A whole lot of photo showing

As with many events lost from the calendar, 2020 unavoidably brought the cancellation of lots of live model horse shows, including two Julip ones I'd have gone to if things had been different. Luckily, we're a resourceful lot in this hobby, and our models can compete just as easily by photograph as in person - some shows were converted from live meet-ups into an online equivalent, others were thought up as something to occupy and distract ourselves, during lockdown or difficult times for those still working. A lot of these shows provided lovely rosettes by post for the winners, so I thought it'd be nice to show my appreciation to the show runners with a little recap of the prizes my models have won this year. 

First up, is Sarsen, who won Julip's Model of the Month competion back in February.

Each month is allocated a theme, February's was No White Markings, and there's a story to him being my choice - not very interesting, but a tiny mildly amusing snippet of Julip history, anyway!
Years ago, long before Julip changed hands, the connemara mould was being recast and announced at one of the Open Weekend events down in Cattistock. Annabel wanted to have a couple of finished models to display on the day, so everyone could see how the new version looked in person, all painted up. So she secretly told two of us beforehand that we could order connemaras in whatever colour, and they'd be there at the show to advertise the mould and then take home with us. I asked for mine to be 'very dark bay, as dark as you can get it, with a LOT of white on', thinking this would look really distinctive and dramatic, with big markings on a dark colour. I said just make up the markings, rather than me finding and sending a reference pic of any real horse, cos I know how much easier it is to invent them than to copy from photos.
On the day, the connemara was revealed, and as Annabel handed him over, I noticed he was dark all over, asked 'Where's his white?' and she answered 'Was he meant to have white on?'
We had a little laugh about her completely forgetting half of what I'd asked for, and said I could go and put his markings on myself as there was a Paint Your Own table in the hall, so it would've been easy enough to update him. But I decided I liked him as he was, and it was just funny rather than disappointing. So he stayed without white forever, and this was the first time he'd ever been able to take part in a competition just because someone forgot his socks!

Next came a free mini photo show run by a fellow Julip fan on the forum, the only category was My Favourite Julip, and along with choosing a single photograph, we had to write why we'd picked this model to enter. Here's my explaination...
"Rosie might not be the prettiest pony, she's not clean or tidy or any good for showing, her mane looks more like moths have been at it than anything that could possibly have been made that way on purpose, but she means the most to me out of all my herd as she's my own custom portrait of my horse of a lifetime. Every speckle on her nose, every flaw in her fleabitten coat, that's what makes her lovely, to me. Real Rosie once met the mini Rosie, and that makes her even more precious."

And here's the  proud winner, enjoying her big shiny rosette - real Rosie would secretly have preferred a cheese sandwich to a rosette, but the model one has never nicked my lunch at a show yet, so let's assume she's better behaved!

The next show of the year was an altogether bigger event, the May Madness CTF Photo Show, run by a collector rather than any one company, with a huge class list and categories for all different types of CTF model. My herd held their own against a lot of very pretty horses, here's the Julip winners with some of the lovely rainbow satin rosettes which were on offer on a pay-as-you-win basis.

Left to right, we have : Scruffy Murphy (1st, Donkey), Smoke N'Oakum (1st, CJP), Gato (1st, Family Horse), Legatissimo (1st, In-hand Light Horse), Jaffacake (1st, Dartmoor), and at the end little Rufus the donkey foal, who was given the special Tango Award by the judge!

Later in the summer, Chestnut Ridge held their Grand Photo Show, a competition with a difference - rather than having a limit per class (usually three or four), you can enter up to a total of fifty models, spread across whichever classes you want. This means you can focus on one brand or finish or several, you can pick out your favourites or very best models only, or if a certain breed is your thing, you can enter as many of those as you can fit in that fifty limit. I decided to give the Julips a rest this time (they can't have all the fun!), and give my Breyer, Stone and resin models a virtual 'day out' instead.

