Slainte Surprise Reveal...Yes, there are pictures...

Surprisingly, people are already starting to receive their models from Breyer"Mess" that only just ended a couple of days ago.  Some collectors are trying to keep it a complete surprise until theirs arrive on their doorsteps, but not me.  I wanted to know as soon as possible what the surprise model was so I could start planning.  And while I'm not hugely fond of the mold, it could have been worse and I like 3 of the 4 colors so I'm hoping the two I get will be two of the colors I like, but my luck, I'll get the one I like least.  hahahaha.

Anyway, so here we go...The Slainte Surprise is on the Giselle mold and came in 4 colors, as usual.  What isn't "usual" is the lack of a decorator on the set so maybe there's a 5th out there nobody has seen yet?  I don't know.

My favorite, and the one I'm most hoping to get is the leopard appy...

then the 2nd favorite is a toss-up between the glossy palomino...

and the silver bay...

My least favorite of the 4 is the red roan paint...I'm not a huge fan of red roans and the circle of white around her neck makes it look really thin...

I haven't received a ship notice yet for my 4 SR models so I have no idea when they'll be here.  My Ballynoe and 4 pack Stablemates are supposed to arrive today.  I'm glad they went back to using the little bag this year rather than the cardboard boxes they've used in the past.  I don't mean the ones that look like mini Breyer boxes, but the ones...you know what I mean.  These ones...

I don't like those.  The bags for Celtic Fling are really cute, too.  Not as clever as Denim & Diamonds where they look like pants pockets, but still cute nonetheless...

I should say, none of these photos are mine.  I got them from an Instagram user who got them from someone else on Facebook.  Anyway, my SM 4 pack and Ballynoes are supposed to be here some time today.  Each bag is a different color, although all are Tartan Plaid, and has the model's name on it, which is usual.

So, on Monday I was decided not to include some photos from the photo show, but I think I'll do that today.  Some really impressed me while others...ehhhhh...not so much.  First of all, I'd like to give them props, though, for entering the show to begin with.  I've heard showing at Breyerfest can be brutal so the fact that they attempted it is worthy of my respect.  I didn't look at all the classes because many of them I'm not interested in, but here are some of my favorites from the ones I did look at...

This first one is from the Western Trail class and was done by Natasha Kaehler.  I'm honestly surprised she didn't place.  I thought she did a really good job at blending her base with the background.  Sure, there's some minor scale issues with the background, but nothing like I've seen in other photos.  I'm certainly no expert in judging...it's been a long time since I've judged any photo shows, but I think this photo should've placed in the top 5...

When I first saw this photo submission by Nicole Cunningham in Western Games, I briefly thought it was a real horse and wondered what it was doing in a photo show, but then I saw it was, in fact, a model.    Nicole made good use of natural arena footing, but the background is very much out of scale.  The fences can almost be "excused" but the houses are just too big and she probably should've broken up some of the dirt clumps...

My favorite entry is probably from the Scene class by Michelle Seipol and this one actually won 2nd place, but personally, I think it was better than the one that got 1st and ultimately Champion in the Miscellaneous category...

Cat herding.  hahahahaha.  Anyone who is owned by cats knows how impossible cat herding is.  Michelle had all sorts of documentation about how it's a "thing".  Regardless if it is or not, it's very clever and definitely deserved a high placing.

Okay.  So, I saw a lot of photos with wonky backgrounds.  Mostly they were sheets / fabric backgrounds that had wrinkles in them or some such thing.  But this one...this one I had to call out, but I'm not going to say who it belongs to or what category it's from, although it's obviously from one of the Western classes...

When I first got into model horse showing...photo showing...one of the first things I learned was about angles.  You wanted to photograph your horse from the side, with an occasional exception.  The Pole Bending photo I shared above probably wouldn't look quite as good from a side angle.  Not to be super judgmental or anything, but this photo would look so much better if she moved the Celtic Fling railing so it was against the background and shot the photo from the side rather than this angle.  The idea is for the scene to look as realistic as possible and that's kind of hard with the big New York Yankees logo in the background and the table on the right.  And the orange cone seems kind of random.  And whatever she used for the flooring doesn't fit very well together because you can see that big seem running from top to bottom.  The model and doll are spot on and I like the use of the Breyerfest logo on the railing, but because of the distracting background, it's hard to really like this one.

Okay.  That's enough for now.  I hope everyone is doing well.  Take care and until next time...