sandra Hall passed away last month.

As with Rita Mendell, I mostly knew Ms. Hall through being a customer. I bought a lot of photos. If there is an ASB show photo on the blog, more likely than not, it was taken by Sandra.

I was always a happy customer.

She was one of the few women working in photography in the ASB world. I did not realize this until one of the memorial comments pointed it out. In the hunter/jumper/dressage/event world, photographers come in all flavors. I would estimate more women than men. Certainly, back in the day, my checks for show photos generally had a female name on them. Therefore, I wasn’t surprised to see a woman in center ring. Right now, all the ASB photo names that come to mind are men. Hmm. No idea why this should be the case.

I considered putting this together with last week, for a conservation of misery, but Sandra deserves her own post. [Tempis Fugit, And Sometimes That Sucks]

The full obit is reposted below, for archival purposes. I don’t know how long funeral homes keep them up.

Memorial donations may be made the UPHA, Sandra Hall Scholarship Program.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

from Miller-Rivers-Caulder Funeral Home

Sandra W. Hall

December 15, 1951 ~ June 17, 2021 (age 69)

Obituary

Sandra Elaine Wallace Hall, age 69, entered into rest on Thursday, June 17, 2021, with her family by her side. Funeral services will be 4:00 PM Friday, July 2, 2021, at Zoar United Methodist Church (2842 Zoar Road, Cheraw, SC 29520) by Pastor Billy Jack Johnson, with remarks by family friend, Mark Farrar. A Celebration of Life reception will be held at 6:00 PM Friday, July 2, 2021, at Green River Country Club, (714 Country Club Rd, Chesterfield, SC 29709.)

Sandra was born December 15, 1951, in Chesterfield, SC, the daughter of the late Dozier and Foye Wallace. She was a graduate of Chesterfield High School, attended Wingate College, and received her bachelor’s degree from Lenoir-Rhyne University. In 1984, Sandra started Sandra W. Hall Photography, specializing in equestrian events across the country. She involved her whole family and passed down her passion for horses. Her efforts not only helped the industry over the years but her example of tireless enthusiasm and positivity for the horses and people she loved will be remembered by all. 

Her love for the horses, coupled with her involvement with the United Professional Horseman’s Association (UPHA) and the American Saddlebred Association of the Carolinas (ASAC), reaches back many years. She was inducted into the 2016 UPHA Carolina’s Saddlehorse Hall of Fame and received ASAC’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

Sandra was a lifetime member of Zoar UMC where she served on the Outreach Committee and was a member of United Methodist Women. Sandra had a true servant’s heart, always giving and expected nothing in return. She was dedicated, outgoing, and approached life with a smile. Her legacy will live on, not only through the selfless example she set but also through the memories she captured in millions of photographs. 

“Well done good and faithful servant…come and share your Master’s happiness.” Matthew 25:23

In addition to her parents, Sandra was also preceded in death by her brother, Dozier Franklyn (Frankie) Wallace, Jr. 

Survivors include her devoted husband of 43 years, Kenneth (Keith) Hall, Jr.; daughter, Erin (John) Fann; son, Wes (Jill) Hall; grandchildren Berkeley Fann, Grady and Hunter Hall. 

In lieu of flowers, a scholarship has been set up in her name with the United Professional Horseman’s Association (UPHA). She was devoted to promoting the future of the American Saddlebred through young equestrians. 

To donate online:
Go to uphaonline.com
Click Donate Now Button

To donate by mail:
UPHA Foundation, Inc.
4059 Iron Works Parkway, STE 2
Lexington, KY 40511
Memo: UPHA Sandra Hall Scholarship Program

Miller-Rivers-Caulder Funeral Home of Chesterfield, SC (www.mrcfuneralhome.com) is serving the Hall family.
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