Merit Award Winners

I have always really enjoyed live showing. It's one of my favorite parts of the hobby. I love getting together with fellow collectors and admiring model horses all day - and yes, my competitive side loves winning a ribbon or other swag too. NAMHSA was founded right around the time I first started showing and my goal was always to get to show at NAN. The first few times I was able to attend NAN I only has a handful of models qualified. I made it a goal to earn as many cards as possible so I could bring a full show string to NAN too.

This has meant I haven't had as much opportunity to earn merit awards for my horses - which I also love to be able to do - because my goal has always been fewer cards for more models rather than many cards for fewer models. Plus when I did earn a card for a model I usually used it showing at NAN, so even my best and most consistent models typically go to NAN every year instead of collecting cards.

Even with all that, since it has been 30 years (OMG) of showing, I have managed to collect enough for awards for some of my favorite models. I had the opportunity to submit four of them in person while I was at Are You Kitten Me and I got the word back that they were accepted!

The first one earning a Register of Merit (ROM) in breed is "Day Trader" my Stone Horses chips mule. This is "Gypsy" who was a run of 35 at Equilocity in 2008 and I handpicked my favorite one at the event. His cute head turn, swish tail, and excellent paint work made him a consistent winner in the Stone longears classes. Competition is a lot stiffer in the Stone longears classes these days with the new mule in both Pebbles and Traditional scale - so it may take an extra long time to get to the next award level.

Day Trader was also National Champion in 2013

My next ROM breed horse is "Rennes" a OOAK Stone Irish Draft Horse painted by Caroline Boydston. This guy had already earned 11x NAN cards when I purchased him in 2022, so even though I have only had the chance to show him once since I've hard him, I already had enough cards to submit for breed. I'm not sure if his previous owner ever had a chance to show him at NAN, but I will hopefully be able to if it returns to the CHIN next year.

Third ROM horse, this time in collectibility is "Marbles" - he's a funny unpainted lying down foal that I found on eBay some years back. He is regrind/swirly plastic and was presumably intended to be a unicorn because he has a beard 😆 I pick up the swirly or otherwise odd plastic unpainted models when I find them to go alongside my chalky collection. This one has always shown well for me in collectibility because I show him in exotic foals as a zorse and there aren't too many other collectible foals in that class.

The last and best of the group is "Blue Rondo" my wedgewood running foal who earned Superior Event Horse (12 cards in one class) for collectibility. Blue Rondo was my first ever vintage decorator and still one of my best showing ones because he's nearly perfect, very white (thanks to some magic window time) and still has his pinking. He was also the first model I ever earned a ROM with and now is the first one from my show string to earn the SEH title. I just received the plaque as well and it is gorgeous! I can't wait to hang it up in the horse room.

When I was looking up the Merit Award criteria I was amazed to see all the new levels they have added. I've been spending 30 years trying to earn 6 or 12 cards for a single horse and now there is an award tier for 75 (!!!) halter cards across breed and collectibility/workmanship. Wow!! I don't think I will ever get there in my lifetime but that would be quite an achievement.

I haven't been doing NAN as much in recent years so I had been thinking of pivoting more to focusing on earning merit awards - but if NAN ends up being at the CHIN again during Breyerfest that would be be pretty tempting for me in 2026. It's so easy since we'll already be in the hotel and I definitely regretted not entering in 2024 after I realized that it was there.

One thing we started doing at the local Regionals is that for any model that places (I think if I remember it is for all top 5s) they earn back their card, so you could use it to enter again the following year or save for regional merit awards. I've always loved that idea and it would be cool to see that at NAN too, so you can both show and potentially earn towards merit awards without choosing one or the other - for successful models.