My Breyer Stablemates: G1 Drafter and another Appaloosa

I really like the Gypsy Vanner and am hoping to get hime.The Clydesdale and the rearing horse are not for me as I'm not keen on the finish.They are also scaled down versions of larger models-the Clydesdale is traditional and the rearing horse is classic.

I like rearing horses but I have no idea about the breeds. Chess piece is not a pejorative comment, anytime a brand releases a horse with that kind of mane it looks like a chess piece for me. The wooden finish also helps. Special editions are made to be special so they have to show anything out of the usual.

Gypsy Vanner is beautiful, with a lovely flowing coat! The rearing horses are nice too, it's clever the way they can be made to balance!

Taylor: It makes sense to wait until the Clydesdale and Fighting Stallion are released in different colours and with a different finish. I got them because I managed to find all anniversary models together for a good deal. Perhaps after paying for postage from the US, the deal wasn’t so good anymore, but I am not going to regret it. I wouldn’t wait buying the Gypsy Vanner for too long, because going by the reactions here, it is a popular model and may sell out soon.

Rogério: Chess piece is a good description.

Lilias: All Breyer’s rearing horses stand up very well. A few of their other horses that don’t stand on 4 legs, such as the Friesian and the Belgian are knocked over more easily so I need to place them strategically to avoid a domino effect.
 
The next one is another rearing horse, the Connemara Mare:
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Or is she not rearing? Perhaps she should be displayed with her left front leg on the ground:
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She looks rather awkward in photos, it’s difficult to do her justice. She looks much better in 3D: just wild, not so awkward. The photos make it difficult to see the depth, and the black colour doesn’t help this.
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I'm pretty sure the connemara is meant to have the front leg touching down, if you look at her hind feet they're sculpted so one is on the toe and the other's resting flat. If you balance her up in a rearing pose, the flat foot has the heel down and the toe lifted, not a way a horse would ever support it's weight.

Hopefully we'll get some of these moulds in new colours as regular run models soon, it's been a while since they released a batch of carded singles instead of blind bags, so I'm hoping 2022 might bring a fresh set, using the good exciting new moulds instead of yet more G2 and G3!

Identify your Breyer also shows the model as it is not rearing.
So you have chess pieces but also domino pieces. I am starting to understand better your collecting project.

Yes, it's all about the playability of the figures .

You are right George, it would be unnatural if the mare put her weight onto her lower leg rather than hoof.

While photos don’t really do justice to the Connemara Mare, they rather flatter the Smart Chic Olena. It isn’t a bad model, but not quite as stunning on my desk as in the photos. I don’t quite know why, perhaps the golden colour isn’t quite so artificial in photos. And perhaps he looks better at eye height than from above on my shelf.
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Smart Chic Olena was a well-known American Quarter horse that was used as a cutting horse, taking part in cattle handling competitions. In contrast to the Breyer anniversary version, the real Olena wasn’t palomino but sorrel.
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Maybe not the golden color but the white parts. Even sclera is not so natural looking, I guess. I think this mold would look nicer with the colors of the real horse.
Though, there is a somewhat femenine design on it that may result appealing. The right side with all those hairy manifestations and a gentle pose.
This horse brings me an English language doubt, this is what I would call a chiseled head, but it seems it means the opposite because Arabians are probably the breed best known for having chiseled heads and they are drastically different. Does it mean it is rich in shape like a baroque sculpt or that it is cut straight like this figure? I'd say the former once Arabian horses don't have straight head profiles at all but I'd love to know.

In real horses, a chiselled head would mean sharp, prominent features, without a soft covering of flesh or plumpness or a fluffy coat to smooth them. Strong nasal bones, sharp cheekbones, slim crisp jawline. An arabian could have a chiselled head, yes, but so could a big hawk-nosed old hunter or unhandsome thoroughbred, or an iberian or barb type.
The quarter horse (and this mould looks very like the real stallion it was sculpted from) has a more rounded head, with plump cheeks and no prominent convex nasal bones in profile - I'd call it more a soft, chunky, wedge-shaped head.

I quite like the mini Smart Chic, and he's a nice addition to the anniversary set, but agree this colour isn't the best on him, it isn't the most realistic way they've depicted a palomino coat and the combination of metallic gold with bare unpainted white does look rather plasticky!

Perhaps feminine looking, but he is definitely male. The eyes are very small and I am quite impressed that Breyer shows a sclera in the eyes of some horses; I don't want to criticise it too much for that.

George wrote:

In real horses, a chiselled head would mean sharp, prominent features, without a soft covering of flesh or plumpness or a fluffy coat to smooth them. Strong nasal bones, sharp cheekbones, slim crisp jawline. An arabian could have a chiselled head, yes, but so could a big hawk-nosed old hunter or unhandsome thoroughbred, or an iberian or barb type.
The quarter horse (and this mould looks very like the real stallion it was sculpted from) has a more rounded head, with plump cheeks and no prominent convex nasal bones in profile - I'd call it more a soft, chunky, wedge-shaped head.

Many thanks, now I understand why it does not correspond to an exact shape, I've read that word in breeds with different heads and I was not really getting it. Now I understand the meaning for sure even if I am not sure I can spot it easily but all makes sense now.

