My Breyer collection

Another beautiful selection of models!!!

I like very much the peaceful "Indian Pony"

Yes, the Indian Pony must be a very iconic one. If someone asks me to name a few Breyer horses, I probably can't tell more than two or three and the Indian pony is one of them. I think I remember reading here about some controversy around its name. From this group of horses, it is together with the Hanoverian those I like most.

Thank you! I guess I never realized the Indian pony was one of the better known ones outside of Breyer circle. There is controversy around the name, much like the "Gypsy Vanner" - the use of an antiquated term for a people group that doesn't reflect what the people groups themselves call themselves, or their horses.

Traditional size L models!

"Lady Phase" - Leah's Fancy Chick and Breezin Dixie

Lady Phase was named after the real horse the mold was a portrait of, and both my models are also portraits of real horses. This mold has never been one that captivated my imagination particularly. There are several that look very similar, and I don't dislike them, but I don't gravitate to them, either. This mold got some different tail options later on, including a long one and a "swish" one. I prefer the short tail myself.

Leah's Fancy Chick was the Breyerfest celebration horse in 2000. I don't have much else to say about her, I was already in high school when we went to this Breyerfest and it was the last I attended. She's pretty but doesn't hit any of my favorite notes.

Breezin Dixie I like a lot more. She was released in 1988 and I got mine from Facebook Marketplace. It was a very strange interaction. The seller had listed several Breyers as a lot that said "$10" and did not specify anything else. I used the "buy it now" function and never had any contact with the seller. I wasn't sure what to expect, since they never contacted me. I thought perhaps it would be a $10 each and they would ask which one I was interested in. Turns out, it WAS $10 each, and they were just randomly selecting a horse to send to each buyer, I guess! Because Dixie showed up in the mail without warning, packed in a small box with only some rough brown paper shoved in with her (it's amazing she arrived unbroken). Luckily, she was one of the models in the lot I was most interested in and that is a really excellent price, so no complaints ultimately! I love her color and the way they painted her appaloosa blanket, much better than the small perfect circles of many of my appaloosas.
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"Lady Roxanna" - Lady Roxanna

This mold (and this model) are a portrait of the horse from the King of the Wind novel. She is the horse paired with Sham at the end. She was released 1986-1988, and I found mine at the same yard sale I found the jumping horse at. I think this is a controversial mold, I feel like I hear many people really dislike it. I'm pretty fond of it, it's like a better version of the Khemosabi mold. It's also quite small, more like a pony sized traditional.
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"Le Fire (and Susecion)" - Le Fire and Susecion

I took a photo of these together because it seems silly to have them apart. Again, portraits of real horses. This is a really neat set, quite unlike all the other mare and foal sets since it's meant to be shortly after the birth of the foal. This was one of the last Breyer Christmas gifts I got, back in 2005 or so (I guess I got to old after that ). Unfortunately, my Le Fire's front leg is warped, and I can't figure out what happened since I didn't think it used to be. I'm not sure what it takes to warp a leg in storage, I didn't think it ever got very hot or anything. He still stands just fine at least, and he's still very cute. I really like them both and the way they are sculpted to be interacting with each other. The mare has a very nice expression!
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"Legionario III" - Medieval Knight

This guy was a favorite member of my carpet herd, and also a mold I wish I had more of because I still really love it. It's meant to represent the "Spanish Walk" which is a trained movement involving very high stepping front feet. The mold is named after a real Andalusian, but Knight is not meant to represent a real horse. He was released 1993-1994 and I've always thought it's a very elegant model. Knight in my carpet herd was a bit of an ornery character with a short temper - maybe because he always looked like he was kicking out at someone else.
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"Llanarth True Briton" - Llanarth True Briton

Another favorite! He was released 1994 and was a special feature in the catalogue that year because he was a new mold (they didn't release several of those a year in the past). It was a full page photo of him on a mirrored surface, glossy and dramatic, and I fell in LOVE. I got him for Christmas that year, on Christmas Eve, because there was something of a tradition at our candle service at church that the girls who had American Girl dolls would wear the matching outfits they got with their dolls to the Christmas Eve service. Well, I didn't have an American Girl, but my parents knew I would want to bring "Tubby" along, and I did. He is a portrait of a real horse who did in fact go by "Tubby." This model was in my carpet herd and had the distinction of playing the role of "just a really big horse." This mold is huge! Many people don't like it because of how deeply flexed the pasterns are and also because his poor nose did get smushed (the original mold was damaged), but personally, probably because of this memory, I really love him. Though I did always think his nose looked a little funny, so it was interesting to learn much later that it really was a mistake.
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That obsession about the horse names sounds silly to me. Finding prejudice everywhere is also a kind of prejudice. I like Legionario, of course, it is a horse from my region, I'm not Spanish but I am an Iberian and as you know Andalusians and Lusitanos are very similar. I like the hairy parts, they have a realistic touch. I hope you have shampoo enough to all of these horses.

