My Breyer Stablemates: G1 Drafter and another Appaloosa

Very beautiful in this color.

Superb addition!!

Thanks, everyone! I should have said that Breyer sold this light grey horse as a Shire rather than a Clydesdale (though the mould is called a Clydesdale).

George wrote:

He's really nice, that colour is so soft and subtle with just enough shading to not look plain.
I've had this grey several times but never good enough to keep, they've always been in 'body' lots with scratches, pen stains, or coloured paint marks from being jumbled up with other toys, so I've had to repaint them rather than add them to my collection. One day, I'll get one as clean and tidy as your lovely example!

I had to clean this one to make it look so good. It had quite a few marks, but no damage.

Jill wrote:

I really like this mold, it has a special memory for me of the transition between the G1 stablemates and the first time new stablemates had ever been made. I got the JAH special box set and it was the first time I had seen any of the molds, and this one in particular was so full of movement, which was especially unusual for draft molds at the time. Now of course Breyer has many lively and dynamic models, but I just remember thinking, what a difference!! when I saw this one specifically. The G2 I still like almost as much as G1. This color is very nice! But I think I like your bay and dun even more. A beautiful little conga. :)

I also have a preference for bay and dun. In fact, the white horse seems to have yellowed a bit, but that's OK, it probably makes the colour more realistic!

Wonderful new addition and looks lovely as a group! I love their prancing energetic poses, as though they are dancing!

rogerpgvg wrote:

I also have a preference for bay and dun. In fact, the white horse seems to have yellowed a bit, but that's OK, it probably makes the colour more realistic!

I have heard that setting a white/light gray model in sunlight for a while can reduce the yellowing of the plastic. Maybe you can try that!

How do Breyers yellow? I thought it had yellowed from the sun. The yellow is subtle, I don't mind it at all.

From what I've read, it's not sunlight that causes it - it's either a reaction of the plastic over time (unavoidable), or something like cigarette smoke, wood burning stoves, etc. UV light can help brighten the plastic back in many cases, but sunlight doesn't cause it and neither does lack of sunlight. The model has to be exposed to UV, though, and not just light - if your windows block UV, setting them in the filtered light won't do much.

Direct sunlight overtime can fade other colors, though, too just like it does yellow - so always recommended to keep any model you DON'T want to lighten out of UV light!

Thanks for the explanation, good to know that sunlight doesn't do them any harm.

As I mentioned in the Ertl section, I recently got a bunch of animal figures from the US thanks to a very helpful Brett. I was mainly after Ertls because they are almost impossible to find in the UK, but I couldn’t resist to buy some Stablemates too.

One box I got was this “Dreamer” box:
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I haven’t seen the film, but Wikipedia tells me that the 2005 film “Dreamer” is about a thoroughbred horse named Soñador (or Sonya). I think the chestnut horse is meant to be Sonya.
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I wasn’t sure whether I should buy these in the US because I might find them in the UK at some point and postage from the US is so expensive. But I am very pleased I have them now: The jockeys make them more interesting than just two more horses.
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And another box. I am beginning to understand why George puts them behind his sofa. They occupy a lot of space; our sofa won’t be large enough.
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Let’s have a look at the contents of this Mystery Foal Surprise box made between 2018 and 2020:
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I mainly bought it for the “Running mare” because I didn’t have one yet and as you know, I am fond of running animals. Although she was first produced in 2002 in porcelain, it wasn’t until 2016 that she first appeared in plastic, so it is still a fairly rare sculpt.
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The mare looks quite young to me, but clearly old enough to have a foal:
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I like the foal too. It wasn’t really a mystery foal for me because you can find on “Identify your Breyer” which foal is included.

The Andalusian stallion is very beautiful too. It’s a great sculpt and I love the buckskin colour.
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A lovely family:
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I understood your youth gave you a preference for running horses. They're exciting, you can pretend your playing a horse race and they help your immagination to fly.
Though, despite the completely classic look, the Andalusian is really beautiful. The long mane, the graceful pose and beautiful color helps to turn these horses as one of the most beautiful in the world.

Congrats

Wonderful additions,congrats!!!

Very nice, the Andalusian is a great looking model.

The Andalusian stallion is wonderful! Really realistic and with an interesting pose too! I love the blended quality to the colours as well, it brings the model to life even more!

Thanks everyone! Of course, the Andalusian is the star. But I didn't have the running mare yet and it was a great excuse to get another Andalusian.

rogerpgvg wrote:

I wasn’t sure whether I should buy these in the US because I might find them in the UK at some point and postage from the US is so expensive.

I'd say you made exactly the right choice there - this set wasn't ever a standard item for the UK distributor, so our stockists didn't get them imported. Because they weren't sold here, I've never seen any for sale on the second hand market in all the years since, either - not the full boxed set, or the individual horses, not even scattered into bundles or lots.
It's odd, cos other film tie-in models were included as the main range (Hidalgo, Spirit, most of the Flicka stuff, Seabiscuit too), perhaps the Dreamer film wasn't widely shown or promoted over here so they predicted less demand for the models?

The foal sets are always fun, I enjoy them even though I don't think they always pick a very well-matching baby for the adults (like the long-legged TB-looking foal which two draft breeds produced!), and some of the breed combinations are a bit weird (can't be many Icelandics crossed with Appaloosas in real life), and occasionally they make mistakes by having two mares manage to procreate, or there is a male but he's a gelding so shouldn't really be a father

Thanks, good to know that the Dreamer set wasn't standardly sold here, now I am even happier that I got it.

