PonyBytes: First Thoughts and Tips

If you're like me at all and have been replacing live shows with photo shows for the past 9 months, you're aware there isn't a platform that is great for photo showing. Facebook, SmugMug, SnapBraggin all have their positives and negatives but I think one of the greatest challenges is having to reupload your photos for each show. (Some show leagues like MEPSA and TOPSA side step this but if you want to show in shows not in those leagues, you're SOL.)

So that's where PonyBytes comes in. The idea behind the site seems to be - upload your photos once to your personal gallery and then copy it to whatever show you like. I'm 500% down with this idea. My album of OF Breyer Mini photos on my phone has 730 photos right now. The less I have to repetitively upload the better. 

So let's get started!

Signing up is fairly easy. Just go to http://ponybytes.com/ and click Register in the upper left:

Register!

This takes you to a pretty standard form. Enter your info - your username can be whatever you want, it doesn't have to be your real name - and submit the form and confirm your email. Now we are in! 

First thing to do is to set your real name so the show hosts can make sure you are one of the registered entrants when you try to join a show. This is really easy to do. Go to User CP on the upper left:

I'm 90% sure CP stands for Control Panel.

From there, scroll down a little until you see the Edit Profile option on the left:

I'm apocalypticchick, per usual.

There's several optional things you can change here if you want - all you need to do is fill out this section with your last name and your first name:

Last name first, first name second.

Once you're done, DO NOT FORGET TO CLICK UPDATE PROFILE to save your changes. The button is kind of small and at the bottom of the page. 

Now onto the fun part! Photo uploading, whoo-hoo!

The key thing to remember is that pretty much everything lives under Gallery. The link for the Gallery will always be at the top of the page and takes you to a page that looks like this:

The big link at the top takes you to the main Gallery. There's a link lower on the right for MyGallery - that's where you'll upload your own photos. The galleries listed under the Gallery Name section are currently running photo shows (they could be in any state - open for entries, open for upload, closed, being judged, etc.).

Before worrying about a show, let's just get some photos on here. The whole point is to be able to upload once and then copy to shows, so let's test this. Click the MyGallery link to go to your personal gallery area. 

Your gallery is pretty blank to start with:

You can use the default My Gallery folder if you want.

But, you can add as many folders (Categories) and subfolders (Sub-Categories) as you like! I am a data nerd and I have 5,000,000 photos, so I'm going to organize my area. This is totally optional, and you can move and delete and rearrange things later!

You can see I already made a lot of Categories. Click the "Add Category" link at the bottom to make a new one.

You only need to enter a title for the Category, everything else is optional:

I'm going to add a Performance album. I only have one Performance photo but why not? Don't forget to hit Add Category to save your new album!

Voila, now we have a Performance album/folder as well! Within a lot of these I also made sub-categories. (See aforementioned 730 Breyer Mini photos.) I want an easy way to find the horse I am looking for. My system looks like this:

Is it excessive? Maybe. Do I care? No. #DataNerdForLife

You make Sub Categories in the exact same way we made a category above, except the link says "Add Sub Category" once you have clicked into your Category. In the photo above, I'm in my "OF Stone Mini" Category. Because I'm super extra, I also made "Breed" and "Collectibility" Sub Categories within each of these Sub Categories to keep the photos for Breed and Collectibility separate (mainly because they will be tagged with different info and I don't want to accidentally copy a Collectibility photo to a Breed show or vice versa). My final setup, at the deepest level, looks like this:

You can see from the breadcrumbs at the top that I'm in the "Draft Breed Molds" folder within the "OF Stone Mini" folder.

Ok, I think I lied earlier, *NOW* we are ready to upload a photo!

BONUS: You can totally do this from a mobile phone! All my photo show photos are on my phone, so this is CRUCIAL for me. The steps on the phone are exactly the same as on my laptop. First, navigate into the album you want to add a photo to. I'm going to stick with my Draft album in Stone Minis. I want to do Breed first, because I know that info off the top of my head, so I'm going to click into that album. From there, just click Add Picture:

This is a screenshot from my phone.

