My Breyer Stablemates: G1 Drafter and another Appaloosa

Thank you so much Bonnie!

Thanks for the explanation about dun, Susanne. I'd say that the standardbred is indeed a dun then. Not entirely sure about the foal, perhaps I should wait and see what his coat looks like this summer. Can a grullo stallion and bay mare make a dun foal?

Your Breyer collection is fantastic, Taylor. Thank you for the photos, they are very useful. They all look great, I particularly like the rivet, Andalusian horse and lying foal. I should try to find some heavy horses as well. The only one I think is quite odd is the Shetland pony. It is very large and its mane is rather over the top.

No problem,happy to help!Yes,the Shetland is a bit of and oddity!The is also a Highland Pony but I forgot to include this!

The older Breyer models that I bought ages ago still haven’t arrived, as the seller sent them to the wrong address! Fortunately, they came back to the seller, and she has sent them again, so hopefully I’ll get them in the end.

In the meantime, I bought two other models, the Andalusian stallion (sculpt 2015) and the Rivet (2013) from the 2018 Mystery Horse Surprise.
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The Andalusian stallion has the most detailed and realistic face of all my Breyers. Also, most Stablemates have what Rogério would call defensive ears, whereas the Andalusian’s ears clearly protrude:
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It’s a beautiful model and best seen from his left side:
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He has very long hair on his right side:
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The colour is appropriate, as most Andalusian horses are grey. A bit strange to zoom in on this, but the plastic around its tail is a bit rough, which is uncommon for a Breyer. I don’t think it is just this particular horse, as I’ve seen photos of others that look the same. Anyway, a small detail on what is a very beautiful model.
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The Rivet has a very aggressive sculpt, like an attacking bull:
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It doesn’t have an official mould name, so it isn’t entirely clear what breed it is supposed to be, but for a while, a red roan version was sold as a mustang. But it’s a large horse and mustangs are usually not so large. It may be better as a model of a different kind of horse.
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Andalusians are among the most beautiful horses of the world and this piece is phenomenal in my opinion. The long hair is also a common feature with this breed.
Your giant Mustang, is an American Quarter Horse, I am almost sure... the mould.

Ah, yes, for a quarter horse the size would be more appropriate.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Here is the foal, the cantering foal (sculpt from 2010).

Grullo + bay = ?.....

black+dun = grullo ( Americas) or blue dun ( British)
Bay + dun = yellow dun

As a bay is a black with one or two A-genes, a grullo can not be bay

But the foal in the picture is a nice, normal bay

I have 2 colour versions of this model including the red roan one.The only thing I would say about the model is that if you look closely at the legs they having some feathering and Quarter horses have what are known as clean legs-ie no feathering.Mustangs because of their ancestry can vary in their appearance but as you say Rogerpgvg they are usually quite small but again Breyer uses poetic licence with a lot of their models!

SUSANNE wrote:

rogerpgvg wrote:

Grullo + bay = ?.....

black+dun = grullo ( Americas) or blue dun ( British)
Bay + dun = yellow dun

As a bay is a black with one or two A-genes, a grullo can not be bay

But the foal in the picture is a nice, normal bay

A grullo cannot be bay, but can a grullo stallion and bay mare produce a bay foal ? Who'd have thought that horses can be so complicated?

Taos wrote:

if you look closely at the legs they having some feathering

Yes, that's right, I noticed it. Who'd have thought that horses can have feathers?

I am rather ignorant about horses, so it may surprise you that I once co-owned a horse. Well, a pony. Many years ago, when I was a child, my brother and I had a brown and white pinto pony. We were meant to use him for riding, but he was so huge that we were rather scared of him.

Finally, after travelling around the country for one month, they have arrived! Six new Breyers. To stretch out the fun, I’ll show them in pairs in separate posts.

So far, all my Breyers have been from newer moulds (post 1998). The older sculpts, called “G1” and introduced in 1975, don’t seem to be quite as vibrant or exciting, but when I checked them out on “Identify your Breyer”, my eyes fell on a particular model, “Seabiscuit”, another running horse. And almost immediately, I found two on Ebay. Here they are:
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I was particularly keen to get the bay version:
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The mould is from 1975, but this particular colour version was produced in 1996. It’s probably my rarest Breyer, as only about 7500 were made (but I don’t know how many are normally produced in regular production runs).

“Seabiscuit” is named after a thoroughbred racehorse that was very successful in the 1930s. It’s worth reading about it on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabiscuit), because he has an interesting story. Seabiscuit initially wasn’t a successful horse; he was considered lazy and would often come last in races. Only after changing training methods, he gradually became very successful. He had its fair share of back luck too, with frequent collisions with other horses and injury. Original footage of one of his most famous races can be seen here:


The name Seabiscuit (a cracker eaten by sailors) comes from his father who was named Hardtack (synonym for the same cracker), whose name was related to his father's “Man o’War" (a type of warship).

The real Seabiscuit was light bay, and it looks like he had a dark mane and tail in (black and white) photos, so he may have looked somewhat similar to this model. He was quite a small horse though (154 cm shoulder height); the Breyer model has a hip height of 5.1/163 cm (I find it difficult to say where a horse’s shoulder is in models). In contrast to the newer Stablemates, this model is painted matt.

The other Seabiscuit model is red chestnut. He is slightly shinier, and despite complaining that Breyers are a bit too shiny, I now actually think that this makes him look better. This specific colour version is the oldest Breyer I currently have; it was produced in 1994 and 1995.
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I bought this set of horses almost blind because the seller photos were very dark, so I am happy that they are all in a good condition for their age, this one in particular. He has a few warts:
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Here they are with my other running horses. The Seabiscuits have a heavier build than both the Thoroughbred and the Standardbred.
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Ok NOW I am a little jealous. Stunning old stablemates and new also! Seabiscuit was such an amazing horse and this little model makes him very special to me. Congrats on him especially!