Three horses that I bought individually. First, an Icelandic horse:
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Another sculpt I didn’t have yet. I was particularly keen to get this buckskin version from last year’s Blind Bags and was hoping I would find it in the UK, but I waited and waited and never found it, so I bought it in the US.
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Great colour and sculpt. Icelandic horses are actually ponies but this one is rather large for a pony. I suppose I could use it as a horse breed, but which one? Its pose is quite similar to the Friesian, but it doesn’t have the right colour to be a Friesian.
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I didn’t have the “Drafter” sculpt either so I bought that one too.
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I am a bit disappointed with the colour. It looked great in the seller’s photos, but it has a silvery gloss that I am not so keen on. It’s from last year’s “Horse Crazy Surprise”, which was only sold in Canada I think, so perhaps at least it is a little bit special. He doesn’t look too bad, just not as good as I expected.
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Here with my other Stablemate heavy horses:
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The last one is a very common sculpt in my collection, another Thoroughbred. It is “Gale”, part of a Breyerfest 2020 special run set.
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It’s a bit silvery too, but in this case I like it because the silver is on the tail and mane. The Breyerfest models aren’t always better. Often they are too glossy, but some are done very nicely. I really like this one and I was keen to get it even though I already have so many Thoroughbreds.
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Ooh, I love the drafter, funny that you're less keen on the colour when I'm usually the one who grumbles about too much shine, but I think in this case it works for lightening the colour to get that roaned affect without speckling.

The Icelandic is one I've been hoping for too, I've even considered doing an order of blind bags on the off chance of getting him, but as well as the risk of spending quite a bit of money and still not ending up with one, I suspect those have been felt through and the 'good' moulds fished out already

I think the size is ok for his real breed, Icelandics are technically ponies by height but they're not tiny petite little things, they're large and strong enough to be treated and ridden as horses, suitable for fully grown adults (including tall and average-build men, not just light teens or short women), rather than being 'for children' like so many people think of ponies over here.

You've also got the issue of the gait, it's a tölt not a trot, and no other breed does that. Look back at your picture with the Friesian : you can see the front legs are the same way round with the leg furthest from the camera raised, but the back legs are the opposite, the hind leg nearest the camera is stretched back for the Icelandic's pose, while it's moving forward for the Friesian's.

I'm not sure Susanne will be happy reading that Icelandic horses are ponies. They're just pony-sized horses. Honestly, it doesn't bother me at all, I don't even mind about the fact they turned Pluto into a dwarf planet. Those are just ways to categorize things, animals, etc.
I like the Icelandic horse, it could surely among my first choices if I was collecting this kind of figures.

Apparently, there is no word for pony in Icelandic, so no wonder that they don't call them ponies . But I am happy to call them horses, we know what they look like anyway.

If his gait is unique, then that means Breyer won't be able to use the sculpt for any other breed, although I am sure they will.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Apparently, there is no word for pony in Icelandic, so no wonder that they don't call them ponies . But I am happy to call them horses, we know what they look like anyway.

If his gait is unique, then that means Breyer won't be able to use the sculpt for any other breed, although I am sure they will.

Maybe the word pony is dispensable. It derives from a French word which means foal or immature horse what is by nature already wrong. Also, when we describe shortly what is a pony, we all tell it is a small horse. Though, you never describe a horse as a large pony. Icelandic seems to use the same word for both or more accurately, they just don't use the pony definition.
Even the use of the height of the animal to determine if it is a pony is a collapsible concept. Falabellas are much smaller than average ponies and it is not a pony but a miniature horse instead.

Very nice additions, I almost bought that Icelandic horse today when I was at the feed store getting supplies for my Guinea Pigs

Roger wrote:

Even the use of the height of the animal to determine if it is a pony is a collapsible concept.

A curiously literal version of this : sometimes, there'll be a reason somebody wants their equine to measure as a pony, not a horse. Maybe for fitting the breed standard to register and show, or maybe for ridden competition, where it's not allowed to be above a certain height for a certain class.
Often, one which is just on the borderline can be tweaked 'smaller' by having it's official measurement done without shoes and right after a trim - you can get up to an inch off if you take the thickness of a shoe added to the amount which is cut each time.
But sometimes, even that's not enough, and in those cases I've heard tell of the pony being trained to lower it's own height a little more by standing in a stretched pose.

And when the horse has to be measured bigger, it's done when the feet are grown long and due a trim, with the shoes left on, and that can gain it an inch and a half

Not quite relevant, but I learnt to ride at a place with a very unofficial definition of a horse and a pony - 'horses' were the ones older teens and adults rode, 'ponies' were the ones for children. But many of the ones we referred to as horses were actually pony height - what made them for grown-ups only wasn't strictly measurement-based, but their attitude. One of 13.3hh was most definitely for experienced, brave adult riders, cos she was so feisty and hard to manage, so we counted her as a horse, and she was boss of their turnout field with all her bigger friends. Yet there was another 13.3hh which you could put a beginner 10-year-old on and know she'd be gentle and steady, and she lived with the ponies.

This definition has kind of carried on, I currently have a 13.3hh I used to ride which I call my horse, and a 10hh companion shetland which I call my pony. They're clearly both ponies, but it's easy to tell them apart in conversation by letting the bigger one be the horse, rather than saying 'the taller of the ponies' or 'the new forest cross welsh' every time