One thing to keep in mind is that you HAVE to enter a title for your photo. For now, I'm just putting my horse's show name as the title. You can (and probably will need to) change it when you copy the photo to a show. You can enter the description now if you want, or we can do it later. I'm gonna do it later. Navigate to the photo you want on your phone or computer, and make sure to hit Add Picture for it to upload. Now I have my first photo uploaded:

Voila! A pony exists!

Click the photo thumbnail to see the page for that photo. This is also where you can see the description and edit things. I'm going to want to edit his description. The format for this is REALLY IMPORTANT:

ID*[you horse's ID]|NAME*[your horse's name]|EVENT*[your event]|OTHER*[whatever else you want to say about your entry]

The site reads this and parses it by looking for the asterisk (*) character, the pipe (|) character, and the keywords (ID, NAME, EVENT, and OTHER). If you don't use this format, the site won't be able to parse the info correctly. My little draft above is going to be assigned ID 004, his name is Argenteum, his photo is for Breed events, and he is a Shire Stallion, so his info will look like this:

ID*004|NAME*Argenteum|EVENT*Breed|OTHER*Shire Stallion

Click "Edit" below the photo as shown above, and write your horse's info in the Description field. Don't forget to hit Edit Picture to save your changes!

(Ignore the fact that I changed him from 003 to 004 after I took this screenshot, whoops.)

Let's check that it worked. Go to the Reports link at the top, next to the Gallery link. Click My Item Nos. to see all your models that you have assigned IDs to:

It worked! (Ignore the 3 I did yesterday.)

Sweet, now we get to add him to a show! For now, we want the "Fake Show to Practice Uploading" since we are just playing around. Open the photo you want to upload to the show, and go back to the Edit view (where we changed the description earlier). This time, instead of changing anything, click the option to "Copy item to another category [Copy item]":

This is where you DON'T want to click Edit Picture.

Select the class within the show you want and then click Copy Item:

You'll see shows under the Category option. If you want to copy the photo to another one of your albums (for example when I want to add a Collectibility photo for this guy) you'll use the User Gallery dropdown.

Now it's time to see if that worked (and to change the title of the photo to whatever the show host wants it to be). You can get to your photo in the show three ways: 1) once you copy it, the site should take you to a view of all your photos uploaded everywhere and the one you just did should be the first one that appears, if you click it you should see breadcrumbs at the top indicating what class and show it is in; 2) go back to the main Gallery, find the show you want, navigate into the class you want, check if your photo is there; 3) go to the Reports area again, except this time click My Entries, find the horse/show/class combination you just added and click the horse's name to edit. Change the title to whatever the show host requested (e.g. Breed & Gender). Note that this will only change the title for the photo within that show, it won't change it for your user gallery.

Done! You can see from the breadcrumbs that he is entered in the OFP Arabian class (LOL) for the Fake Show to Practice Uploading, and his title is now "Shire Stallion" instead of his name.

So, that was A LOT. Thanks everyone who read this far. There's more you can do with the site for sure - be sure to READ THE HELP DOCUMENTATION. 

Thus far this seems pretty cool. I like the different ways of being able to see my data under Reports, and I like that I can upload from my phone. It doesn't do multiple uploads at once very seamlessly the way Facebook and SmugMug do (especially since you have to enter a title for the upload to work) but hopefully that inefficiency will not matter once most of my photos have been uploaded the first time. I also with I could add the photo from the show/class page, rather than having to find the photo first and then add to the class, but I think I'm just used to doing it one way and I will adapt. Can't wait to try it out on a real show!

P.S. Enter the Winter PonyBytes Fun Photo Show if you haven't yet!

How do I join Breyer's Premier Club? (2021 Edition)

Breyer just released a sneak peak of the first model for the 2021 Premier Club, an absolutely GORGEOUS Mustang sculpted by the AMAZING Rayvin Maddock of Khrysalis Studios.

