Decreasing the herd

 Overall, the herd grows instead of shrinks, but I'm not completely a "black hole" collector.  I've got two Stablemates Club memberships, thanks to the gambler's choice horses and variations, so that produces a few duplicates a year that need to move along.  During Covid lockdowns, I started on the enormous project of inventorying and tagging all the horses, beginning with the Stablemates.  That created a lot of surplus, thanks to Breyer's blind bags and the constant search for the chase horses.  A lot of those got sold at flea markets or in groups to repainters.  Or repainted myself (well, primed, at least. so far.) 

But for the last few years, I've been sharing a rental space at a local antique mall with a couple of hobby friends, and sending some surplus out there.  Some Schleich horses, ceramic animals of all kinds - usually the product of box lots at the auction - and some Breyers.  This week, I sent a few more out.  A duplicate Abdullah from the auction (he came with a dapple gray PAS).  A Hartland Angus bull from a box lot - I kept the cow and the other bull.  The dapple gray Totilas from Breyerfest 2025 - was hoping for the decorator, and the fish-scale dapples are just not my thing.  The chestnut Emerson from BFest 2024 - again, bought in hopes of the green decorator, but I got the bay pinto and chestnut pinto.  

Next up will probably be the Yellow Mount signature horse from Breyerfest, which I got in a grab bag.  Possibly Griffin, the much-too-orange Cleveland Bay web special.  He's the only braided-mane CB I have right now, unless I kept the CB BFest surprise gray, but I think I'd rather get the braided bay Journeyman instead.  And it's time for another culling of the Stablemates collection, specifically the more unstable ones that will not stand up even with the help of sticky wax.  

For funsies, a photo of the new Our First Pony gift set I picked up at the auction last week.  Still has the cardboard gift box, and Midge's halter.  I can't remember if I already have the set, and the inventory spreadsheet isn't helping, so for $30 I bought it anyway.  

 

 

New horses for the herd

 In spite of my attempts at self-control, I've added some more horses lately. 

 Thanks to the consignment auction, I've added a bunch of nice vintage Breyers: 

• the Clydesdale Mare & Foal gift set, with box and blankets
• the Our First Pony gift set, with cardboard box and halter for Midge
• another dapple-gray Proud Arabian Stallion
• Abdullah on the Trakener mold (my second Abdullah)
• bay G1 Morgan Stallion
• bay G1 Arabian mare 
• a handful of rider dolls (four, I think) and assorted tack
• and a red Dala horse made in Sweden 

Then, this week, one of the thrift stores posted some pictures on facebook, and I spotted a pair of Cheval ponies on a shelf.  Got up the next morning and was waiting (with 25 other people) when they opened.  Turns out there were seven Cheval ponies total, all the comical spaghetti-mane Shetlands.  Only $10 each, so I bought them all.  They're in pretty good condition, one has a repaired leg and an ear chip, and there's some crazing here and there, but they're so cute. 

 

 

El Dorado is here

 My luck continues -  El Dorado is the newest addition to the Blue Horse herd. 

 

 Not the best picture, but I can't get to the big light box, and he won't fit the small one. 

Vintage Club horse!

 Breyer just sent out emails for the latest Vintage Club horse.  El Dorado, the Semi-Rearing Mustang in either blue or gold, with the Appaloosa Performance Horse pattern.  If I get the blue one, I'll already have a sort-of mini-me, with the Wedgewood & Copenhagen SM Mustangs from last year's Premiere Collectors Club. 

 

 

 

More photos

 Playing around with the small light box, and unboxing some SMs.  The SM displays are in dire need of rearranging, because I've got a literal pile of SMs on the desk. 

 

 

Fjord fascination

 I made an addition to the resin herd recently.  Happened to see a Facebook post with some horses for sale, including this small cute Fjord, an Animal Artistry resin.  I'd seen one in a room post from Breyerfest, but of course wasn't there to buy it. 

