Collection Review: Schleich Arabians

Figure Brand: Schleich

Figure Name(s): Arabian Stallion (13907)
Arabian mare (13908)

Sex: Both Male and Female

Name:  Arabian Stallion - Apollo- Greek- ‘Manly Beauty’
Arabian mare – Rashida - Arabic- ‘Righteous one’

Year Made: Arabian Stallion – 2020???
Arabian mare - 2020

Observations/Thoughts:
With these two Arabian horses, I decided to review them side by side. They sadly both seem to suffer from the trait a year of two ago that was very evident in Schleich sculpts- the male having a very powerful, dynamic interesting pose, while the female is neutral, static and made to look gentle and ‘pretty’ which is very annoying.
The Arabians don’t suffer from it too bad, but definitely Apollo’s pose is full of movement while the mare Rashida seems far more neutral and even…simpering? Hard to describe it…

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Apollo is in a nice pose, it makes him look so proud and light-footed, with his tail upwards and his foreleg is lifted high, giving the impression that he’s prancing. I do like how proud and beautiful he looks, especially his long flowing tail, it’s lifted up in a curve and trails after him, very well detailed as his mane is.
Overall colour is mid to dark brown with two white socks on his forelegs, a slight stripe on his nose and a much darker mane. Very slender sort of pose. I called him Apollo after the Greek god, as the name means manly beauty, I think it is the epitome of everything this stallion is.

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Rashida however, in a much more static or even boring pose. It could be deemed as more feminine and refined but for horses in real life this shouldn’t be the case. Schleich have been making their mares more ‘pretty’ and even simpering- again, not sure if that word makes sense here. Not that these Arabians here are the models most guilty of it, but there is a definite difference in how the stallion looks and how the mare does.
Rashida’s pose is far more genteel, not a galloping pose but a mere sauntering one, appearing as though she is walking or being lead somewhere. Her overall colour is a lovely light silvery grey with a gradient to black on her nose and legs and a gradient to cream particularly on the end of her tail. I do like her overall body colour, it’s soft and very pretty, however I’m not sure about the half dark, half cream tail or for that matter, the braids in her mane. Sometimes I do find the braids ok, and even some of the flowers fine but…I’m not sure in this scenario?
She stands with all four feet on the ground, one foreleg slightly outstretched, the back leg stretched outwards, her head is down making her appear as she is walking along mid-step. Not much else to say about her apart from the fact I do like her colour but…that might be it? Or all I do like about her? I named her Rashida, as according to my findings, it’s an Arabic name meaning ‘The Righteous One.’ As I believe being such a beautiful breed of horse, Rashida is still noble and deserves better and deserves to be possibly re-sculpted by Schleich?

Rating: Arabian Stallion – 4/5
Arabian mare- 3/5

Horses!

I already have the stallion in my collection and I do quite like his mould. He has just a very gentle and sweet look to him and I love his shade of brown (even though his coat colour is not the most realistic one). The thing that bothers me the most are his leg markings. The hooves aren't coloured right there but I love his stripe and the red suits him so well. Mine is called Arthur because I thought that a noble name would suit him. I've saved the name Apollo for another horse.

And the mare... well I don't really like this mould. I've nicknamed her "Sleeping Beauty" because she looks like she will fall asleep any moment. Her colouring doesn't convince me at all. I know that they tried an Ombre effect on her tail but that didn't work out too well. To me the best Arabian mare Schleich made is still the one from 2014.
The new one from 2024 doesn't convince me either but the stallion looks kind of cool.

I can definitely see what you mean with the gender specific poses though we have some exceptions also in the newer generations. For example the 2022 Oldenburger mare has a quite powerful pose just as the 2024 Fjord mare while the gelding has a rather static (and not really interesting) position. So there is somewhat of an improvement in this direction.

I think your right Katy, I love the fact you call her sleeping beauty because she is such a motionless sculpting! I do think there's an improvement in the models alright, but back 2-3yeaes ago, god the mares were so terrible and dull in comparison to the stallions