Breyer's photo. Please don't be mad at me for using it.

Which of course leads to the questions: how do we get this fabulous model and how does the Premier Club work? 

How does the Premier Club work?

Every year Breyer releases 3 new traditional sculptures for the Premier Club. In order to buy these, you need to have signed up for the club by the deadline (usually December 31st of the previous year) AND you need to buy each model when it becomes available (usually May, August, November). If you miss buying a model, you will be removed from the club and won't get your money back. At the beginning of the year you will receive an artist sketch of the first sculpture. At the end of the year (usually in January of the next year) you will also receive a bonus free Stablemate if you bought all your traditional models from the club.

My Premier Club models from 2019.

How do you sign up?

First, in order to sign up for the Premier Club, you need to sign up for the Collector Club. This is either $25 for a regular membership or $55 for a deluxe membership (includes an exclusive Stablemate). International has a slightly higher price for the deluxe membership due to shipping. 

Once you have a Collector Club membership, you need to sign up for the Premier Club. This usually opens in November for signups. You must sign up BEFORE THE DEADLINE, which is usually December 31st. The cost to sign up is $100, which acts as a deposit towards the three traditional models in the club. 

Once each model become available, make sure to purchase it before the deadline, or you will lose your membership and won't get your deposit back. Each model is priced at $175, but remember you already paid a deposit, which is split evenly across the three models, so when you login to purchase them you will only be paying $141.66 (because your deposit already covered $33.33 of the price). However, you will also have to pay shipping. As of the time this was published, domestic shipping for up to $150 worth of merchandise is $17.50. Canada is $35.95 and other international is $60.95.

So what are we looking at for cost for the whole year?

	Cost	Cost	Cost	Cost	Cost	Cost	Dates
	Basic CC	Deluxe CC	Basic CC	Deluxe CC	Basic CC	Deluxe CC
	Domestic	Domestic	Canada	Canada	International	International
Collector Club Membership	$25	$55	$25	$60	$25	$60	Deadline 12/31/20
Premier Club Membership (aka Deposit)	$100	$100	$100	$100	$100	$100	Deadline 12/31/20
1st Model	$141.66	$141.66	$141.66	$141.66	$141.66	$141.66	Approx May 2021
1st Model Shipping	$17.50	$17.50	$35.95	$35.95	$60.95	$60.95
2nd Model	$141.66	$141.66	$141.66	$141.66	$141.66	$141.66	Approx August 2021
2nd Model Shipping	$17.50	$17.50	$35.95	$35.95	$60.95	$60.95
3rd Model	$141.66	$141.66	$141.66	$141.66	$141.66	$141.66	Approx November 2021
3rd Model Shipping	$17.50	$17.50	$35.95	$35.95	$60.95	$60.95
Totals	$602.48	$632.48	$657.83	$692.83	$732.83	$767.83

So is it worth is?

This is up to you! Breyer most likely won't release much information about the 2nd or 3rd models before the sign up deadline, so joining is always a gamble. In some years models are extremely popular and one model may resell for more than the cost of the whole year (*cough*Shannondell*cough*) and in other years you may not be able to resell them for the cost you paid. My best advice is to make sure it is in your budget to be able to afford them even if you don't like them, and presell the ones you don't like. You can change the shipping address on each model so it's possible to send them to a buyer straight from Breyer. 

Art Day

I managed to finally take a vacation day from work this past week, the first vacation day that hasn't been cancelled since BreyerFest in July, and I chose to make it an art day.

I got some new art supplies a while ago and haven't had a chance to try them out so I dove right in, starting with a set of Jo Sonja paints. I've seen several people recommend these and Blick had a handy set of rainbow colors for sale so I grabbed those and added a few typical horse browns. Let me just say, #NoRegrets.

The set came in a nice little box.

The 20ml tubes are the perfect size to start out with and I love having so many colors to play with. But EVEN BETTER it came with two color wheels! One is a colored printout of the colors but the other was a blank white page for you to paint yourself so you can see what the colors really look like. I jumped on this IMMEDIATELY.

