Okay, Day 2 of Rolex dressage is now over. In addition to watching selected rides, Behind the Bit "staff" have worked tirelessly visiting each and every trade fair booth. It's time to bestow the Best In Trade Show award. Shaky and sometimes blurry video footage of the winner and two runners up are below.
The BTB BITS winner is Equipment of Culture Ceramic Tiles and Mosaics of Ocala, FL. The runners up are Fabbri riding boots and Pittard Gloves.
The Equipment of Culture mosaics and tiles are unbelievable -- hand made and hand painted by artisans who trained in Europe. The wall painting sized mosaics are truly works of art, running about $4500. And while the Web site highlights Baroque horses, the trade show features some stunning dressage horse mosaics.
Many of the mosaics on display can be custom made to buyer specifications -- e.g., the artists can render a likeness of an individual horse. The big selling point of this booth is that anyone can enjoy/appreciate the fine work of the high-end pieces but those of us of modest means can take home one of the smaller, affordable works reminiscent of the grand pieces. Smaller tiles, and t-shirts, are under $30. The video does not really capture the loveliness of these tiles/mosaics -- go to their Web site!
WINNER:Many of the mosaics on display can be custom made to buyer specifications -- e.g., the artists can render a likeness of an individual horse. The big selling point of this booth is that anyone can enjoy/appreciate the fine work of the high-end pieces but those of us of modest means can take home one of the smaller, affordable works reminiscent of the grand pieces. Smaller tiles, and t-shirts, are under $30. The video does not really capture the loveliness of these tiles/mosaics -- go to their Web site!
Equipment of Culture Ceramic Tiles and Mosaics
Richard Moss of Morriston FL
Web: www.eofc.com Email: rm@eofc.com
RUNNERS UPRichard Moss of Morriston FL
Web: www.eofc.com Email: rm@eofc.com
Pittards Leather Gloves in chocolate brown and butter soft pink leather($74)
Fabbri Riding Boots with bling (made to order, $1200ish)
The rest of the day..
I saw The Good Witch's dressage ride and watched a ton of warmups. Below are some more scenes from Friday--Bruce Davidson doing an extended trot and not caring about equitation; Bettina Hoy emulating Anky; $338 breeches; $39 rubber boots; and a Nubian goat on a leash.
I saw The Good Witch's dressage ride and watched a ton of warmups. Below are some more scenes from Friday--Bruce Davidson doing an extended trot and not caring about equitation; Bettina Hoy emulating Anky; $338 breeches; $39 rubber boots; and a Nubian goat on a leash.
.jpg)
Lots of shopping, how fun!!!! Someday I'll make it there to watch, and shop.
ReplyDeletewonderful snippets! and really whats up with the pet goat??!! and the comment 'excuse me, he's teething'....that was just very odd...
ReplyDeleteI almost burned my husband's oatmeal looking at all this. The boots made me laugh. Ah, vanity, thy name is dressage rider. The tiles are incredible. I wish I could draw horses like that! I enjoyed shopping with you. I liked the gloves also, although I couldn't see the price. I even scrolled back to try and read the price. But Betina made me frown again.
ReplyDeleteVIDEO?! Of SHOPPING? You get my 'Best Blogger to Live Vicariously Through' award. Heaven.
ReplyDeleteOh and the video of the dressage was great too! So happy to see a horse not behind the vertical in the first dressage video, and *disgust* to the rollkur warmup. (Maybe technically not rollkur there, but you know she's got to be easing up in public.)
Jane
I am not going to ask you how much you have spent so far. *G*
ReplyDeleteThanks for the "tour." It puts me right in tough with the atmosphere.
I must have just missed you during Bruce and Cruise Lion's warm-up, I stopped to watch when he was working on his circles.
ReplyDeleteThe goat is a two week old orphan, I guess they had to bring him because he needs to be fed every two hours. They took him on the Smart Pak course walk on Friday, and he was skipping and jumping all over the place. By then end of the day, though, they had to carry him because he was so worn out!
I want my second career to be raising goats, and the little guy reminded me of that.
ReplyDeleteI had a little awkward moment with someone who told me an empty space close to the action was "being saved for someone." I told her chirpily that I'd just stand there in the meantime, and proceeded to stay there after the second person showed up. God I hope you weren't the second person!
I don't believe in saving spaces in situations like that -- you either care enuf to be there or you don't...