What I Wish I Knew Before my First Live Show

Now that we're at home and have so much time, why not prep for a show? That's what I've been doing a tad of!

So, you want to live show? Awesome, but how? Who are you going to bring? Where will you show? In what division will you enter? Hopefully, I can help clear up some of those questions :)

What are you Going to Bring? 

This question is one that many showers face (no matter your experience level, it's always a good idea to continue to improve in any aspect you can). Some of my favorite videos that have helped me immensely are:

Typically, I tend to narrow down I bring by:

1. Going through the classlist and choosing who would work for each class 
2. From there, I narrow it down by prioritizing those with the fewest flaws, best confirmation, so on and so forth. 
3. Now I should have anywhere zero to, perhaps, four models. Zero models entered in a class is perfectly fine! It makes the day of the show less stressful and, thus, more enjoyable! I get more in-depth on this in a previous post. 
4. Because I prefer not to pay "overflow" fees (typically $1 for each model exceeding the class limit, which is normally two per entrant per class), I'll do my best to narrow it down to two models for any given class. You can also see an example of that at a show in my first Sea to Bay 2020 recap! 

Placing your Model in the Ring: 

This, arguably, is one of the most important aspects of showing, since how your model is presented is how it's judged! Don't get too freaked out, though, showing is meant to be a lot less stressful, admittedly, than many showers do (myself included). The main things to keep in mind are: 

• Show side 
• Breed 
• Condition 

What is a Show Side? 

At the minimum, it is the side that the horse is facing (all photos credit to IdentifyYourBreyer.com).  Some easier molds to tell the show side vs. the off side are these: 

Show side

Show side

Show side

Off side

Off side 

Off side 

What Breed Should I Assign? 

Now, if you would like to see more about how I assign breeds, you can find it here!

I hope this might clarify a few things, and I look forward to seeing any of y'all at shows after all this craziness :)

Disclaimer: I, myself, am not an expert by any means and am learning still. I consider myself to be (subjectively) new to the world of live showing, but I still believe I have some valuable knowledge to give. I hope this helped!

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

As you all may be aware, in my previous post in this series I discussed last year's auction models. Today, I'm going to be weeding out who I predict it may be! So... without further ado, here's Surprise, Surprise, Surprise:

Right off the bat, I think I can rule out any stocky molds, which eliminates Bobby Jo, Silver, the Mustang Mare, and Dundee. Yes, there are other stocky-ish molds out there, like the Fighting Stallion, but since he's not outright stocky, I'll keep him in the running for now.

Additionally, we can say bye-bye to previous surprise molds, which eliminates Smarty Jones and the Andalusian Stallion.

Now we're left with thirty molds (I counted the family sets as one, simply because it's unlikely that there would be a foal mold as the surprise, as well as I doubt there would be a family set for the Sláinte Surprise. Hmm... "Sláinte" means "cheers", so maybe that'll have something to do with it? I find it doubtful, but perhaps?

Next off, we can get rid of the current BreyerFest runs that have been announced (as of April thrid, 2020): Rhian, Cadell and the Show Jumping Warmblood.

Just based off what I think wouldn't make sense, I think we can also eliminate these guys: the Marwari, Five-Gaiter, Ruffian, "Foalzilla", Semi-Rearing Stallion, Fighting Stallion, Misty (and the foals), Proud Arabian Mare (and her foal), certainly Alborozo (since Breyer made 9,000, and then broke the mold), and Carrick. That's knocked off another ten from our list!

Left with sixteen molds, I think we still have a ways to go with predictions. Seeing as I think it'll be something European, I think it would be safe to say that Emerson (who's a Thoroughbred, which is an American breed), the Shagya Arabian, Ruffian, Duende (although perhaps he could pass as a warmblood or sport-type horse, but I don't think that's the most feasible option), Lonesome Glory, Bristol, the Andalusian Mare, and Valegro.

Nine molds left. Let's see! I tried to do some sleuth work and see if maybe there was a pattern with the gender of the surprise horses, to no avail. I did, however, notice that all the surprise models after 2013 have all been male. Maybe that's something? Who knows. Now we're down to the Clydesdale Stallion, Giselle, the Cantering Welsh Pony (with Newsworthy's tail- maybe Newsworthy is a possibility?), Goffert, Legionario III, Totilas, Croi Damsha, the and the Cleveland Bay.

Based off the fact that they seem to have a draft/sport horse theme, I figure it'll either be a draft horse, a sport horse, or a pony. Why pony? I say that because they might want some variation in the mix. I think they'd want to "cover all their bases". If I were to have to continue narrowing down this list (since I'm fairly indecisive and, therefore, don't want to), I'd probably pull the Clydesdale Stallion, Giselle, the Cantering Welsh Pony, Legionario III, and the Cleveland Bay.

That leaves us with Goffert, Totilas, and Croi Damsha.

So... in the order of who I think will be the Sláinte surprise, we have:
1. Croi Damsha

2. Goffert

3. Totilas

Now, let me just tell y'all that if it's Croi, my wallet's going to take a hit. If it's Totilas, it'll still probably be a teeny ding in my model savings, and if it's Goffert, I don't think I'll absolutely love all of them, so I'll be okay. With that being said, I have never owned a single surprise horse to date. Well, I guess we'll see, won't we? According to a friend, Teagan, who messaged me on Instagram with her guess, she agrees that the most likely contender, in our opinions, is Croi Damsha.

Also, little did I know, when I wrote a big chunk of this that. as of yesterday, April 13th, BreyerFest is moving online. Well, we'll certainly be curious as to how that would work out; Breyer, I have faith in you, though!

What about y'all? What do you think?