This was SO FUN to paint!

I have two aesthetics: black and white or RAINBOW EVERYWHERE and this definitely fulfilled my rainbow needs. The fully painted sheet is so satisfying! And a great reference for using these paints in the future.

Ok I don't actually have the colors for the middle yet. (I'm not arty enough to know how to mix them.)

I've tried several (mostly cheaper) brands of acrylics so far, and these are my favorites yet. I found the colors really nice and the paint smooth and easy to mix. I also got a SECRET tool which I absolutely love: a flow medium. This stuff is AMAZING!! I just need a tiny drop of paint, a few drops of water, and a drop of this and the paint becomes so much smoother and makes it way easier to minimize brush strokes. It feels game changing.

99% sure this is magic

I really liked this first taste of these paints and I can't wait to paint a bajillion medallions with them!

Improper Performance Part II

Tonight is the deadline for entries to be uploaded to the Pandemic Panorama Performance show, so I thought I would share a few more of my entries, and some that didn't quite make the cut.

This time I was able to borrow tack from a few friends who are performance showers and had access to some different backgrounds. I even got pressured into taking a few "real" performance photos. I'm still NOT a performance shower (gotta limit the hobby spending somewhere) but who knows, if we have 6 more months of pandemic maybe eventually I'll be worn down.

In the BAD PERFORMANCE class:

Another "bad performance" classic

In the NAKED PERFORMANCE class:

This doll was too good not to put on everything

Naked doll AND naked horse!

In the MIXED SCALE PERFORMANCE class:

If you don't own a jump - make one out of models!

Large horse, tiny tack.

We cannot have normal cat herding here, oh no, we must have tiny people riding the cats.

And last but not least, I didn't really feel this fit well anywhere and was too similar to the one above, but it accurately captures how this year has treated all of us, so I'll just share it here.

Facedown in the sand = me in 2020.

How I Judge Performance

I've judged performance at both live and photo shows and I find it both more complicated and more fun than judging breed or collectibility classes. There's so much more to look for in a performance entry and keeping it all straight takes a little work, so I adapted my own system (stealing heavily from suggestions by Jennifer Buxton - all hail her wonderful blog). I like to have a little notebook with me and write down my "scores" for each entry like a judge's card. Here's what my notes start out like:

Entry	Model	Doll	Saddle	Bridle	Props	Total

The Entry column gets filled out with the name of the entry or something else so I can remember which entry it was - sometimes in small classes something like "PS TB" will be fine, other times I need something more detailed. Then each column after that gets a score. I like to score from -3 to +3, where -3 is catastrophically bad and +3 is blowing my socks off. If an element doesn't apply to an entry, it gets a 0. I sum up the score from each column to get a total for that entry and my top score is my top placing, unless I need to apply tie breakers. 

Here's a breakdown of each column:

Model - Does the model (usually an equine, occasionally something else) look suitable for performing the task it is demonstrating? For example, in a pleasure class I don't expect to see a model that is galloping or rearing or performing a dramatic action like sharply turning a corner. I'm looking at the pose and biomechanics of the model here, not necessarily things like typical breed types for a class, unless the class or documentation has specified that.

An entry from the 2019 Region 2 Champ Show. This horse looks well suited for a western pleasure class. (My photo, not my entry.) (If I had realized I was going to blog about this, I would have taken at least tried to take better photos.)

Doll - If there's no doll used in the entry, this is a score of 0. It doesn't "hurt" the entry but it doesn't help the entry either. If there is a doll, it is positioned appropriately for the action? Is it dressed appropriately? Some positions are very hard to achieve with dolls, so I am more likely to give something a negative score if the doll is positioned in a way that is unsafe or impossible in real life. Smaller penalties are given for things riders can do in real life that would be frowned upon, for example heels up instead of down, hands carried too high, etc. An excellently dressed and positioned doll would earn positive points. 