Breezin Dixie is my favourite here. Classic pose and my favourite bay colour. Leah's Fancy Chick is pretty good too though. I am happy that they made the "Indian" pony in Stablemate size too so that I can own one, because it is a beautiful peaceful sculpt.

Like the Pinto and the Appaloosa a lot.The Indian pony I have as a Stablemate.True Briton I also have but he's a Welsh cob called Silverton.

Roger wrote:

I like Legionario, of course, it is a horse from my region, I'm not Spanish but I am an Iberian and as you know Andalusians and Lusitanos are very similar. I like the hairy parts, they have a realistic touch. I hope you have shampoo enough to all of these horses.

I thought of you when I took his picture, I know they are a breed of special interest to you. They are very beautiful, I think this mold is a good representation of them. Definitely would need a lot of work in real life with a mane like that.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Breezin Dixie is my favourite here. Classic pose and my favourite bay colour. Leah's Fancy Chick is pretty good too though. I am happy that they made the "Indian" pony in Stablemate size too so that I can own one, because it is a beautiful peaceful sculpt.

I love the miniature versions of the traditionals, I really hope they keep doing it, and hopefully with some more vintage molds. They have already done Fireheart and Georg as well as the 70th anniversary set, so I am hopefully. I have so many I would like to have in tiny form.

Taos wrote:

Like the Pinto and the Appaloosa a lot.The Indian pony I have as a Stablemate.True Briton I also have but he's a Welsh cob called Silverton.

Silverton is a really beautiful color! It was such an unpopular mold, I think it affected how many were ever released, and there are only 6 regularly available ones, and two OOAK from the live auctions. Silverton is my second favorite of them.

Traditional size M molds!

"Marabella" - Marabella

I cheated on this photo because I somehow didn't keep the photo I took of mine before packing her back up! So here is one from Identify Your Breyer. Marabella was released as the first of the mold in 1997-1998. The detail in this mold is pretty spectacular, especially in the mane and tail. She even has a braid in her tail. She's quite lovely, very gentle and sweet looking. As I mentioned with the Amber and Ashley foals, I was always convinced as a child she looked like she was paying attention to a foal at her side. I didn't personally think the lying and standing foals were the right match for a moving mare, I thought she needed one that was walking along with her, but those are the ones generally intended to go with her by Breyer. My Marabella was a gift and a shelf model mostly, I didn't play with her much, but I remember picking her out with my mother who also thought she was quite lovely. Mom was always partial to bays and so that may have heavily influenced which one I picked!
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"Misty (and Stormy)" - Misty and Stormy

You can't hardly have a traditional Breyer collection without a Misty and Stormy, at least not in the US. Some version of Misty has been available since 1972 to present, and Stormy alongside her since 1977. I have ended up with a few doubles of each, dispersed mostly now (I have two Mistys still), but these two I did buy together as a set in the most appropriate place - Chincoteague Island, where the real Misty lived. We visited when I was in middle school, probably 1994-1996? And of course these girls were in a gift shop (probably most gift shops) on Misty's home turf. The woman at the shop insisted if you collected Breyers and you visited the island, you had to have a Misty and a Stormy, and quite frankly I agree with her, haha. Misty has seen several different iterations during her release, none of which really match the real Misty's coat pattern, especially on her face, all that well. The newest addition to the line, Phantom (Misty's mother) and Misty as a foal, represents her most accurately. Mine is the most frequently seen version, the standard Misty as it were, which looks just like the one you can still buy at the store right now.
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"Misty's Twilight" - Romanesque

This mold, believe it or not, was a portrait mold of one of Misty's descendants - clearly quite removed from the little wild pony in physique! Mine is not Misty's Twilight, however, but Romanesque, also a real horse who competed in driving. She was released 1999-2000 and I think I probably chose and purchased her myself one a trip to a Breyer shop. She's quite pretty, I love how they did her dappling, and though the mold is a little wobbly mine does stand on its own.
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"Morgan" - Bay

