BECF Photo Show Series Round 3

All three of the BECF round 3 photo shows have been judged, and points have been tallied. Here are the top twenty models so far:

1. Joliet Jake

2. Silver Dream

3. Risky Business

4. Cody

5. Silver Harmony

6. McFarland

7. Winter Flame

8. Silver Mist

9. Collection of Dreams

10. DM Sobresaliente

11. Winter Gold

12. WBP Bilbo

13. PR Whispering Breeze

14. Gunnery Sergeant

15. Champagne Kisses

16. Harvey

17. Bee-Eater

18. Ludwig

19. Patawatomi

20. Winter Solstice

There are still 3 more rounds to go, so all to play for! The next AF and Performance shows will take place on the 23rd of January, and the next FF show will be on the 30th of January. We still need judges for the Feb/March and April/May shows, so please volunteer if you have the time. Judges will also be given free entry to another BECF show.

Meanwhile please enjoy pictures of the Supreme Champion line-up from October/November Factory Finish show:

Supreme Champion, McFarland owned by Wendy Goodson

Reserve Supreme Champion, Blue Max owned by Celia Gregory

Reserve to Reserve Supreme Champion, Untold Fortune owned by Wendy Goodson

Bonfire Bonanza Live Show - Part 1

Sorry about the lack of posts recently. Please let us know if there is anything you would like to see on the blog.


Meanwhile enjoy some pictures from the Bonfire Bonanza Live Show at the beginning of November. The show was held over two days, and here are some pictures from the Performance sections. All photos courtesy of Sarah Hindmarsh.

This lovely Ballycor owned by Heather Irvine won the English Show Championship

The Reserve English Performance Champion, a really neat Hackney set-up owned by Jane Varin

Jan Hagues well known Julip police horse set-up won the Scene Championship

This lovely Julip horse won the Novice western class - all the tack and clothing were made by Jan

Sue Thompson's fantastic and original gypsy trotter set-up, which won the English Performance Championship and went onto win the Supreme Performance Championship

All American Live Show

Marion Randles hosted the All American Live show in Macclesfield back in late October. Sounds like the show was a great success, as the hobby becomes more popular the specialist shows are pointing the way forward. Wendy Goodson sent in some photos of some of the Champion line-ups and of her own overall Supreme Champion, Winter Gold.

BECF Photo Show Series Top 20

As the photo show series progresses the top 20 will be published after each round. All the points have been tallied, and this top 20 is based on the total points across all 3 shows. At the end of the season the finalists will receive some lovely prizes. Other categories will also get prizes too, including for example Top Performance model, Top Pony, Top Resin to name but a few.

1st Joliet Jake C Gregory

2nd Winter Flame W Goodson

3rd Cody W Goodson

4th Risky Business D Hulse

5th Silver Dream W Goodson

6th Collection of Dreams W Goodson

7th Gunpowder R Marriott

8th Silver Harmony W Goodson

9th Shepherd Moon C Gregory

10th Treasure W Goodson

11th Bits & Pieces W Goodson

12th Champagne Kisses L Islip

13th Silver Mist W Goodson

14th Barely There C Gregory

15th Must Be Magic W Goodson

16th Nothin But Trouble A White

17th PR Whispering Breeze D Hulse

18th Patawatomi I Dotti

19th Avalon Little Boy Blue H Birtles

20th Midnight Lace W Goodson

In total 677 models have been entered into the show series, so if you are in the top 20 give yourself a pat on the back. But there are still 4 rounds left so all is to play for, get your cameras out and start snapping!

Happy showing!

Hobby Day Update!

Added to our original schedule, we are pleased to announce that Jan Hagues will be doing a tack-making demo. Some of you will remember her amazing detailed tack on Julip models that always does fantastically well at shows.

Please use the form on the website to book your places before they all go!

BECF Photo Series - Part 2

The results from the 2nd round of the Artist Finish and Factory Finish BECF shows are ready. Here are the Supreme Line-ups:

To the left is the AF Supreme Champion Abigail S owned by Ilaria Dotti of Italy. Ilaria proxy shows her photos - if you don't live in the UK but would like to enter the BECF shows, please get in touch as proxy showers can be arranged.





To the right is the AF Reserve Supreme Champion Gardhar who is also owned by Ilaria. Well done to you!








The Reserve to Reserve Supreme title went to Cody owned by Wendy Goodson:


In the Factory Finish show, Supreme Champion went to Denra Hulse's Risky Business:




The Reserve Supreme Champion was Winter Flame owned by Wendy Goodson.





And last but not least is Gun Powder owned by Rebecca Marriott who took the Reserve to Reserve Supreme in the Factory Finish Show.


Well done to all our winners!


Stay tuned for the results of the Performance Show, and start thinking about your entries for the next round of shows in mid-October.

