Hello from snowy VT!

Hi everyone! My name is Jill O'Connor and I have a model horse addiction. I was born into the horse world and never left (that's dad in my Avatar driving UVM Cantor). I can happly say that dad started me in the hobby by bringing in the first models (Bay Morgan stallion, bay grazing mare & foal & the Alabaster Old Timer) into the house as a child and I've never let them go. Dad takes no credit for the hobby, hee hee. I'm probably around 1,000 models now if I actually added them all up. I've organized them all on an excel data base file and just really don't want to add the sheet totals together. I collect mostly OF Breyers, but have a few resins (mostly Morgans), HR's, and Stones in there as well.

I started getting into the hobby after my first JAH back in '85 and collected and photo showed during HS and went to my first live show back in '88. I got to see so many amazing horses and people there, but sadly, I didn't get to another live show until I moved to S. NH after college graduation and could make it down to Spencer on my own. My mother has always been a big infulence in my hobby and it's nice to be able to toss ideas off her when somethings not working right making tack. I've also made some of my own props as well. I will say that I was an easy kid to buy for at birthdays and Christmas - just get me a model horse and I was happy!

I enjoy live showing, mostly performance and love showing my side-saddle entries and doll that my mom made. I've made the trip to KY & Bfest a few times both as a volunteer and just for the fun of it. I've helped orgnaize model horse shows for retail stores as well as well as lecturing at seminars about the hobby and showing. I love seeing the novices getting involved and the ideas they bring to the hobby.

I currently live in the Burlington, VT area (where we finally had our first real storm of the year - about 18" where I live and about 33" just a few miles away) with my husband Joe who's a big support in the hobby. Thankfully, right from the start he was accepting of the hobby. In fact, one of his first comments when he came to my house the first time and saw my china hutch (with only a few doezen horses in it) was "this would be nice for my model fire trucks". Yup, I knew I had a keeper!! And yes, the model fire trucks are now in their own book case next to the china hutch. It's nice being married to someone who can understand your hobby because he has his own. Sadly, the trucks are not the right size for my models, so no performance set ups there. Sigh.

As I said, I grew up in the horse world as my father was a trainer when I was born (UVM Morgan Horse Farm). We left the farm when I was 5 but moved to Randolph Center, VT and there was no lack of horses to ride there! My elementary school is next to the cemetary where Justin Morgan the man is burried. How cool is that?? So obviously my fav. breed is the Morgan. Though I ended up horseless as a kid (no room and dad refused to board) I realize now that was a blessing as I got to try my hand as so many different types of riding. Including Polocrosse which I miss dearly.

I think this is a great forum for NE and it's been really neat reading everyones bio's. Let's us get to know more about eachother which is neat.

Hi Jill !

Hi there Jill, nice to meet you I have one question for you. What is polocrosse I've been around horses most of my life (and it's been a long life ) and I've never heard of that. I envy you all that snow!! My husband and I are snowmobilers and so far we have had very little snow here in the Berkshires of MA. I think we will have to start hauling the sleds around New England and visit all my new model horse friends and go riding

Seems like a lot of us here in New England have supportive SO's. Maybe it has something to do with the long winters??

Polocrosse is like lacrosse on horse back. It started down in Austrialia back in 1930's after a couple from Oz saw a riding lesson in england where the instructor was having kids take modified racquests and put a ball through a tire to teach balance and such. They though it looked like something that could become a fun sport soooo..... I lucked out and was able to learn with one the lady who litterly wrote THE book on polocrosse - Sally Batton who instructs at Dartmouth College (I grew up about 45 mintues away). It's kinda' the 'poor man polo" as you are only allowed one horse and it's a much smaller field. Once in a while I'll dig out and show my set up I made years ago. Haven't done it in a while, maybe it's time to bring it back out. Polocrosse has gotten big in the pony club world now so it's neat to seen how much it grew from when I first learned about it in 1990 to now.

http://www.americanpolocrosse.org/

I'm with you on the snowmobiling. My folks just got their sleds out this weekend and dad was out yesterday for a bit. Said it was ok riding, nothing great, but ok. VT has some nice trails (IMO), course I'm biased because in the summer we get to trail ride on a lot of them with horses. Works out as a win-win because we can find down trees and stuff before winter and get it all cleaned up. I'm surprised after that last storm that nothing stayed in your area. That's a bummer.

We do have a lot of supported SO's, which is nice. Though not always like that. Joe's the first guy I dated that actually took even a remote interest in my hobbies never mind actually help out or check out a show (he's done both). I lucked out!

Hi Jill! Welcome!