He's also called "Stretch Morgan" for obvious reasons - he's meant to represent the show stance of a halter class. I really like this mold. Much like the Aristorcrat and the Kentucky Saddlebred Weanling, I like the square, alert stance and compact conformation. The bay ran 1965-1971 and was in the antique lot, and one of the main reasons I wanted to get the lot. I remember Lippitt Pegasus in the same mold being for sale when I was young, but I never got him, and so it was nice to finally have a representative. I like this one even more, perhaps, because he is very "vintage" looking.
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"Morganlanz" - Appaloosa Sport Horse

Like a few others, this one featured prominently in my carpet herd. I remember very clearly the day I picked him (though I always considered it a her) out. I had saved and saved and finally got driven out to the big store with the Breyers, and I spent probably at least an hour just staring through all the ones they had. My parents were so patient!! I ended up choosing this one and a foal we'll see later, and this one I am pretty sure I picked primarily because it came with a saddle. This guy is the Summer Special model in 1993, so a special run, and had a real leather saddle included. It was quite cool! I still have the saddle, missing a few pieces though, packed away somewhere. The horse himself (herself) was the matron of my herd, a stoic and rule abiding citizen that kept things in line. It's not a mold I necessarily want to get more of, not my favorite and very tippy, but I do love this specific one for all the fond memories. I also think the spots are a little bit better than many others, as I have mentioned. Still round, but with a little more variation.
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Jill wrote:

Traditional size M molds!

"Marabella" - Marabella

I cheated on this photo because I somehow didn't keep the photo I took of mine before packing her back up! So here is one from Identify Your Breyer. Marabella was released as the first of the mold in 1997-1998. The detail in this mold is pretty spectacular, especially in the mane and tail. She even has a braid in her tail. She's quite lovely, very gentle and sweet looking. As I mentioned with the Amber and Ashley foals, I was always convinced as a child she looked like she was paying attention to a foal at her side. I didn't personally think the lying and standing foals were the right match for a moving mare, I thought she needed one that was walking along with her, but those are the ones generally intended to go with her by Breyer. My Marabella was a gift and a shelf model mostly, I didn't play with her much, but I remember picking her out with my mother who also thought she was quite lovely. Mom was always partial to bays and so that may have heavily influenced which one I picked!
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it's been great to read your stories about all your Breyers Jill! very fascinating! so glad you decided to open this thread and share:)

I have this Marabella mould and the lying foal as Unicorns!
I got them in a charity shop and they were all shiny/sparkly fluorescent pinky/white in colour but had lots of scratches on them.
I was going to repaint them as fjord horses (as I do with all the models I get that I make changes on - and the manes get chopped off/down to an inch in size), but I never got round to it! So they are both covered in white paint at the moment. This is the first time I have seen them as normal horses.

Jill wrote:

Barney was helping with the unboxing process.
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"Cantering Welsh Pony" - QVC Parade of Breeds bay roan

I definitely want more of this mold someday.

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"Gem Twist" - Gem Twist and Appaloosa Sport Horse

This mold is a portrait of the show jumper Gem Twist.
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"Grazing Mare and Foal" - black, bay, and Buttons and Bows gift set

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"Indian Pony" - Chestnut pinto

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"John Henry" - The Cree Indian Horse Naytukskie-Kukatos
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that's a good photo of Barney amongst the horses! I love his curly tail. I wonder if he considers those horses his as well?? since he was helping you with the unboxing?


the Cantering Welsh Pony looks just like my favourite, which I remember being named Party Shoes and came in a palomino colour. I really love the model. It's one of my favourite figures before I had even heard of Breyer.


What a beauty gem Twist is. The grey (white haha) horse on the left is real pretty! So glad you managed to find this figure to fill in your gaps!

I really like the old black colouration of this little foal on the left, like you too. It's nice to see this paint style on these older models. They definitely are different from the later models and I find them very charming.
It adds so much character to a collection when the selected pieces really touch your heart.

and I really love this Indian pony too! Along with the party shoes, this one is my favourite! I love the sloping head and the windswept mane and tail, and most of all I love the war paint!! ha ha - just like my avatar
but I would repaint more symbols on this one (when I get one like this I will :)
I read online that there are so many different American Indian pony/horse breeds, depending on where the horses originated from - when they escaped from the Spanish/Portuguese or were stolen, and the lands they grew up on.
It was fascinating and I've forgotten all the details. But there is work being done to protect these different breeds/ lines? and the land they live on.
When I was young I fell in love with the Native American Indian warriors and their horses and the lives they lived close to nature. I really respected that.