An entry from the 2019 Region 2 Champ Show. This doll is correctly attired and posed for the task she is doing. (My photo, not my entry.)

Saddle - I'm first looking for safety or things that would injure the horse if the entry were real, for example loose girth, buckles not fastened, straps placed incorrectly, misplaced pad, etc. Those would incur negative points. An excellently fitted and properly tacked entry would get positive points. I'm also looking to make sure the tack here fits the event the horse is doing. A dressage saddle would not be appropriate for a AQHA hunter under saddle class, for example. In harness classes I score the harness in this category.

An entry from the 2019 Region 2 Champ Show. The saddle is fitted correctly and suitable for this dressage class. (My photo, not my entry.)

Bridle - I'm looking at similar things for the bridle and reins as I did with the saddle. Does it fit the horse? Is it safe? It is appropriate and allowed for the event the horse is doing? Excellence is rewarded with positive points. Mistakes, especially in safety and things that compromise reality (like having the bit falling out of the mouth, bridle touching the horse's eyeball, reins tangled, etc.) gets negative points.

An entry from the 2019 Region 2 Champ Show. The bridle on this horse is correct for the harness he is wearing. (My photo, not my entry.)

Props - Not every entry requires props or dioramas, so often this category scores a 0 - neither hurting nor helping the entry. If there are props or a scene, is it placed correctly in relation to the horse? Is it appropriate for the action the horse is doing? Some classes do require a prop, for example in an over fences class if there is no fence the entry is likely to receive a negative score here. 

An entry from the 2019 Region 2 Champ Show. I like the detail in the props which went beyond what was strictly necessary for this entry. (My photo, not my entry.)

After each category is scored for an entry, I sum up the score to get a total. Higher points is better. Sometimes I do get ties in which case I tend to look at the following as tie breakers:

• If the entry scored negatively, is it something that would be easily fixed? Or is the entry "the best it can be" with what is on the table? For example, if two entries score equally, but one entry has a saddle made with excellent workmanship that isn't quite fitted to the horse correctly, while another entry has a saddle that isn't top quality but is fitted excellently, I tend to pick the second entry, because I feel they did excellent work with inferior tools, while the first entry had the tools to be excellent but didn't live up to the potential of that entry. Some judges may pick the exact opposite, but this is how I choose. 
• Which entry was more ambitious? Which has more "wow" factor? Is one trying something new or something I haven't seen before? If two entries are tied in score but one of them really went out and took a risk on something new or difficult, I want to reward that in my placings. 

So here's what my notebook might look like at the end of a small class:

Entry	Model	Doll	Saddle	Bridle	Props	Total
Chestnut Wyatt	1	1	1.5	1	1	5.5 (1st Place)
Appaloosa	-0.5	1	1	-0.5	0.5	1.5 (3rd Place)
PS TB	0.5	0.5	0	1	0.5	2.5 (2nd Place)

Improper Performance

If you had asked me a month ago what I planned to be doing this weekend, playing with plastic ponies would have featured prominently, but not in the way I expected. This was the most fun thing I did this weekend, and if you aren't doing the Pandemic Performance Panorama photo show hosted by Jennifer Buxton... there's still time! It's FREEEEEEEEEE* (*unless you want to be eligible for prizes to be mailed to you, in which case it is $20). It isn't what I call "Proper Performance" - my goal here is to have fun and encourage my own creativity! You DON'T NEED ANY PERFORMANCE supplies. The class list is totally open to interpretation and so fun! Also did I mention the prizes? I'm planning on getting a box of donations mailed out this week hopefully. 

Let me just interject here that I am NOT a performance shower. I have showed performance once, with a Gem Twist model and some OF Breyer tack sometime in the late 90s or early 00s. I resolutely will not get into showing in this area of the hobby, because I have to limit my collection spending somehow, but I do love judging performance classes. 

