Burghley buys

I've been a fan of eventing for almost as long as I've liked horses, and for the last twenty years or so have been going to watch in person as well as the rare chances we get to see the action on tv. Burghley's one of my favourites, as it's the first horse trials I ever went to (in the days of being allowed to stand in the free end of the grandstand and watch the showjumping for nothing!), and it's a great chance to see the top horses and riders tackling one of the biggest courses in the world. 

And I also love the chance to pick out models in person at trade stands.
For a long while it was the Utterly Horses stand which I looked forward to, then one year it seemed every tack shop going had Breyer horses scattered around the tops of their displays, and you could pick up a bargain the following year when the sales hadn't taken off the way they'd expected and they were trying to get rid of the models cheap!
Now I make a point of visiting Equestrian Bookfair - the owner always has a great range of Breyers, tries his best to have the new releases in time for the big shows and events, and always spares a few minutes for a chat about them - he always knows what's sought after, what's new and exciting, and completely understands how dedicated and addicted us adult collectors can be!

The mid-year releases haven't made it to the UK stockists yet, but this was my first chance to see most of the 2019s, and even some of the 2018s, in person, so I had quite a few to choose from. Here's who I picked...

The Best of British foal set!

I'd added them immediately to my 'Possible buys' list when I first saw the photo, and in person they didn't disappoint. Pairing two in one box is an interesting idea - sometimes they do this with classic foals and I don't always like both the moulds they choose, but here we get one familiar and already-popular mould matched with a great one making it's debut into the regular run range, both in the modern sleek and detailed sculpting style. What's not to like!

Firstly the chestnut, described in the box information as specifically an Irish thoroughbred. Not sure why! A good colour on a really nice mould, athletic and dynamic in pose, and with a pretty face. I've already got the pale bay Heartbreaker and the very dark bay Zenyatta's Colt but this one is easily different enough to be worth wanting as well!

It's my usual habit to try naming models bought at trade stands after real horses competing in the event - sometimes it's the winner, sometimes just another entry which just seems to fit, now and then I adjust the name a bit, and occasionally nothing suits and I give up and pick a different idea entirely! This one's called Spring Power; the real horse Springpower didn't complete the XC phase but I thought the name seemed fitting anyway - foals are born in spring, and it links to Annie Power the great Irish racing mare, also a chestnut.

And here's the second in the set, a handsome dark bay hackney filly with flashy white legs. I've named her Kamira, after the mare Vanir Kamira who did so well round Burghley this year.

The mould is called the Lipizzaner foal - but it doesn't seem to have ever been released in a colour which could be that breed, and nor has the mum it's paired with, even though she's called the Performance Lipizzaner Mare. The only thing I can guess is that the sculptures might've been commissioned as Lipizzaners, but Breyer decided to do more a exciting colour for the Premiere range which gets the new moulds first, and the horses just didn't make it to being plain grey mum and her dark foal yet. I hope they do, eventually, but in the meantime this foal mould makes a brilliant hackney, with that proud upright head carriage and stance, and I could see her working as a saddlebred, a gelderlander, or even an akhal teke for future releases.

After picking up the foal set, and a couple of the grey regular run Icelandic SM for my body box, I had a little rummage in the box of Mystery Horse blind bags, and with a bit of gentle squeezing managed to locate a model that I hadn't got by mail order pot luck yet!

Magnolia was the last one I needed to complete my series 2 set, so I was pretty pleased to feel what I was certain was the right mould in there; I also figured out another mini Alborozo so I can paint an extra custom, and I'd have liked a spare of the mini cob/vanner too, but I felt every bag in the box and there weren't any of those left!

I'll post some photos of the Burghley horse trials on the blog next time, but I'm only halfway through the long long process of identifying the good shots of each horse & rider, cropping and naming and saving them... and then there'll be the even more difficult bit where I have to narrow it down to the very best to share!