It's been amazing to read all your posts. I still have some to read again! and it was great that you received that very pretty palomino mare model from your school bus protector! What a wonderful memory for you.

Misty and her foal was one of the first few Breyers I ever bought and I still have them to this day!!The Appaloosa is a lovely model again.

Beautiful Breyers!! I admire the Breezing Dixie in an older catalog by Breyer. Such nice shadings and colors.

Thank you everyone, for reading and for your comments!

sunny wrote:

it's been great to read your stories about all your Breyers Jill! very fascinating! so glad you decided to open this thread and share:)

I have this Marabella mould and the lying foal as Unicorns!
I got them in a charity shop and they were all shiny/sparkly fluorescent pinky/white in colour but had lots of scratches on them.
I was going to repaint them as fjord horses (as I do with all the models I get that I make changes on - and the manes get chopped off/down to an inch in size), but I never got round to it! So they are both covered in white paint at the moment. This is the first time I have seen them as normal horses.

Oh they would be so cute as fjords! If you ever finish that project I hope you share the results. :)

sunny wrote:

that's a good photo of Barney amongst the horses! I love his curly tail. I wonder if he considers those horses his as well?? since he was helping you with the unboxing?

Hahaha the real truth is that Mom, his favorite human, wasn't home so he was upstairs with me because he was lonely. I am his second pick.

Quote :

the Cantering Welsh Pony looks just like my favourite, which I remember being named Party Shoes and came in a palomino colour. I really love the model. It's one of my favourite figures before I had even heard of Breyer.

Yes, I know Party Shoes, a lovely little horse! It really is a very nice mold.

Quote :

and I really love this Indian pony too! Along with the party shoes, this one is my favourite! I love the sloping head and the windswept mane and tail, and most of all I love the war paint!! ha ha - just like my avatar
but I would repaint more symbols on this one (when I get one like this I will :)
I read online that there are so many different American Indian pony/horse breeds, depending on where the horses originated from - when they escaped from the Spanish/Portuguese or were stolen, and the lands they grew up on.
It was fascinating and I've forgotten all the details. But there is work being done to protect these different breeds/ lines? and the land they live on.
When I was young I fell in love with the Native American Indian warriors and their horses and the lives they lived close to nature. I really respected that.

I think it would be very cool if Breyer did specific releases of those breeds, rather than a lump "Indian pony" - maybe even on the same mold, or other existing molds. They have a long history of creating horses with Native American paint, it would be neat if they took it that one step further and focused on specific regions and peoples.

Taos wrote:

Misty and her foal was one of the first few Breyers I ever bought and I still have them to this day!!The Appaloosa is a lovely model again.

What a good way to start a Breyer collection! I really do like those two, and they feel like such staples in the hobby just because they have been available for so long.

Shanti wrote:

Beautiful Breyers!! I admire the Breezing Dixie in an older catalog by Breyer. Such nice shadings and colors.

She really is lovely! I was lucky that one was chosen for me, ha!

Misty and Stormy are very interesting because they have very textured hair, unlike other Breyers I've seen. Lovely pair. Marabella has my favourite colour too!

Traditional size N-P!

"National Show Horse" - Rejoice

1998 Breyerfest Celebration horse. I have to admit, of the four Breyerfest horses I got by going to Breyerfest, 50% of them are not horses I would have purchased otherwise. Rejoice is one of them. Not that she isn't a pretty mold, it's just that the breeds of this type (saddlebreds, tennessee walkers, etc.) are not my favorite look. And this mold is extremely tippy, not helped by the fact that my Rejoice has a warped front leg, so she just can't stand up (unless you get her in just the right place and don't touch anything like I did for this photo, haha). So in other words, I've never gotten super attached to this model. Breyerfest was still fun, though!
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"Peruvian Paso" - dapple gray and Causin' a Commotion

I remember this mold's release very distinctly because my mother always really like Peruvian Pasos and always wished Breyer had made a mold of one. The first was released in 2002 as the gray. I got mine later, though, from a friend who found him second hand in a thrift store. This friend had incredible thrift shop luck, probably because she was constantly visiting many of them since she was making money at the time selling things on ebay. When she found Breyers, though, she often sent them to me as a gift, which was incredibly kind!