BECF Hobby Day

The BECF would like to invite you to the second Hobby Day. It will take place on the 17th of October and promises to be a day of fun, learning, and appreciation for all model horse hobbyists, old and new! There will also be an award for the best British artist and a sneak-peek at the new Judge's Handbook, as well as vendors' stalls, bring-and-buy tables and displays. There are talks, demos and workshops to suit all interests as well as a chance to meet fellow enthusiasts and exchange ideas

http://hobbyday2.notlong.com

If you would like an artists' or vendors' stand for the day please get in touch via the BECF website's 'contact us' page.

Didmarton Live Show Report

This report is a little late, but its such a good one you'll all enjoy it. It was written by Ann Sheppard the day after the Didmarton OF & CM Live on the 13th of June. Apologies to those who may have read it elsewhere, and many thanks to Ann for allowing us to publish her report.

"I have not written a show report for ages, but after having run a long model horse hurdle race recently and having finally run out of puff and hit one that I could not get over, yesterdays show was like a handsome semi-clad man rushing up with an oxygen mask!

Anyway onto the report....

Kelly was the first to arrive at my house and what a greeting I gave her, blurry eyes, no make-up and to complete the look a head full of heated rollers, fortunately her camera was in the car. Next was the Indiana Jones of the breakfast world, Beccy; unfortunately I forgot to tell her that the road was closed from my house to McDonalds, but she fought her way through the misleading diversion signs and battled the local B roads and traffic to arrive the hero with a still hot breakfast for us.

After numerous trips back into the house, for the loo, forgotten driving glasses, and two trips to the laptop to get the postcode (don't ask!) we eventually boarded the bus (my beaten up old people carrier) and set off.

After all the adventures we started off a little late, but the good old bus got us there in time, much to Yvette's relief, as I had the placing certificates and Bex had the MECS qualifying tickets.

Yvette put on a really impressive list of performance classes, all had entries, though it was a shame there was not a few more in some of the classes. One class looked as though it was not getting an entry, but due to a mistake on my part, it gave me the inspiration to hastily put an entry together. Bought a rider off Bex and a bit of creative writing got the Reserve Performance Champ! To the people that read the card - the answer to the mystery of the missing girl was that clever devil here had left her at home (lol!).

Ann's Reserve Supreme Performance Championship winning entry, Doc's Painted Dragon and Indian Pony:

There were some great performance entries and Yvonne's champ was stunning. Here is Fidel owned by Yvonne Dunn who took the Supreme Performance Championship:

And here is Ringwraith who won the Reserve to Reserve Supreme Performance Championship, also owned by Yvonne Dunn:

The classes were for plastic OFs and CMs only. I judged a load of the OF classes and some of them were massive. It was lovely to see such well-supported classes with such great models, judging was a pleasure. Next year, might get around to holding an OF Plastic only show, as I definitely think their is support out there for it.

Both Animal Artistry and Horsing Around were there with some nice goodies to help you part with some of your money.

The raffle had some lovely prizes, none of which I took home unfortunately.

Deb Davies sponsored some of the rosettes, they were beautiful. Nicki Collin's Supreme Champion was a really nice piece. Here is Dilly Knox:

The Reserve Supreme Champion was won by Spotless Charm who is also owned by Nicki Collins:

And Reserve to Reserve Supreme was Sham's Star owned by Anne White:

Yvette organised a great show, but it was more than that, the people just really made it an amazing day. LONG LIVE LIVE SHOWING!"

BECF June Update

Hello,

Time has flown since the last update in April.

Suna is busy working hard on the plans for the hobby day. There will be demonstrations, trade stands and a chance to mingle and chat. The date will be October 17th and the venue will be Ettington Hall.

Lauren has started the ball rolling again with the popular BECF photo series. Thanks Lauren for organising this. If you need more info contact Lauren or see details on the BECF website: www.freewebs.com/becf

Also new is this BECF blog! If you want to subscribe enter your email address into the box on the right hand side and click 'subscribe'. You will be asked to decipher some jumbled letters and then an email will get sent to your inbox asking you to confirm your subscription. Once you have confirmed then each time some news is published on the blog it will get sent to your email. The blog will be used for BECF news, events and show news.

Beccy has been working hard on the MECs side of things and so far several shows have been given MECs qualifying status.

Yvette is busy working hard planning a newcomers show for the Spring - if you would like to help with this exciting venture please contact myself or Yvette.

Finally Marion is updating our membership database so please ensure she has up to date info for you.

We do have several vacancies on the team. If you are interested in helping with publicity or in any way please contact me. I have several smaller roles available if you have just ten minutes a month to spare.

Also I shall begin updating information sheets where necessary. A lot of hard work went into these sheets and they have proved so valuable but if someone would like to volunteer to proof read them all with me we can check they are all up to date.