Next, we have the “Indian pony”, or rather it should have been called “Native American pony” as George mentioned in his own additions topic.
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I like it a lot, even though it’s rather large for a pony, as you can see in this comparison with the Thoroughbred model. I thought that ponies weren’t called ponies if they are larger than about 150 cm withers height.
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I like the way it bends forward. The head-on view is particularly pleasing:
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An excellent addition to Breyer’s Stablemates line-up!

That's surely a large one. I really like this model. A long time ago, Portuguese were trying to find the way to India, circumnavigating the entire continent of Africa. Yes, the shortest way was controled by the Turkes. Columbus, a Portuguese from Genova or a Genovese from Portugal convinced sailing west across the Atlantic would be a quicker way to reach Asia, since America was not known yet, Thus, while reaching the Caribe Islands, Colombus was convinced it was India. So, all American natives were called Indians. OK, I know you know it, however, it is quite funny that those horses that were left by the Spanish conquistadors are called Indian ponies just because indigenous people took care of them. I wonder what name we should give to the Indiana state since it means the land of the Indians?
I am kidding.

More wonderful stablemates! That connemara has a really interesting pose and the quarter horse is very lovely (And golden!) too!

Thanks, Lilias!

It's indeed funny that America was mistaken for India and that the name still endures after all those centuries. But as far as I know, Native Americans don't like the name Indian, so I think we should avoid it.
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Now another pony and another good one: The Fell pony, my favourite of the 70^th Anniversary models. A very adorable pony. They could probably have made it even more interesting by using more than a single colour, but it’s beautiful as it is.

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This pony is small. Fell ponies are normally quite large, and this one has the minimum size for a Fell pony in 1/32 scale. But that’s fine, I probably like it better because it is so small. Here is a comparison with the Indian pony; a great pair!
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Sure Roger, I also don't like that they are called Indians but it is for linguistic reasons. Indians are the inhabitants of India so they should find a different name. I think I only remember hearing about Apache and Comanche as a kid, maybe from Western movies, I am not sure but that's not important either. Curiously, the USA governamental autority is called Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Let's look at your Fell Pony and enjoy how beautiful it is. Those are like miniatures of Frisians, it is not hard to immagine it painted in black working like a Frisian at a smaller scale. Now you need a Dales pony.

The fell is one of my favourites from the anniversary set, too, the colour's really glowing and warm without losing the realistic shade. I think yours is a bit lighter than mine, with these paintjobs where the thickness of paint dictates how dark the colour goes, I expect they vary depending on who had the airbrush that day.
I think they're saving plain black, the real fell pony colour, for when they release the first proper single regular run (the ones packaged on a card, not blind bagged)

The Fell is a really lovely model.I have the Indian Pony as well and would agree its a wonderful model.

Wonderful additions, all of them. I really like reading your thoughts on each of them and seeing up close photos of them. Many of the newer ones I have never seen in person, and your thread has sold me on several of the newest molds (though I still haven't found them!).

Congrats on finding those G1 mares, those are three really nice colors for her.

I think the vanner/tinker/cob looks like a carousel horse, a little, with his exuberant posture and flying mane and tucked head. I like it very much, both the little and the big one, but they are both hard to fit on a shelf with their friends.

I also think the fell pony is one of the best of the anniversary set. So small and elegant.

Thank you all again! Glad that my photos help you, Jill.

No Stablemate yesterday, as a storm broke our internet connection. Let’s continue with the final Anniversary model, the Missouri Fox Trotter. I like it: No gold, no glossy finish, no wild pose, no exaggerated size, just a well-sculpted, simply painted horse. Not much else I can add, I’ll let the photos do the talking.
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Very realistic and beautiful! Much more my personal taste than the chess piece. Very delicate legs and it looks like the body is operating, especially visible on first picture that is its best angle, I guess.

Another lovely model, and a welcome addition from Breyer because it brings a whole new breed into the Stablemates range - the first Missouri Fox Trotter, rather than yet another warmblood, Arabian, or stock horse
You got quite a nice one there, good shading and very few speckles on the mane or tail (I've seen some terribly done ones, where the speckling was just all over!)

I also have the native american pony and fell and love the sculpts! I do not have this latest but now I need it. It is beautifully done!

Thanks everyone! Good to know that I have one of the better Fox Trotters. I couldn't see the actual horses when I bought them, so it was just a matter of luck.

Moving on from the 70th Anniversary models, let’s have a look at a few others. First, “Django”, another relatively new model (2016) which is often sold as a Friesian horse and sometimes as a Friesian cross. 
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My own Django was sold as a Friesian in the Horse Crazy Gift Collection Series 2 (2018). It’s atypical bay for a Friesian, though I believe a bay Friesian isn’t entirely impossible. So far, Breyer hasn’t made a completely black Django model yet.
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He looks good, perhaps slightly stilted. Some gold in it, but not too over the top. It’s a very large horse, larger than a Friesian could be (in 1:32 scale). It would need to be a cross with a very large horse breed. Here is a comparison with my other Friesian, which looks more typical for a Friesian (I think), so perhaps Django is indeed a cross:
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My impression is that the sizes of the newer Stablemates are more random than the older ones, which weren’t always right for their breed either, but at least they were more similar to each other in size.