Causin' a Commotion was JAH special run in 2003. It was intended to be a "retro" throwback release (if I remember correctly) not in the model itself - but in the price! Which was great, because I could afford him! I think he was $25 - unheard of for special runs now. This mold sits in a weird limbo for me. It definitely has a few qualities of the style I didn't like in this period, but at the same time it was still in that transitional phase that a few molds like Marabella and Huckleberry Bey live in. It's hard for me to describe exactly what is going on there, but my feelings for some of these molds are complicated.
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"Phantom Wings" - Duke and Three Generations foal

This was another portrait mold for Misty's family, this time of her colt, Phantom Wings. Mine are not portraits of real horses. Duke was a gift from some friends that we actually attended Breyerfest with. It was super cool, because we met this family at a "family camp" one summer when I was nine who had two horse crazy girls a little older than me. Turned out they also collected Breyers, and we ended up going to some Breyerfests together and we're are still friends with them to this day, though we are not as in touch now. Little Duke was a gift from the girls to me, which is a really nice memory! Unfortunately, Duke doesn't stand very well on his own so he hasn't spent a lot of time on the shelf.

The appaloosa is part of a JCPenny special run set of three appaloosa of different ages (foal, yearling, adult). This one was another gift from my thrift shopping friend! She found a lot of the 90s models, including the Yearling of the same set.
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"Phar Lap" - Phar Lap and Native Diver

This mold is of course a portrait of Australia's famous race horse, Phar Lap. For some reason, this model was one of three big grails for me as a child. I saw him in the back of JAH in their Blast from the Past series, and something just struck me about him. He became my most wanted for years, but he was released in 1985-1988 so I did miss him new. We were visiting said family friends who were also Breyer collectors one year and we all went to an antique mall together, and there he was! I was still pretty young so it's possible my parents already knew he was there and took me there on purpose, maybe informed by our friends, but whatever the case they surprised me by getting him as a gift. He's still one of my favorites, even though the mold itself is a little bit weird in the back legs.

Native Diver is another one of those weird purchases I made with my strange logic. I was at the store in 1996 spending ages and ages deciding which one to buy. I WANTED Biko, painted on the Gem Twist mold and even came with a saddle (I think?), but I got hung up on the fact that I thought this Native Diver had incorrect markings. The one on the box picture did not have a sock, and this one did. I thought that meant I OUGHT to buy it, because it was a rarity or something, and I was a Collector. Turns out the one of the box was the mistake I guess, they all have that sock, and I just had a very normal Native Diver. Whoops! I did still like him and played with him and all that, just one of those weird choices I tended to make. You can see that his front extended leg is broken - he fell off a shelf when we were packing to move, and dad did his best to repair the leg. The hardiest way to repair a Breyer leg is with a little metal rod inserted into the plastic, but that takes the right tools and practice to do seamlessly. We didn't have either, but we did get it on, quite crooked - but the fact that Dad tried so hard to fix him for me makes him very special to me, even with the crooked leg.
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"Proud Arabian Foal" - Dapple Gray

The Proud Arabian Family went alongside the Family Arabian Family. I'm not really sure why they made two separate Arabian families, possibly because of rights conflicts with Hagen-Renaker, but I do like this one the best. The Proud family was sculpted essentially to look like pieces done by Maureen Love for HK, which as you can imagine caused dispute. This dapple gray was released 1973-1978. There is a lot of variation within the dapple grey family, as you'll see in a minute, but this is the most common version. He came in the antique mall lot with his mother.
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"Proud Arabian Mare" - dapple gray, alabaster, and dark bay

The dapple gray was released 1976-1979 and as mentioned came in the antique mall lot. I wish I could remember where the alabaster and bay came from. Possibly at least one of them were gifts from my thrift shop friend, because I don't think I ever found anything that neat at a thrift shop myself, but I can't remember for sure. Regardless, I really like this mold (like everything done by - or borrowed heavily from - Maureen Love). The alabaster was 1958-1959 and the bay 1972-1980.
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"Proud Arabian Stallion" - Freedom and black point dapple gray

This one actually was not borrowed from Maureen Love, I think, but was made to go with the other two. Freedom was a Commemorative Edition made in 1997, representing the "bloody shoulder" color variation of a fleabitten gray and the legend that goes with it. Lovely model, except for one detail - I don't understand the blue over the eye, like eyeshadow almost. He was always a very snobby member of my carpet herd, but very pretty!

