Wednesday, March 7, 2012

How To Navigate the Clarion/Holiday Inn Room Sales and Swap Meet

You enter, and are swarmed by tons and tons of model horse lovers. 

What Do You DO?!?!?

It is best to start off in the room sales.  I would try and get a few in while you can, as you may miss out on a good bargain. My friend got a reisling there for 40$, and I got a glossy GG Valentine who was "body quality" for 20$. I fixed her up and she is now LSQ and ready to hit the show ring! The line is REALLY long to get in the Swap Meet, so If you want to maximize your time, start in the Artisans Gallery. There are some beautiful resins, artists, tack makers etc. in there, so take your time! You'll love it! Next, travel over to the swap meet. The line should still be long, but it's worth it. There was a GLOSSY ROXY in there last year! (squeal!)  

1. Take it Slow.

Imagine you are on a beach. A beach filled with model horse people. Take your time and browse the rooms. You have until 9:00pm! I only got through half the rooms on the first night. It is helpful to write the room number down you ended on so you can pick it up the next day.

2. Don't get overwhelmed!

The worst thing you can do in one of these things is to get too overwhelmed. This is bad. You want to keep your cool around all these people, so you can whip in and grab a sale when possible. It is also great not to get overwhelmed by all of the beautiful things in the Artisans Gallery. I love it in there!






The Three Most Important Things To Bring To Breyerfest

Breyerfest is a big place. When i first went, I was very confused, and didn't really know what to do. Thats why I did my research and found out the three most common and important things people bring to model horse shows and decided to list them in one easy place.

1. Bring a book full of the shows information, workshops, shows etc.

All you need for this is a simple presentation book with plastic paper sleeves on the inside. You can also use a binder, but I find that a presentation book is a lot lighter and more useful. I store my special run tickets in here, workshop papers, my show string list, etc. Anything I get at breyerfest such as the program, I store in here as well.

2. A List of All The Models You Are Bringing

The last thing you want to happen on the day of the show is to be missing your most important model. This has happened to me before, and believe me, it stinks. As you are creating your show string for the model horse show, take a look at the class list, pick out your horses and either write or type them down on a piece of paper, in order of what classes they are going to enter. This is very helpful, as when you are packing you can check off your horses as they go in the box=No Left-Behinds! Print another copy of this list to take along with you to the show, so you can arrange your horses on the table in the order of classes their entering. Also create boxes on the side with an In/Out above it. This helps you figure out who's been in the ring and who has not.

3. A Complete Guide to the Show/Event

I always keep a guide, program or Itinerary with me at all times inside my Presentation Book. This is very helpful so that you can stay on track during and after the show. Especially at Breyerfest when there is so much going on. Highlight all of the events you want to go to, and create an itinerary for the day. Its helpful to do this on Excel on your computer.(On my Mac, there is a special format for an itinerary.) This way you will not lose track of what is going on, and always be where you need to be, and on time.

Extras:

A Comfortable Camera

The reason I call this comfortable, is the camera needs to be easy for you to use. Their are a lot of cool horses on those show tables, and you dont have a camera. It stinks, as you would like to show off these models to your friends. I ALWAYS bring my Olympus Pen EPL-2 to my model horse shows. This camera takes amazing pictures, and is well priced around 600-700$. I bought mine when it was brand new for 800$. It has amazing HD Video, and really brings out small details in the pictures your taking, which is great for model horses. Use this camera as a tool to help you capture and share the wonderful memories of your show. Just make sure you dont miss any classes!


Well, thats it. Hope this helped! I will have more posts on BF 2012 later!