It's time for another guest judging clinic, and we're really expanding outside of our typical breed and collectability niche this month. NAMHSA announced in February that performance workmanship was a new division eligible to earn NAN cards. I'm not much of a performance shower, but I was intrigued by the new division and how to judge it, and I felt other people would be curious too! NAMHSA does have an archived webinar on the subject, but as a person who prefers the written word, I reached out to NAMHSA President Lauren Byun to create a guest judging clinic to point out what aspiring performance workmanship judges should look for.
Performance Workmanship
by Lauren Byun
NAMHSA’s new Performance Workmanship division has brought up a ton of great questions on how to judge performance from this perspective! I’m here to give a demonstration of how I would do so for a class of Western Pleasure Saddles. My name is Lauren Byun and I’ve been in the model horse hobby, focusing on performance for… well lets just say I’m counting now by decades rather than years now, lol. I’ve been a tack maker, a vehicle and prop maker, a painter and sculptor. My work has placed, won, and champed at such notable shows as BreyerFest Live, North American Nationals, and even the BreyerFest Best Customs Contest. I’ve also judged performance for more than 20 years (also at NAN and BFL), and had the privilege to learn and show alongside some of our hobby’s biggest names.
I’m running through this class as I would in a live show, so I’m not looking at the quality of lighting, angles, etc. that I would in a photo show. To be fair, I’m also only judging on what I can see here, I’m not guessing on other sides or views.
Big thanks to the members of the Model Horse Performance Shower’s Facebook group who provided a ton of demo photos for me to choose from. All of these were randomly grabbed and anonymized, so I have no idea who the owner or artist is of any of them. In a live show, this is exactly how we should have it as well! Just like a CM or AR workmanship division, do not provide any artist or owner information, to prevent any unintentional bias in judging.
That brings us to: what DO you document in performance workmanship? Just like in AR or CM Workmanship, document the REAL item your entry is modeled after. You might choose to use a picture of the whole item, or even just a portion that matches your entry well. For example, I might whip up something simple like this for entry D in this class.
One important thing to remember in Performance Workmanship: we are not judging the horse. The horse is essentially just a display stand, and is not required! Whether it’s a body quality OF, an expensive resin, or a wooden stand has absolutely no bearing on the placing. The only time the horse might matter is if the saddle is wildly out of scale to the horse being used for display. If you’re running into that as a shower - just put your saddle on a display stand instead and list the scale that your saddle best fits on your documentation.
We’re also not judging adjustment or breed appropriateness in this class. That means I’m not looking at if the girth is tight, whether the saddle is positioned correctly on the horse, or whether the tack style suits that particular breed or type of horse. All those should be considered in your regular performance classes. This is strictly about the workmanship and realism of the tack, prop, or doll itself.
Because this is specifically a saddle class in this example, I’m also not evaluating pads or other tack pieces. Some shows may instead offer “Western Set” classes where the entire setup is judged together, but today we’re focusing only on the saddle. A quick reminder to show holders: the recommended class list is flexible! You can combine or split divisions however works best for your show, and judges can always split classes further if entry numbers justify it.
Since we get this question a lot: performance workmanship classes can not be double judged from your regular performance division! In order to see and properly judge the tack, there can not be a rider in the saddle or other pieces of tack obstructing the item you’re trying to view. Judging should also not be unintentionally influenced by how the item is used in relation to other items. We’re judging strictly the quality and craftsmanship of the item labeled for that class, be it a saddle, a cow, a carriage, or a rider.
So lets get to it! Here are our 4 entries:
Entry A
Entry D
Find Lauren's placings and explanations under the jump!