One of the horses I entered was Harecroft Taradhish, a custom marwari who did amazingly well - not only did he win his class, but he took the custom championship, too! Here he is with his prizes, not just the beautiful big rosette with sparkly edges, but some extras, too : the little Mini Whinnie on the right has already been painted up as a new addition to my ever growing herd of coloured cobs, and the bee-fabric bag on the left has been filled with the bias binding I use on my home-made Julip rugs.

August brought another success in Julip's Model of the Month competition, this time the theme was 'Cheekiest Pony', and it was a tough choice - ALL pit ponies are made of pure trouble, but skewbald Popcorn probably has the most sneakily up-to-something glint in his eye out of all mine, and clearly Laura at Julip thought so too, because in the post at the end of the month was this special rosette for Popcorn, bigger than he is!

The Lake District Live and Julip's own official Live show were both converted into photo shows instead this year, each using more or less the same class list as they'd planned for us to take part in person, but carried out online during lockdown and restrictions. 

One of the Lake District classes was 'Fab Five' - any five Julips with something in common, photographed together as a group. Rather than go for a conga line of all the same mould, or a set of matching colours, I decided to go a little bit more fabulous, and entered five arabians all dressed in their bright and beaded Bedouin-style show halter sets. They must have caught the judge's eye, because not only did they win this class, but also took the Fun division championship!

The Julip live also had a Conga class, and while we usually use this term to mean a row of the same mould, the rules specified 'any other common theme' was fine too, so I entered my dressed-up arabians again - and again, they won the class, and the Fun championship!

Here they are (Larkhill, Harvest Moon, Galileo, Winter, and Echo) with both their big, beautiful championship rosettes, Lake District on the left and Julip on the right.

And to finish with for now, the Summer Swing CTF Photo Show, which again catered for different brands, not just Julips - my highest-placing horse was this handsome chap, Julius Elmar, the WIA Gustav in original finish spots, who took Reserve to Reserve Champion in the Plastic division.

But one of my Julips did astonishingly well, too; this is Olympic Flame the 1981 thoroughbred, who was champion in the Vintage sub-division.

He looks so calm about his win, I imagine him as a gentle old veteran who's seen it all before and always puts in a sensible, workmanlike performance without letting the showring get to his head!
It was so, so nice to be able to show so many old Julips this time, most shows tend to have one vintage class, occasionally split into Vintage Horse and Vintage Pony, but this time we had classes for most of the common moulds and space for the rarer and poor-condition models, too.

The pay-as-you-win placing rosettes were all different colours this time, so rather than only treat my first-place Julips, I decided to ask for one of each placing so there'd be a full rainbow of gingham for my rosette wall, and on the back I'd write all the names with that placing, so they can share - I don't think they'll squabble when I'm not looking! Click the pictures if you'd like a closer look.

1st : Olympic Flame, Petra, April, Ichabod, Albermarle, Scruffy Murphy, Charlie, Echo, and Gato

2nd : William, Neapolitano Bellamira, Bertie, Tarquin, Requiem, and Equinox

3rd : Goldie, Horatio, and Merriweather

4th : Colin, Bernard, Stardust, and Tiffin

5th : Seraphim, Ford Prefect, and Butterfly Ben

6th : Big Connie, Frank, Khalife, and Danny

7th : Neapolitano Ramona and Robin

8th : Richmond and Phari

Highly commended : Donnie, Calluna, Rodrigo, Smoke N'Oakum, The Grey King, Sylvester, Puffin

Argh. Oh dear. I've just this minute realised that I totally forgot to allow for Performance results in these pictures - there's others who should've been in the photos, really, as well as some of these needing to be in two shots cos they placed for performance classes as well as their mould. Oops! I'll make sure I add their names on the back of the rosettes, though.

And finally, another Tango Award, this time for Olympic Flame, Jaffacake, and with apologies to little chestnut foal Ginger, who also has a share in this but seems to be hiding somewhere in my house - I couldn't find her anywhere to join the picture. 

My thanks to the show runners for organising all these events - for your hard work sorting and judging, for giving us something fun to do with our models, and for every one of the beautiful rosettes - I treasure them almost as much as any my real ponies ever won!