Second-hand horses for my herd, two little and one large

These actually arrived some time ago, but I only just realised I hadn't updated the blog to introduce them, and they need to be listed before the more recent ones, so you're getting three posts from me today - oops!

A long time ago, I collected every release on this mould. I didn't really intend to - just like with the G2 Appaloosa and G2 saddlebred, at some point I noticed I had a LOT of them and that made me start looking for the colours I didn't have, and it became one of those 'conga line' moulds where I tried to get as many as I could. One which always eluded me was the bay with diagonally opposite white feet - I had four other solid bays, but not this one! He was part of a limited edition set only sold by JCPenney and only in the USA, so very few made it over here to start with, and I never saw him come up for sale second hand. I stopped doing my conga-lines of every release when Breyer brought in the expensive club specials and more unattainable releases. But when I saw this model which had been on my wishlist for all that time ages ago, I just had to get him after all!

The same seller had this Thoroughbred from the same 2006 special run, and while it's not a mould I ever sought a complete set of, I thought it looked really good in this pretty pale grey colour - unlike a lot of Breyer greys, the paint isn't just speckles and shading over bare plastic, but has a base coat of shaded grey for the body colour too - you can see where the white socks end with a crisp masked line.

The other recent arrival is a much bigger boy - a Traditional scale draft horse!

You might not recognise him at first glance, as in Breyer's catalogue photo he was mostly covered up in unrealistic decorative trappings - here's how he looked in the promo images and in the boxes of models on display.

I don't usually buy the Holiday Horse sets, partly because I don't celebrate any of the holidays they're aimed at, so I don't appreciate the decorations, but mostly because the models inside the costumes are usually given pearly or metallic paintjobs, aimed at making them look prettier and more ornamental when used for their intended purpose. But I only like matte finish models in real-horse colours, so the Holiday special runs are usually something I look at once when the releases are announced, then never think of again!
But every now and then, they do one where the horse is a normal, plain colour, without any fancy paint finishes, and I think 'Oh, I'd have liked that one!'....and STILL don't buy it, cos they're too expensive compared to a normal regular run - I can't justify paying that much extra for the costume and props I'd never use.

So when those real-colour horses come up for sale second hand, at a bargain price - and even better, without all the stuff! - that's when I jump at the change to have them for my collection after all!

Without all the extras, you can see what a handsome mould this really is.
He was sculpted as a Shire, but it would be extraordinarily rare to see any individual of that breed without any white markings - one or mayyyybe two dark legs and some shorter socks, yes, possibly even a star and snip in place of a blaze, but no white at all and that's no purebred Shire horse! So I had to get to work on finding a different breed for him.
A lot of the central-European draft breeds come with little or no white, but most of them are heavier set and lack the leg feathering this sculpt has, so I started to look a bit further afield, and happened across this picture - the North Swedish Draft. Lighter build with longer back? Bay with no white markings? Feathery legs? Long loose undocked tail? He's even got the little pale grey nose! Perfect! This means he's also the first model allocated this breed on my website, which is always fun - I love building up a catalogue of different breeds and types from across the world.

Here's that sweet grey nose again, he has a very kind and happy face. I looked up some names in Swedish and settled on Härskare, which means ruler or monarch, which seemed fitting as he arrived around the time we had the coronation of a new king!

The other side, showing the lovely flowing mane, and also the tiny mark by his shoulder which was why he sold for an affordable price - it's so small it didn't bother me, and this being the 'wrong' side anyway the damage won't show on display - I'll only ever see it when dusting him, and I very rarely get round to that task!

Breyer Stablemates, old and new

A little batch of new OF arrivals in my mini scale herd! 

First off we have the Deluxe Horse Collection set of eight - another from the boxful I ordered earlier in the year before lockdown, I'm really glad I've had this spread-out opening of models as it's made several little parcel days to look forward to, just like a normal year, and the more normality we can try to recreate in such a difficult year, the better!

Let's have a look at the horses...

The good old G2 TB mould; the third time it's been released in chestnut pinto, but the first one of those I've actually ended up owning! I like the contrast of a really bright, vivid colour against plain white, it's a nice design. Breyer call this one a Paint on the packaging, but I'll be going for a partbred sporthorse type to allow for the light build, it just doesn't say stock breed to me. 

This one might be my favourite of the whole set, they've absolutely nailed the shaded, peachy colouring, with subtle grey to the face and a big wide snip marking. I didn't know I needed a palomino

on this mould til I saw it, but such a nice little model. I've named mine Harecroft Summergold. 

I still never know what to do with jumping models in pictures, I don't do performance classes (only Julip ones!) so I don't have any jumps this scale to use, but then you've got the problem that a horse wouldn't be going over a jump with no tack, anyway - even loose schooling they have a bridle or cavesson or headcollar on. So I just use a little chunk of wood as a 'log', or cover the base with some lichen, so there's something under them and they're not just leaping empty air!