When I signed up for this show a few weeks ago, it was amidst a mess of other drama happening and I really meant my "entry" fee to be more of a donation. Let's be honest, I've seen what people can do and I am not going into this to win things. Then I started throwing out ideas with friends. Planning for some wacky things we could do... and then I pulled out The Box. The Box full of OF Breyer accessories that came with Breyers I bought for other reasons. It turns out I have way more "stuff" than I realized. 

I was getting a little weary of my normal halter show photo taking, and decided to take a break and play with some of this stuff. Best decision I made all weekend. Here's the results:

In the BAD PERFORMANCE class:

SOMEONE forgot to tighten the girth.

Definitely a snake. Not a hose.

In the STABLE PERFORMANCE class:

The set of Show Stable Accessories from Breyer is amazing. The bench, potted plants, cardboard ribbons, and show drapes are all from that set. It's sadly retired now, but 10/10 would recommend.

Let's just say I have A LOT of Stablemate scale accessories that came in various sets.

In the MIXED SCALE PERFORMANCE class:

Can you even see this tiny rider?

In the OTHER ANIMAL PERFORMANCE class:

Mutton busting!

In the ALTERED REALITY PERFORMANCE class:

Frankly I'm just glad this thing only has 4 legs and not two dozen.

In the 2020 PERFORMANCE class:

In 2020, horse rides you.

You can tell it's August and not March because I sacrificed a square of actual toilet paper to make the mini rolls.

Entries are open until the end of the month. Who knows what I'll come up with next?

A Little (Personal) History

Well now that the ice has been broken, I guess I should introduce myself and share a little about my background in the hobby. Warning: I'm likely to be verbose and rambling. You've been warned.

There's no real definition of what it means to be "in" this hobby. There's plenty of ways you can participate and they're all equally valid, which is one of the great things about it. So how long have I been "in" the hobby? I don't know. I'd usually date that back to about 1998, when I was old enough to really collect models rather than just have them as toys (still a valid way of enjoying the model horse hobby!). That's also right around when I started showing. I kept up my collection and showed fairly frequently until I packed everything away for college and starting a career.

After about a decade long break from any sort of model horse related activities whatsoever, I leapt back into the hobby both feet first in 2016. You see... I was lucky enough to go to the Kentucky Derby in 2015 in person.

Slight backstory here. I owned and loved an OTTB for almost 20 years. He was my heart horse and the best horse I will ever have the privilege of owning. He was trained and treated amazingly as a racehorse and found a new career as a hunter after he left the track. Both my sister and I started in Short Stirrup on him and competed up to the A-circuit Children's Hunters. He was a team horse for my IHSA team in college. I rode him bare back in a halter and lead rope, we did trails, we evacuated the barn for fires twice... this horse was a literal saint.

Literal saint horse

If I ever got another horse, I would definitely want it to be another OTTB. So yes, I love Thoroughbreds and I loosely follow racing. Santa Anita is my local track and everyone I know there takes good care of the horses and really cares about them, including finding them new homes if racing isn't for them. Yes, there are some bad people in racing, but there are bad people in every sport, and racing keeps the Thoroughbred breed alive in this country.

Anyways, back to 2015. We went to the KY Derby. It was amazing. American Pharoah won and went on to win the Triple Crown.

Blurry photo of American Pharoah before the race. My digital camera in 2015 was not the best.

When 2016 rolled around and the season started up again at Santa Anita, I went in early April as I do every year for the Santa Anita Derby and the Derby Day 5k (it's awesome, you start in an actual starting gate, run through the Arboretum, and finish on the synthetic track at the actual finish line). As we always do, my friend and I perused the gift shop between races. AND THEY HAD BREYERS. Not just any Breyers. They had American Pharoah! And not just one - a Traditional model, a Stablemate, an Ornament, and a Resin! So, having no self control whatsoever, I obviously bought one. And then I bought more...

That was the slippery slope back into model horse-dom. Less than two weeks later I realized I was an adult with my own paycheck and the ability to travel where I want, and I bought BreyerFest early bird tickets. There's nothing like growing up and realizing things you never thought possible as a child are suddenly in reach. Thus my return to the hobby was cemented.