 

 

This one is the reason I made the smaller light box, which will fit on top of the printer, since I don't (at the moment) have table space free for the big light box.   

Hartland Tinymites

 I had a little Marketplace luck and bought a box of small toy horses for $10.  Mostly because I noticed some Hartland Tinymites in the picture.  Also got two tiny copies of the HR Swaps.  Playing with the little lightbox and took some pictures, but only one Tinymite so far.  

 

Behold: the Tinymite drafter in brown plastic. 

 

 

The light box project

 At one of the recent online BreyerFests, there was an online workshop on making your own lightbox for photography.  Fairly low budget - you need a cardboard box, some parchment or tracing paper, and posterboard or something for a background.  And tape.I made a fairly large one, but thought a small one for Stablemates and similar things would be useful too. So, off I went. 

 

I made some upgrades yesterday - the edges got extra layers of cardboard for reinforcements.  Today I cut the posterboard for the floor and back.  Turned out pretty good.  The lighting is a work in progress.  Right now I've got an Ott-lite on one side and a small lamp on the other side, and a reading light that you wear around your neck for a moveable light.  I think the workshop version had an open top, but I did a window top for more stability.  I need to find the tracing paper, though.  Parchment paper was barely large enough, and the tape doesn't like to grip the parchment paper very well. 

 

But it does a pretty good job so far.  

 

Comings and goings

 A new animal in the herd - no picture yet.  The consignment auction had a few Breyers - Xena's Argo, the vintage buffalo, and the white Tatanka buffalo.  I won the bidding on the vintage fellow for $35 with fees.  He's missing a horn tip, but that's fine. 

Sent two horses out to Midway for the sale case.  One is the palomino FAM that came in the lot last spring with the chalky PAS and Clydesdale mare.  I've got at least three other palomino FAMs, so this one's going out at the body price of $10, since she's well-loved.  The other is one of the pair of Belgian Wixoms that I got from Amazon about 20 years ago.  They had some Breyers at amazing prices for some reason that I can't recall - clear-out prices for stock from a brick & mortar store they bought, I think.  Anyway, they had the Belgians for $10 each, so I got two.  Not sure why.  Wixom is a big solid mold.  So, I picked the one I liked best, and the other is going out to Midway. 

And the sorting and tagging project continues. 

I found a PDF book for Libre Office's database program.  500+ pages, yikes.  It's been a long time since I worked with any kind of database, but I'd like to be able to search my collection and see, for example, how many Fjords I have, or models sculpted by a certain person.  Chalkies, shrinkies, glossies, customs, etc.  So I'll have to see if I can put this on one of the Kindles, or an iPad, and start reading.  

New horses - Vintage Club Echo & Sentinel

 The first horse of the Vintage Club is here.  Well, horses plural.  We got a stallion & foal set this year, with a split of the foal - Running Foal or Scratching Foal, with the Running Stallion.  Breyer tried out the blue roan version of the old-style red roan, and it looks pretty good.  

 

The look has been compared to monochrome - they do look very black-and-white - and Oreo cookies in milk. 

 

The first Breyerfest post of the year

 Breyer has released most of the SRs and LEs for this year's Breyerfest.  And this year, the two SRs at the top of my list are both in-person only - the red deer (Elk mold) and mule (Winnifred mold).  

 So, I've looked at past prices, added a bit for inflation, and getting Chelsea's Model Horses to pick them up for me will only cost me about $20 extra per horse. That's an estimate, since Breyer hasn't released prices yet.  But, a $115 ticket is approximately $60 per horse.  Last year the SRs ranged from $75 to $90 I believe.  So, go on the high end just for safety, and that's $150 per horse.  Pickup pre-orders are $170 each.  I'm okay with that.  

 Still gonna get my online ticket, though.  Gotta do the workshops and buy LEs and such.  And yeah, there's the second-chance sale with leftover SRs, but the non-horse molds usually sell out, and the mule is a new mold so people may want them to repaint.