Another 'hey wait a minute Breyer, didn't we have this already?' colour/mould combo! There was a regular run in a brighter bay, but also a JCP special run with four socks and a blaze which is pretty much this exact shade. If she'd been a single release I'd probably have skipped buying this one as she's so similar to the one I've got already, but never mind, still a nice model. I've named her Harecroft Adalheida, just picked from a list of popular Belgian human names!

The G2 morgan is a mould which's grown on me gradually, I didn't like them early on but once I'd ended up with a couple I got rather fond of them after all. They hold up well among all the newer moulds, and this colour's very nicely done, using thinner/thicker application of paint to give the sandy golden dun some depth, and a sort of deliberate overspray from the mane to shade the neck and shoulders a little bit sooty. He's called Harecroft Tiger Moth.

I still think of this mould as 'Driving', after those original World Equestrian Games tie-in releases, but I think it's known as the Trotting Warmblood now. It definitely looks like the heavier kind of warmblood, with those chunky legs, so the name makes sense. Much more sense than the packaging calling this one a thoroughbred! The colour's nice, better in-hand than in the promo photos I think. I've named her Thunder Moon, the name for the full moon in the month I unwrapped her, and also appropriate because there was a huge thunderstorm the day I took her photo.

Here's my first in the Mirado mould, and I like it more in person than in pictures. I think the head's much better than the pictures of the very first Mirado release made it look, with his white blaze hiding a chunk of his face against the plain background. The mould does seem a little bit lightweight, though, not deep through the chest and neck like you'd expect for an Iberian type, it seems to be more legs than anything else!

The other side, just cos it's a new mould to me and might be for any regular run buyers reading this, too. I've named him Coronel AR, because I'm showing mine as an Alter Real - the Portuguese strains of Iberian horse can tend to being a little lighter and leggier than the Andalusian.

Another new mould to me, this is Darley. A really detailed mould, more finely built and with a neat, sharp sculpting style, brought out nicely by the rich, dark paintjob. Here's the other side...

He's sculpted as such a very American type of arab, elongated and snakey with a high snappy action rather than the short, deep, rounded arabian of the original desert (and Polish and British) type. In fact, yet again, I'm going to be having mine as a different breed - I just can't see this as the type of arab we have outside the States, so I'll be showing him, and all my subsequent Darleys, as National Show Horses instead. The NSH is a mixture of arabian and saddlebred blood, in varying proportions, so some favour the arabian side while others look more saddlebred; I think this breed allows for the conformation and pose of the Darley mould quite nicely!

The last in the Deluxe set, the little black lipizzaner. My first time seeing this mould in person, and it's much less chunky and ponylike than it looked as Darwin, the first release - it's amazing what a change of colour can do! I love the pose; the controlled, balanced levade manouver so different to the fast, flaily rear a horse will do when misbehaving or playing, and you can see that in the way he's standing steady and strong with his weight held in balance.

I don't know why Breyer picked the very rare black lipizzaner instead of the white-grey they're known for - perhaps they're hanging on to release a grey one as the first single regular run, rather than using it up in a set. I've named him Siglavy Toscana, just because all my grey lipizzaner models are named for the Neapolitano line, and I thought he was the ideal chance to pick another name for a change!

And what about the 'old' in the title? I had a little ebay bid on a lot of three second hand G3 warmbloods.

This one I've named Artemis, and I'd wanted to find her for a few years now - there were mystery foal sets released during the year my old job was coming to an end, and I had to stop spending because I didn't know how quickly I'd find a new place to work. I did manage to pick up one of them the following year on a trade stand, but never saw the set containing this lovely roan, so I thought I'd missed her. She's why I put the bid on in the first place, and I'm really glad to have her at long last.

And this one I've named Dazzling, a JCP Parade of Breeds special run. I didn't spend a long time coveting her because I didn't actually know she existed (I don't keep up with what JCP are selling, we don't have that shop over here), but as soon as I saw her, I knew I'd like having her in my herd - what a lovely colour!

And this is the third horse in the lot, which I thought would be a duplicate and end up in my body box. But when I compared her to the one I'd already got, she's not quite the same!

Well ok, they do kind of look the same, but to obsessive OF collectors, there's a definite difference - the body colour is paler and a bit less speckled, the mane and tail have a lot more highlight and less red, and the face markings are distinctly different, too. This chestnut roan was sold as both a horse and rider set (which I bought), and also in the Show Stoppers 4-piece set, which it's possible the new horse may have come from.

Here's one showing the blaze is much wider on the left-hand horse, including a lot more of the muzzle and not narrowing in the middle at all. 

And the same on the off side, my first horse having a white face (I've checked out several of them on Google images, most have this jagged, chunky blaze), while the second sports a stripe and pink chin.

I know SMs can vary from horse to horse as the masking is so small and easy to put on a bit wonky, and each person on the production line might handle the painting a little differently, but this is more than the usual expected variation, and makes it worth keeping both models - my original one was named Sergeant Pepper, so I've called the new not-quite-identical twin sister Red Pepper.