Christmas horses!

My in-laws have figured it out (and without any blatant hints!). Last year, I got a Trail of Painted Ponies figurine from my sister-in-law, and this year, along with the Breyer 3-D Paint by Number I asked for (the one with the new-mold pony), I got a carved wood horse and a ceramic mare and foal figurine. And my brother, smart boy that he is, gave me a Mid-States Warrior. Now, I've already got one Warrior, but what the hey. Returning it would be a pain, and my selling luck isn't so hot lately, so I'll probably keep him.

Then I bought a few for myself. I went a bit crazy and bought the Hagen-Renaker Morgan stallion and mare SR (in palomino) from Ed Alcorn, which proves that I'm insane. :) Nice expensive, highly breakable horsies in my home. Oy. But oh, they look pretty, and I've always been a sucker for the Hagen SM molds. Thanks to Toddler-boy, who's into everything, the Morgans will be living in a box until we move.

I also ordered a few things from American Livestock and Rural King when they had sales last week. American Livestock sold out of the Cefnoakpark Bouncer, but I got a second Cloud's Legacy set, and this one has both of the new foals. From Rural King, which is still in transit, I got two more 3-D sets, the customizing kit, a couple of plushies, the deer family, and maybe something else.

Need to work on the pictures, though. And on finding room for everyone.

Rubicon!!

Well, after entering almost every one of Breyer's Connoisseur Horse drawings, I finally got selected for one. So, sometime after Christmas, I'll have a Rubicon in the house.

And soon enough, we'll be able to find a house to move into, so I can finally have a safe place to display my very few fragile horses - 2 resins, a few porcelains, and one or two more-expensive Breyers. Like my soon-to-be Rubicon.

I may even end up with a decent room to do photography in.

Lots of new horses

Lots of new horses in the house; all Breyers this time.

I picked up the foal set at Target a few weeks back. It's apparently a Target SR, or at least the box implies that it is. The set has the Frolic Foal in a nice buckskin, and the new Morgan Foal in a dark brown Appaloosa.

Then there's the BF Gracie that I traded a JCP Kennebec Count for. Loved the bay color on the Count, but I didn't care for the mold. I regretted selling my original Gracie, so I jumped when I found someone who wanted to swap.

And there are the horses from the Thanksgiving shopping spree. From Tractor Supply's website, I got a Duke. Actually 2, so I could pick the best one and return or sell the other. Then Rural King had a 20% off sale, so I got Wintersong, Twilight Terror, and two ornaments, the Appaloosa and Carousel Horse. Wintersong is pretty, although mine has a pink spot on his rump.

Pictures to come.

JCPenney Horses

My JCPenney horses were delivered yesterday. I ordered on Sunday with the 20% off code - finally had to do a phone order because the website was hanging repeatedly.

The "Arabian" set is nice, although the name is a puzzler. Still not a fan of the Misty's Twilight mold; it always reminds me of Currier & Ives prints. But maybe she'll make a nice Xmas decoration. The Andalusian is a favorite of mine, in spite of the white over-spray that Breyer used on this color.

The Parade of Breeds set is nice again this year, although I'm not as crazy about the Generation 3 SM molds as I am about the older ones. The feet overall seem too big, and a few molds just look off. The Friesian, and a few others, have ears that would be mule-length in real life, and the forelegs on the rearing Andalusian just look all wrong. On the other hand, the color on the cantering WB is yummy. I like the Paso mold, but those resist-dapples will always give me a cringe, because they just look so unrealistic.

A little rant

So I was trying to take a photo yesterday to enter Breyer's "Picture Perfect" contest. Granted, the toddler's "assistance" didn't help any, but still. I ended up skipping the contest, because this


was the best picture I ended up with, and it's out of focus.

Part of my rant is that Breyer's directions weren't clear about whether I had to use all of the props from the kit. Because honestly, that paper fence is crap. The little cross-feet that it "stands" on are hideously hard to disguise, and the fence isn't nearly long enough for those of us who are cursed with rotten lighting conditions. Thanks to my lighting (hah!) setup, I have to have about a foot between the horse and backdrop - otherwise, shadows on the fence and backdrop. So, the short fence and small poster didn't work well. Neither did the lovely creases in the poster, for that matter.

The backdrop is actually pretty nice. I just wish it hadn't been folded. If it wasn't two-sided, I'd get it mounted on foamcore. I may anyway, when I decide which side I like better. The flowerpot is also pretty nice. And the horse is really good; I like the dun color they used, and while peanut rollers make me twitchy and Zippo's head is too short, he's a versatile sort of OF horse for the Western classes.

