Texas road trip, part three

The road trip finale. I'm so glad we did that.

Texas road trip, part two

 Blog friends are real friends 💙💙💙

Texas road trip, part one

It's a road trip post!

Real quick

I am real tired from my real quick road trip to Austin, Texas, but I still want to remind everyone to enter Anne Field's awesome Field of Dolls Online Fall Show. All some of the deets can be found in today's post.

Wear yo' masks

For more than a year, I was unwavering about the need to not attend model horse shows during a pandemic. I stand by that. There is absolutely no reason to risk your life and the lives of others for a plastic pony party.

That said, things are different now. We have a really good vaccine that is readily available to all Americans twelve years and older. There's no reason we can't gather safely.

Still, it's not a free for all. While vaccines are extremely effective at preventing severe disease and death, they don't prevent all disease. Vaccinated people can catch and transmit Covid-19, sometimes unknowingly. This is why masks are necessary. This is why I personally would not attend a show where masks were optional.

Fortunately, that wasn't the case at Anna Miller's Ace of Spades Live. Everyone was was required to wear a mask, and everyone did. This included the show holder,

the judges...

and the entrants.

The only one who was excluded was Cy, and he's a dog, so that's okay.

Thank you, Anna, for holding a safe and fun show. I really appreciate your commitment to our community's health and well being.

Ace of Spades OF photos

The Original Finish divisions at Ace of Spades Live were big and deep. Full size photos can be found on the main blog. 

Ace of Spades customs photos

The second half of my day at Ace of Spades Live was spent taking photos of the custom division. Here's a little sampling. Full size images can be found on the Braymere Custom Saddlery blog. Subscription information coming soon!

Ace of Spades Live

After eighteen long, show-free months, the drought is finally over. Last weekend, I attended Anna Miller's Ace of Spades Live in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

I'd signed up to judge the Performance division and wasn't planning to show, but Heather told me I had to bring at least a few resins. Since all my traveling totes were full, I used a laundry basket to pack up six show horses and one sales model. Fancy!

Heather picked me up after work on Friday, and we made the two hour drive to Cheyenne.

We checked into our hotel, put on our pajamas and ordered food. It's been a long time since I've had a model horse slumber party, and it was even better than I'd remembered.

The next morning we got up and headed over to the show hall.

Our table was right next to Fabian and Angelo's. Perfect.

I unpacked my show string. It didn't take long.

As I was doing that, Anna told everyone to come up and collect their card for the free entrant raffle.

I was surprised and delighted to draw the winning card.

Here's my prize. I may not be a unicorn collector, but I love winning things. This guy will eventually go to a more appreciative home, but for now, I'm happy to have him.

After that, the show started. The performance division was very small, and a lot of classes had to be cancelled due to zero entries. Jes Michaels' Secretariat Dreams was the eventual champion, based primarily on his winning Other Performance set-up. 

Resin halter was a little bit bigger, but not much. There were three entries in the first class, and two of them belonged to me!

The Arab class had zero entries, and I think there were three in Morgan/Other Lightbreed. 

Winter Games won the pony class...

and Hoka Hey kept the Braymere winning streak alive by claiming the blue ribbon Ace of Spades in the Appaloosa class.

When it was all said and done, five of my six horses won NAN cards and three of them made it the Resin Overall Championship callback table.

The Overall Champion title went to Courtney Sadar's exquisite Capriole painted by Nikki Button.

Hoka Hey won the Reserve. Hurray!

I didn't have much to do after that, so I busied myself by taking pictures of the Custom...

and Original Finish entries.

Unlike the Performance and Resin divisions, the OF classes were huge.

I'm not well versed in OF, so I can't tell you who won what, but I do know that Cheryl Ellison's gorgeous BreyerFest auction model claimed one of the top prizes.

Over in the Custom ring, Heather's Wilbur by Amanda Brock was the Overall Champion...

and Teresa Fedak's BreyerWest auction model by Karen Gerhardt was Reserve. Congratulations, friends!

I did not sell my sales horse, but I did make a few small purchases.

I also won a prize in the raffle

Here's my laundry basket at the end of the day. 

Thank you, Anna, for holding this fun and safe show.

I had so much fun. I can't wait to do it again.