Before Midnight

I can honestly say that I've never been packed and ready for a show so early before. Normally I'm up until 2 or 3 in the morning trying to finish some last minute vision. Going to bed before midnight is a shocker! To be slightly organized, I made an excel sheet to keep track of everything. 

 Everything's ready for tomorrow, even though it feels like I should stay up a bit longer!

Source

If you're going to the South Central PA Classic, I'll see you there!

Horseball

One of the coolest live equine demonstrations that happened at Breyerfest was Horseball. A fast paced sport that reminded me of soccer? What's not to like!

Taken from the sport rules, Horseball  is described as being 'played between-two teams of six players who must pick up a ball from the ground without dismounting, and using a game of attack and defense attempt to score in goals at each end of a pitch'.

There were two goal on each side of the area that the teams scored on. 

When reading the sport rules, I found that tack choice is pretty lax. There are some restrictions (such as no Camarguaise, western or racing saddles), but generally anything that is well fitting and safe seems to be allowed. I also read that all horses must wear a pick up strap ,standing martingale and over reach boots. 

There was two referees. One was on horseback and the other was on the sideline. 

After the match, I went to the booth and asked if there were certain positions that the players played. Interestingly enough, it goes by the horses. I also took a picture of the ball!

Doing a performance set up of this would be fun to try.  I think the ball would be a lot of fun to make. The Sport rules  has everything you need to know. Dimensions of the goals, game play, etc are all in the sport rules. Here are some more pictures of Horseball!

Also, I forgot to mention that I did finish reading Go Set A Watchman. A brief opinion of it is I wish I'd listened to my initial gut reaction instead of ignoring it and not read it. It has a beautiful cover, but that doesn't make up for the book. Now, it wasn't written badly, but To Kill A Mockingbird is the better version of the story.

Wordless

I took a bunch of pictures in and around the arena at Breyerfest of various horses. So here are some of my favorites!

Energetic minis!

Horse Ball!

Vaulting

Also, because I have yet to make a note on here, if anyone would like to use any photos that were taken by me for showing, you are welcome to. The photos are to be used for non-profit reasons (aka you can't take one of my photos and try to sell it.).

Pony for Sale!

My favorite special run this year was Chanel. Because pony. The photos of her, when first released, reminded me of a bad spray tan, but I decided to try for her anyway. I was happy to see her in person and be more than thrilled. She looked so much better! I was able to get myself one, and have an extra now! The buyer backed out, so she's looking for a new home.  She's 120$ + shipping obo. Send a message using the contact form or email me at breyerhorselover11@gmail.com. Thanks!

Hanover Shoe Farm

For a while, My friend, Samantha, and I have been trying to get together to do something horsey. Today it happened! We decided to go to a near-ish farm called Hanover Shoe Farms.

It's a Standardbred breeding farm located in Hanover, Pa. It's the world's leading Standardbred breeder by earnings, per the website.

At Hanover Shoe, you do self guided tours. There's four main barns with two housing stallions and the other two housing mares and foals.

Samantha and I walked through the stallion barns first, but there was one horse inside.

 But we found more stallions outside.

They were hanging out in the shade.

"I haz de itch. Y'all get to see this view."

The two came out once we walked over. 

While the stallions were pretty, I loved the foals the most. Because FOALS.

They were outside in a pasture with their dams. So. Cute.

When leaving, we found a mare and foal with their own pasture.

Going to this farm was a nice day trip. :)

Breyerfest Best Customs Contest

 A contest that Breyer held prior to Breyerfest was the Best Customs Contest. People were able to submit their customs into three categories. They were Excellence in Finishwork, Most Extreme Custom, and Best Custom for Performance. The top six in each category were displayed at the Clarion. Here's some of the pictures I took of them!

By Amarna Productions

By Beverly Porter of Wildwood Customs

By Kentucky Equine Creations

By Melanie Miller

By Tiffany Purdy

By PawPrints Saddlery

I loved all of the entries but the dragon was one of my favorites.

So was The King of the Wind custom.

By Laura Skillern 

Also, if you know who created the models without tags, please comment! I'd love to give credit. :)

I also got to see the new premier model. She's beautiful in person. If anyone's looking to trade/sell one I'm interested!