Collection Review: Schleich Horses

Figure Brand: Schleich
Figure Name(s): Knabstrupper Mare (13910)
        Knabstrupper Stallion (13889)
        Noriker Stallion (13958)

Sex: Two males(Knabstrupper&Noriker) and One female (Knabstrupper)

Name: Knabstrupper Mare- Brecca (Speckled- Irish)
  Knabstrupper Stallion- Darra- Irish dark oak/oak tree
  Noriker Stallion- Brannoch- Irish- Descendant of Briton/Raven’s Hill

Year Made: Knabstrupper Mare- 2020
        Knabstrupper Stallion - 2019
        Noriker Stallion- ???

Observations/Thoughts: A selection of ok to nice enough horses from Schleich this time. I feel this period was some kind of weird slump for Schleich’s horse models. Don’t get me wrong, I do still like these Schleich models, except for what they are, I feel Schleich could have improved the models a lot, especially that Knabstrupper mare.

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Brecca is my least favourite of the bunch really. Or, my least favourite horse model in my collection. I hate being unfair to her but I dunno…I find her a little dull and uninteresting? She’s in a very generic standing pose, with no foot raised forward, not really a flowing mane and tail and no real movement to her. Her coat pattern is also very…sparing in speckles? I found that Knabstruppers to be very differing in their coat patterns, with either heavy speckling to very sparing, but despite this, I do think they could have done her coat better, with more interesting details. They could have also done something different with her pose, maybe a lying down horse even?

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Darra the Knabstrupper Stallion however seems to be a bit of an improvement. He’s got a slightly more stylised, moving pose, with a raised tail and his front leg placed so far forward the model looks like it will tip over at any moment, yet his doesn’t. There’s a gradience on his mane and tail, though most of his tail is white apart from the tip which is brown. His nose, legs and cheeks are also made to have a slight brown blush and his coat does have more spots and brown gradience to it which is an improvement on the mare, though I’m not sure about him either. Nice coat pattern, better pose but…

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Brannoch the Noriker Stallion is a chunky little horse with a really sweet and soft looking face, he already looks so gentle and kind. He’s got a long mane, an all-black body with no gradience apart from two white socks on his hind legs. Those are an interesting little detail, apart from that there’s nothing really else to be said about his coat pattern, it’s nice to have a mostly black horse alright. He’s got a heavyset, stocky body, and a thickset sort of face/head/neck, though the nice gentle face really adds a nice contrast to that.  

Rating: Brecca the Knabstrupper Mare 2/5
   Darra the Knabstrupper Stallion 3/5
   Brannoch the Noriker Stallion 3/5

I see two of my nearly favourite horses!

Which is definitely not the Knabstrupper mare. I totally can agree with you on her. It's her face that bothers me the most. Otherwise she is actually relatively fine. My favourite part of her is her tail. The sculpter did a good job on it, it has a relatively unique position. But it's the face that I pay attention to the most, not the tail so she won't join my collection.
The Knabstrupper stallion on the other hand is on top of my wishlist! I honestly don't know why I like him so much, he looks just so cute and probably reminds of one of my stories's character. His colouring is not the best but it's just the overall look that catches me. Darra is a nice name by the way.
And the Noriker... When I saw the first product pictures I was a little bit on the fence about him but when I saw him in person I totally fell in love with him. He is so big and chunky and his mane is simply a dream. My favourite coat colour is actually black so I was quite pleased with that either. The only thing that bothers me quite a bit are his leg markings or more the hoof colour under them. When a horse has leg markings the hooves will be cream/light coloured there, while hooves on legs without leg markings will stay grey/dark coloured. And the most interesting part is that Schleich did it actually right on most of their horses this year! Only the Noriker stallion and the Peruvian Paso mare got wrong hoof colouring on two legs. I don't get the logic...
So yeah, despite this issue this boy is definitely on my wishlist.
So I guess Bran means raven in Irish? The name suits the model really well. He came out this year by the way.

Yes Katy, I don't think anyone likes that Knabstrupper mare, but I try to be kind to her. She DOES have a strange face alright. And yes, Brannoch means 'Raven's Hill' and I adore his really sweet face- it's so chunky too! ^^