This is one of my favorite molds, and the dapple gray is one of my favorite models. It also has an acquiring story that has mixed feelings jumbled up in it. The black point dapple was always one I really wanted, since childhood, because it looked just like my dream horse as I described earlier. Another of the three "grails." The dapple gray was released 1972-1988, but did not have these very dark points. One version does have dark gray points, but the black point, it turns out, is really rare. I had no idea. I just saw someone list it on the Breyer facebook group for $20 a couple years ago was like, "Sweet, I've always wanted one of those and I've never seen one!" I messaged them, confirmed shipping cost, and paid. I was delighted that it turned out not to be a super expensive model or anything and I was able to fill in a long time grail. However, later, the seller messaged me to say that a) she was still going to honor the sale but b) she had been offered up to $100 for the model after I had already paid, and several people told her she was ripped off by my purchase. Now I have really torn feelings about owning this model. I sent her a thank you card explaining how I had always wanted this horse since I was a child and didn't realize it was such a valuable horse, and that I really appreciated and respected that she honored she sale and that I couldn't honestly afford anything else. She never replied. So I think what happened is she had listed some models she came into possession of without doing any research and then was an honorable enough human being to honor the sale but had extreme seller's regret (which I can understand) and hoped telling me that would spur me to paying a better price for the horse. I couldn't at the time, so I didn't offer, and I feel like she was angry with herself and me based on the tone of her messages (not mean, but there was a tone). So now I have this what turned out to be really rare horse for an incredible deal and a piece I'll forever have in my collection, but it comes with built in guilt! I guess that's a great metaphor for living life as a human being, haha. I have considered going back and offering her a little bit more, maybe like a total of $50, but it was like three years ago now and I don't know if that would be possible and if it was if it would be super weird, or just not something I should worry about since it was the seller's responsibility to research value before listing. I was sad that people told her I was taking advantage of her when I just was excited to find a horse I liked for a great price. Anyway. That's his story!


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rogerpgvg wrote:

Misty and Stormy are very interesting because they have very textured hair, unlike other Breyers I've seen. Lovely pair. Marabella has my favourite colour too!

I do like that quality about them. It is also true for Phantom Wings, Misty's other foal, Le Fire, and a newer foal that I do not have, the welsh pony foal. I've always hoped they'd someday do a Bashkir Curly breed mold . . .

I enjjoy that you link Iberian horses to me.
I like very much the Peruvian Paso, it is one more horse with Spanish conformation and it is easy to see on your models. Maybe Lusitanos and Andalusians have a higher level of nobleness but each breed has its own enchantment.

Jill wrote:

This one actually was not borrowed from Maureen Love, I think, but was made to go with the other two. Freedom was a Commemorative Edition made in 1997, representing the "bloody shoulder" color variation of a fleabitten gray and the legend that goes with it. Lovely model, except for one detail - I don't understand the blue over the eye, like eyeshadow almost. He was always a very snobby member of my carpet herd, but very pretty!

This is one of my favorite molds, and the dapple gray is one of my favorite models. It also has an acquiring story that has mixed feelings jumbled up in it. The black point dapple was always one I really wanted, since childhood, because it looked just like my dream horse as I described earlier. Another of the three "grails." The dapple gray was released 1972-1988, but did not have these very dark points. One version does have dark gray points, but the black point, it turns out, is really rare. I had no idea. I just saw someone list it on the Breyer facebook group for $20 a couple years ago was like, "Sweet, I've always wanted one of those and I've never seen one!" I messaged them, confirmed shipping cost, and paid. I was delighted that it turned out not to be a super expensive model or anything and I was able to fill in a long time grail. However, later, the seller messaged me to say that a) she was still going to honor the sale but b) she had been offered up to $100 for the model after I had already paid, and several people told her she was ripped off by my purchase. Now I have really torn feelings about owning this model. I sent her a thank you card explaining how I had always wanted this horse since I was a child and didn't realize it was such a valuable horse, and that I really appreciated and respected that she honored she sale and that I couldn't honestly afford anything else. She never replied. So I think what happened is she had listed some models she came into possession of without doing any research and then was an honorable enough human being to honor the sale but had extreme seller's regret (which I can understand) and hoped telling me that would spur me to paying a better price for the horse. I couldn't at the time, so I didn't offer, and I feel like she was angry with herself and me based on the tone of her messages (not mean, but there was a tone). So now I have this what turned out to be really rare horse for an incredible deal and a piece I'll forever have in my collection, but it comes with built in guilt! I guess that's a great metaphor for living life as a human being, haha. I have considered going back and offering her a little bit more, maybe like a total of $50, but it was like three years ago now and I don't know if that would be possible and if it was if it would be super weird, or just not something I should worry about since it was the seller's responsibility to research value before listing. I was sad that people told her I was taking advantage of her when I just was excited to find a horse I liked for a great price. Anyway. That's his story!


