British Equine Collector's Forum: 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.