But the fence is still crap. And what's with making the deadline fall on a Sunday?

Pegasus & a Palouse

Two new horses in the mail today. UPS delivered my Pegasus


and USPS brought the Iskitpe Palouse I bought on Ebay last week.

Also, two new SMs from Target over the weekend, the red roan Peruvian Paso and the bay/buckskin (haven't decided yet) Highland Pony.

Plus, I'm spending the day working on a photo for the Picture Perfect contest. Having left it to the deadline and fighting with their sorry fence, I may skip the contest.

My first Hartlands

Technically, my very first Hartland is a grey grazing mare that I found at a flea market this summer.



Then I got this bunch on Ebay. The alabaster FAS is glossy but could use a sun bath and is missing an eartip. The ASB is Tenite (cellulose acetate), same as Breyers, but the Morgan family is the Styrene. That explains why I probably saw Hartlands earlier and didn't know it - the plastic just screams "cheap Hong Kong toy" to me for some reason.

The Hartlands are all in pretty good shape, considering their age. Not bad for about $20. I like the metallic chestnut, too.

I'd really like to have one of the Regal-size prancing QHs, but that'll have to wait until I find one in my price range. Thrill of the hunt and all that.

Flea Market Finds

I got to go to a couple of flea market/antique malls this week, and actually (for a change) found something worth buying. Usually, all I find are bashed-around Breyers with astronomical price tags: $35 for a Misty with missing paint and large Crayon decorations, $50 for a "vintage Breyer" that was actually a common-as-dirt lemon-yellow FAS, and so on.

I still found a good population of overpriced Breyers this time, but I also found, and bought, a Hartland grazing mare and a dapple grey "Noble Jumper" (Halla mold). The Hartland is the first one I've seen in real life that I know of, and the first I've bought. She's a nice dapple grey, and other than a slightly bent foreleg, there are only a few small rubs. Considering that she was just stuck on a shelf and not in a glass case, she's in lovely shape. The Halla is also grey, Breyer's lovely splatter dapples, but again, in lovely condition. She was in a glass case, and I thought worth the $15 price. Also in the case were two old SMs, missing large amounts of paint, for $5 each, and the stallion from the Classic Andalusian family, for $10 I think.

New Arrivals

Fed Ex delivered a box yesterday that I've been waiting a week for. Okay, not a long wait, but I'm not a patient person sometimes.

I bought a pair of Stone Palouses, two variations of Fiesta, the SR for the El Paso Equine Art show. One is one of 78 done in a satin finish with a blaze. The other is one of only 10 (*) with a matte finish and a star. Technically, she's one of 5, since 5 of the 10 were customized before the show. This one, so far, is my rarest horse, other than one or two customized models.

Garage Sale Finds

I rarely find things at yard sales or flea markets, but I don't get to a lot of those lately, which skews my results. My mom did find these three for me last weekend, though. Just $8 for all three.






All three are Trad-scale or a bit larger. The black is ceramic, I think from one of the paint-your-own-whatsit places. I've got one very similar in another color. The other two I'm not sure about. No identifying marks on them that I've found, although I've seen similar horses at the local hardware store (in the gift section).

New horses

I did some shopping on a road trip Friday, and came home with two of the Treasure Hunt horses for this year. I got very lucky and found the Rose Grey that's so hard to find. I also came home with a second Dun Sabino, because I couldn't remember if the one I already had was metallic and slightly glossy. Which he was, so now I have two. Sigh

I ordered the Pinto and Appy from Cassie, so as soon as they get here (this week) I can send off for my Pegasus. Yay.

Pictures to come.

New horses

I haven't bought a lot lately, but I did pick up these two little guys at Orscheln's last month.



Schleich Percheron stallion



Schleich Przwalski (and I'm sure I mangled the spelling).

I like Schleich horses for the most part. They're not the high-end Breyers and Stones, but you can get most of them for $5 or less, and they're not that bad to look at. (You want horses that make you flinch, go look at the Papo brand of toy horse.) They're made of rubber, so you don't want to leave them somewhere hot. I found that out the hard way - my tolting Icelandic mare is a bit tipsy after she sat on the stereo for a while and one leg warped. Ooops.

Welcome to my other blog

This is the blog where I plan to rattle on about Breyer model horses (and Stones, and Schleich toy horses, and basically any horse shaped object).

More to come!