Best wishes

Claire
BECF Co-ordinator

BECF June/July Photo Shows

The first of the new BECF photo show series has been judged! Every two months three shows are held: Factory Finish in hand, Artist Finish in hand and Performance. Each model that places will accrue points over the show season (June 09 - June 10) and at the end the high-points champions will receive some lovely prizes.

These first 3 shows were a great success with 8 entrants in both the FF and AF shows and 4 entrants in the performance show. Overall more than 450 models were entered. The FF show was won by Avalon Little Boy Blue, a lovely OF Animal Artistry welshie:

The Artist Finish show was won by Treasure, who is a gorgeous Scarlett resin:


And the Performance show was won by Joliet Jake, here is just one of his fantastic photos:

Thank you to all of the entrants and the BECF hopes that this series will grow in popularity over the season. The class-lists are all extensive and have classes to suit all makes of models and all types of performance. Please use the BECF Contact Us web page if you want to find out more about the BECF Show Series.

Northern MHU Live Show Results

The Northern MHU Live was a special regional event celebrating the Model Horses Unlimited 20th Anniversary. This was the first show of the year to be given MECS qualifying status, and the BECF donated some Breyer goodies for the raffle. Here they are:

Here are a selection of the results:

Supreme Performance Champion: MHEC Lindenchase

Supreme Led Championship: Cranford Prince Hal

Supreme Champion of Show: Cranford Prince Hal (pictured below)

For more information about the Model Horses Unlimited Club, please check out their website . The MHU Live Show Championship is being held on the 25th of July in Lincolnshire, and is open to members only (there is still time to enter).

MEG Live Show Report by Lauren Islip

On the 21st of May this year a group of 12 collector's from the Middle England Group got together at Rothersthorpe Village Hall in Northamptonshire for the first MEG Live Show. The show was set up as a group effort with a varied schedule including Performance, Original Finish, Custom, Artist Resin and Commercial Resin/China sections. We tried to split up all the tasks to make it easier to organise, so Debra Hulse arranged the schedule and ordered the rosettes, Wendy Goodson bought the trophies and arranged the hall and refreshments, Ann Sheppard kindly supplied certificates and I sorted out the judges and raffle prizes.

The day started off well with the performance section, which although was a little under-subscribed had a really good standard of entry. I was surprised to win the performance championship with my FC Millicent show-jumping entry over Wendy's superb Native American scene which got the reserve. Next we ran all the OF classes over 3 rings, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake as the judge's were a bit too efficient and some models missed their classes! So for the rest of the show we went to a two ring system and took our time, since we had got through the morning classes so quickly! Wendy's Silver Cloud won the OF championship, closely followed by Debra's C'est La Vie, who only missed out due to some tiny marks which I now know she has been able to clean off (so watch out for him at his next show!). The CM championship was won by Debra's Aksel, with the reserve won by Ann's Harkness.

Then came lunchtime, with the eagerly awaited raffle! We had a huge number of prizes, many of which were Breyer models and accessories kindly donated by the BECF. We also had a lovely hand-painted SM model by Amanda Greaves, and a classic scale Sarah Rose Arab resin donated by Laurie in the USA. I think most people came away with a prize (though we're sure Beccy fixed it as she won so many!), and we raised a wonderful £91 which was donated to the Redwings Horse Sanctuary. They sent a lovely letter, certificate and rosette to say thanks!


After lunch we moved onto the resin classes which were hotly contested. Wendy's gorgeous Venator resin called Silver Shadow won, with my own FC Moonflower winning the reserve. Claire Ashworth's cute Exmoor pony Dunsmore Balcarron won the Commercial championship followed up by Wendy's Freedom. In they all went to the Supreme Championship line-up, which looked like it was going to be a tough decision - I didn't envy the judges! I was really proud and pleased when they put the Supreme Champion rosette up against my jumping entry, as it was my first Supreme and it was a performance entry too! I came away with a lovely trophy, a huge rosette and a stunning gold horse-head medallion made and donated by Kelly Savage. Silver Shadow got the reserve spot and his stable-mate Silver Cloud took the Reserve Supreme and Reserve to Reserve Supreme respectively.



Everyone seemed to have a really good time, and I hope the MEG Live will become an annual event!

Lauren Islip

Please update your information with the BECF

If you would like to receive newsletters and other information from the BECF, please click here and fill out the form with your current postal address and your email. Also please let us know whether you would like email updates (free) or paper ones (subject to a fee to cover printing and postage costs).

Please do this even if you think the BECF already has your information. Emails will be sent out to previous members who have been on past BECF member lists, so if you do get one from the BECF secretary please only respond to that - there is no need to duplicate the information by using the BECF website form.

Welcome to the BECF blog!

Want to know what the BECF is up to?

Check back here often for news on all UK model horse hobby matters. Coming soon will be news of the BECF Hobby Day which will be held in October, and of course the return of the UK - Model Equine Championships in 2010. Also look out for news regarding photo shows and new MECS qualifying live shows.