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I really love this stunning model too!!

I think it was a gift from the Universe to you! Embrace your good fortune:)
The seller would have been just fine and very happy had no-one mentioned anything to her.
She sold something she no longer wanted and it went to a very appreciative and loving home. Win win.

Did they mention it hoping that she would feel bad and would cancel your sale and they could then buy it at that price?? Most probably. But she turned out to be a good person! and even though she 'may' have lost some money (she didn't - as she had been initially happy to sell it for $20), she kept her self respect by honouring your agreement, and that makes her a nice person. Ofcourse she learnt a life lesson about due diligence, but hey! it happens all the time.

Great collection again .I especially like the Splash paint foal.

Thank you guys! Hope everyone had lovely holidays! I am still taking photos and packing up horses, haha, this is taking so much longer than expected but I do like that I will now have a record of everything that's in storage.

Roger wrote:

I enjjoy that you link Iberian horses to me.
I like very much the Peruvian Paso, it is one more horse with Spanish conformation and it is easy to see on your models. Maybe Lusitanos and Andalusians have a higher level of nobleness but each breed has its own enchantment.

I do love the Iberian breeds and their conformation. Breyer has some really nice examples of them in all sizes as well, because they make such lovely models.

sunny wrote:

I really love this stunning model too!!

I think it was a gift from the Universe to you! Embrace your good fortune:)
The seller would have been just fine and very happy had no-one mentioned anything to her.
She sold something she no longer wanted and it went to a very appreciative and loving home. Win win.

Did they mention it hoping that she would feel bad and would cancel your sale and they could then buy it at that price?? Most probably. But she turned out to be a good person! and even though she 'may' have lost some money (she didn't - as she had been initially happy to sell it for $20), she kept her self respect by honouring your agreement, and that makes her a nice person. Ofcourse she learnt a life lesson about due diligence, but hey! it happens all the time.

Thank you Sunny, that is a good perspective! I have a tendency to over think and to over worry and this is no exception, haha. I am always grateful she honored the original price, many sellers I think do not and I would certainly have been refunded and lost out in many cases.[/quote]

Traditional size Q-R!

"Quarter Horse Gelding" - Two Bits

Released 1961-1980, Two Bits the buckskin is a pretty common color on this mold. This mold has a real vintage feel to it because of the sculpted halter. Sculpted tack does not exist in the modern models at all, and I don't think any new models were created after Man o' War that had it. I think this is from an era of seeing Breyers as mock-china pieces, when they were ornaments more than collectables or toys and certainly weren't used in photo and live shows and the like where molded tack could be a problem. I know as a kid I would not have liked it very much, because I wanted the horse to be able to be just a horse and not necessarily a haltered horse, plus it would make adding tack for play awkward. However, I love it as a vintage piece. I also love that his name is Two Bits because I knew a horse by that name years ago. He was not a buckskin, but it's a good name. This is a nice, solid, stoic mold that I really enjoy, and this individual came in the large antique lot.
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Quarter Horse Yearling - Three Generations set

I received this figure along with the foal from the same set (pictured earlier) from a friend who found them second-hand. It's a wonderful gift and that's really all I have to say about him! It was a JCPenny special run in 1993 and had three horses meant to represent three life stages of appaloosas in roughly the same color (but not exactly - they aren't intended to be the same horse, I guess).
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"Roemer" - Roemer

A portrait of the Dutch Warmblood of the same name, and that's the figure I have! It's a little bit of an unusual mold. It leans quite heavily to one side which you don't realize until you see it from head on, and it just had some slightly strange angles. However, I really like it, haha. There are two horses I want in it - this one and Domino, who was released when I was young and I never could afford to get him. Roemer I got recently as I ran my "fill in the gaps" searches for horses I always wanted or used to have and lost. This guy's liver chestnut color got me, and I also love his little white chin. I took his picture from the off side so you could see that and his brand. I don't think sculpted brands are something really done anymore, but there are several vintage models that have them. This particular brand is the Westphalian brand which is given to registered horses of that breed (which I guess Roemer was).