The paint in question, I would argue that it is an American Mustang. As Taylor pointed out, the feathering for me is a dead giveaway. Many of the wild western horses have this feature and it is usually paired with larger body size hinting that some draft horse genes snuck in at some populations. Google "Picasso wild horse" sometime as he would be a good comparison for this particular figure. Jis feathering is more subtle but this model reminds me very much of him. But of course, what the model is is certainly up for your discretion.

Congrats again

This one is surely perfect for your races. Sea Biscuit has a wonderful story and name too.

Beautiful beautiful Breyers, you are building up a stunning collection!
I love the poses of your latest models, so much character and life in them!

Roger is on Breyer-fire
I really like how for just over a month , you found already 12 wonderful models for your collection
I also have some of them , but like Paige , I am also a bit jealous about this old model.
I really like the older stablemates and I still don`t have any of them...
Seabiscuit looks really nice and it was interesting to know about the real horse and watch the video you shared :)

Thanks, everyone. I have collected most 1:32 scale figures that are easy to find, so I am mostly collecting Breyers at the moment. Collecting Breyers is easy, I can just buy what I like, I don't need to measure the figures and find size information about the species. They aren't always 1:32 scale down to the breed level, but so far all are fine as 1:32 scale horses.

Yes, perhaps the Rivet is a mustang. A very large one, but I think Breyer probably doesn't try to get the relative sizes of the breeds right.

Again some wonderful additions and oldies as well!I have the same model as a Pinto and here he is will my small group of older Stablemates.I remember getting these in the 1980s when you hardly ever saw them on sale in shops in Ireland.I bought them in a shop that is now sadly gone called Woolworths!(older British members I'm sure will remember this shop! )
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Fantastic golden oldies, Taylor. If you got them in the 1980s, then they are properly old. I am surprised they sold them in Woolworths.

I got two other older Breyer sculpts.
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The horse on the right is a Paint and on the left was originally called “Citation”.

Citation was another famous racehorse, running races in the late 1940s and early 1950s. However, the real Citation was a thoroughbred and looked very different. Wikipedia tells me that thoroughbreds can’t even be spotted. Its spotted pattern may suggest that this colour version is meant to represent the Appaloosa breed. “Identify your Breyer” says that it has a brown dun blanket, but I’d say it looks more like grey.

The mould was first used in 1976; this particular colour version was sold in 1995. It’s probably fairly rare, as only 10,600 were made. But rarity doesn’t usually seem to make Stablemates valuable. I think there are probably too many colour versions and most collectors can’t collect them all anyway, so they don’t care much whether it is rare or not. I don’t find this horse as exciting as many of the other Stablemates, but it is my first horse with appaloosa pattern and it has a well-modelled face. He looks best from this side:
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The Paint also seemed unexciting when I saw the seller’s photos, but the more I see it, the more I like it. I’d say it has a slightly primitive sculpt and the colours aren’t striking, but I like it for its simple style and because the grey looks different depending on how the light falls onto it.
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This particular colour version (from 1998) is meant to represent a Paint horse, but the original mould (1976) was called a Quarter horse stallion.
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It came in its packaging:
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The back side is perhaps most interesting, because it shows all 1994 Stablemates:
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Strangely, it shows the Paint as a Quarter horse stallion, without pinto pattern. I assume Breyer didn't update its packaging when they changed the horse's colours.

I have very few oldies so these are great to see! I love these "blue" horses, the paint especially is so charming. Congrats again!

Woolworths, wow, nostalgia kicking in. I'm very surprised to learn they were sold there, if only I could time travel

Both models are very beautiful! It is not a surprise they used an original mould of an American quarter horse to the Paint horse. I like particularly your spotted horse and you are giving new colors to your collection.

They are 2 wonderful old models and your first coloured horses.
The packaging brings back real memories as I remember getting a lot of my Breyers in this type of packaging!
Yes,my local Woolworths in Ireland used to sell Breyers,surprisingly!

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

I have very few oldies so these are great to see!

I thought the old models might be more common in the US?

Taos wrote:

They are 2 wonderful old models and your first coloured horses.

Yes, but I also got the pinto Rivet.

Let’s have a look at the last two of this lot. They are both more recent sculpts, an Appaloosa with Indian Brave and an Arabian:
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As you can see on the packaging, the Arabian was first released for the 2010 World Equestrian Games, so it is in its original colour (before Breyer started producing it in other colours):
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It’s sometimes also called “Endurance”, because Breyer made models for each of the events in the equestrian games and this one was made for the endurance event, a long-distance race of 160 km. That’s 5 km in 1:32 scale!
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The colour is flea bitten grey. Poor horse, but I particularly like the flea bites. Worth having a closer look:
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Taylor recommended the Appaloosa with Indian Brave earlier in this topic and I agree that it is fabulous. Very colourful.
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It’s a proper Appaloosa, because it has striped hooves, an important characteristic of Appaloosas. Although, it looks suspiciously like Indian Brave has painted the stripes.
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It came in its packaging. The fence is missing, but my animals don’t want to be fenced in anyway.
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The playmat is a bit of a joke, just a drawing on the back side:
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A Wild West theme is developing. Here is Indian Brave with the cowgirl and a Britains bison:
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Britains made lots of Native Americans and cowboys, often on horses, but I haven’t collected any. They always have guns and I am worried that they might kill animals. Indian Brave has a bow, hopefully it is only for shooting humans; bisons are already so rare in 1:32 scale.