Long Island CopperFox Blog

Long Island, NY

 

Yes, it really is long.  It’s a long, skinny island.  Long Island features vast rich farmland, an astounding number of wineries, (and after each winery tasting port there is a strategically placed officer poised behind a bush in a cruiser..)

 

After utilizing every single square inch of a 10 foot Jeep Wranger “Pony Transport Device”, I drove up onto the beautiful Long Island Ferry.  This is truly a treat.  If you ever get the chance, put your car out into the middle of the ocean (well, not literally of course), while you sit back and revel at sunrise over the water while sipping coffee.  I thought about all the times I’ve sat on the NY bridges in traffic, and then let that thought slip away…

 

The showholder for the Long Island Model Horse Expo in Bayport, NY is Laura Rock-Smith. She lives up to her name.  She is truly a Rock for her people!  The trophies she found were beautiful, gleaming depression glassware, so unique and also she had wonderful rosettes!  I had a little fit of crafting joy and made some sashes for her to add to the mix of amazing awards, although I think this little one might trip on his, he might need that taken in a little.  0The hall is a Girl Scout house, so mandatory girl scout cookies were purchased of course.  The hall was cheerily decorated with colorful Chinese paper lanterns. Laura fed us a meal with the most amazing stew, soft buttery rolls from a famous NY bakery, and four other main courses, what a treat!  Ok, sorry I’m supposed to focus on the horses, right-not the food?  Oh, but the food. The Food.

 

So I set up shop and met some wonderful new show-goers, lots of faces I hadn’t seen before, including some of the group on the Model Horse Blab chat board that I frequent (waves). There was a lot of excitement in the air, when a friend Jen came by and remarked, “I brought like ALL my Copperfoxes today to show.”  I was thrilled and excited to see how they would perform in today’s show ring, and perform they did!

 

We had a first place, a second place, a champion reserve, another first place, and the next thing you knew, Jen had taken the Championship in Breed Overall! Congratulations Jen, for your amazing show day with the herd!  It was great compensation for the fact that several times during the day, Jen’s name was somehow butchered to Jennifer Burgerton, Jennifer Bottomton, Buttonbottom, Burgerbuttonbottom, and several other amusing names.  I’m pretty sure her last name is actually Johnson. (okay, to be fair it’s also Bolton-Johnson). In any case, Jen was a great sport about all the names she was called.

 

The resins and customs and clinkies that came out were absolutely wonderful.  The collector’s class featured a grouping of rare 1950’s Hartlands, and vintage 1970’s “oil crisis” chalky and pearly models.  What a treat to see these amazing models.  I learned that there are many models that I hadn’t even seen being in the hobby for 38 years, which is truly wondrous as it gives you an idea of how vast the sheer numbers of collectible model horses there are out there. 

 

 

When it came time for the raffle for the Copperfox Bertie, the wonderful announcer Adam called out the winner’s name yet noone came forward. There was a going once, going twice call (or she was going to pull a new winner’s name!) when the winner came in unknowing through the front door, and exclaimed, “What?” She went running for Bertie with arms outstretched, and Bertie went cantering to her with outstretched hooves, forearms, fetlocks, knees and well, you get the point.  It was a grand union!  Congratulations to Ben on your raffle win for beautiful Bertie and I hope he does amazing things in the show ring for you!!