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"Roy the Belgian" - liver chestnut and Sebastian

Absolutely love this mold! I never had him as a child, and so this was another "fill the gaps" purchase. I actually managed to get my two favorites from the same seller at a wonderful price, so I consider my Roy needs filled. The liver chestnut is a special run from Sears in 1992 and Sebastian was a regular run from 1996-1997, so I remember seeing both of them for sale but never got them. I love liver chestnuts and roans, and Sebastian is one of my favorite names, so it was a nice combo all around. This mold is interesting because of the amount of linear sculpting work, from lines on the lines and neck to the hair texture on the flanks.

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"Rugged Lark" - Rugged Lark

This is another portrait of a real horse of the same name, and that is also the one I have, released 1989-1995 and again in 1997-1999. This mold is interesting because I think if I were new to it now, I wouldn't like it. I don't love the tail or neck shape, and it's got some strangeness to the face for me. I also can't say this is my favorite representation of the bay coloring. It seems flater than usual. However, I got him as a Christmas gift around 1994 or 1995 I believe and he became the horse for my little cowboy figure, Justin. Justin was the only human figure I played with and I loved him because he reminded me of the Man from Snowy River, one of my favorite movies as a kid, and so his two horses (this one and another pictured later) were always going on long mountain treks. My dad even built him a little "line shack" out of plywood that I decorated for Christmas most years. So Rugged Lark is now a staple favorite of mine, despite being a mold I don't really want any more of. He was always a very reliable and wise horse, calm and steady.

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"Running Foal" - Bluegrass Foal, Korinth, and Spice

Usually paired with the Running Mare and sometimes also including the Running Stallion, this mold is a classic and has lots of iterations. I got the Bluegrass Foal first somewhere in the 1992-1994 range when it was released, and because of the title I called him "Bluey" (I was a very clever namer). I got him on the same day I got the appaloosa Morganlanz, and so they were always mother and son (though the Morganlanz mold is meant to be male, and I think the running foal is considered female). Bluey was always a very worried character in my carpet herd because I thought his expression seemed nervous. I always loved his color, but he was never given an official Running Mare mother. Korinth the buckskin came in 1996, and even though he does have an official mother, I couldn't afford her on my 11 year old budget so I just got the foal! They are both a good example of that bright yellow buckskin that seemed pretty popular at that time. I don't love it, I am not really sure now what compelled me about Korinth - maybe just that I could afford him and I like that mold. He is cute for sure, but he does have better colors. The bay was part of the big box from Kelly just last year I think. The original running mare and foals were called Sugar and Spice. This color was released in 1961-1987. I actually thought for sure I had his mother, but she never turned up in any of my boxes, so I guess that was a dream . . .

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"Running Mare" - old style red roan Sugar

Honestly, one of the prides of my collection! She was in the antique lot, and one of the main reasons I got it. The old style red roan is a vintage color that is essentially a decorator though it's called "red roan." I mean it's kind of like a real red roan, but not really. Like "alabaster" and "charcoal" it's a unique Breyer color in which all those old vintage molds were released in via catalogues in the 60s and 70s (basically I think you could order the mold in whichever of the colors you picked). It's also one of my favorite vintage patterns, and one of the more expensive ones now to find on models. She has a matching foal, but I do not have it, or any other old style red roan!

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"Running Stallion" - Unicorn

This is a fun model to have, but gives me a chance also to vent about Breyer unicorns. First, though, the Running Stallion isn't really "running" per say, in my opinion, but kind of . . . sashaying. It's not a real specific gait but does capture a kind of mid-movement moment. I've never fully understood it or what the next position in time would look like, to be honest. The mold does not have a horn usually, of course. The old style unicorns were approached in much the same way as the modern unicorn molds - they attached a horn to already existing molds. On vintage examples, they also added beards to some, like this one. Now, I was a huge unicorn fan as a kid and I still am invested in the cultural lore of the unicorn as an adult, and so the idea of model unicorns of course appealed very much. But I do not like the take on the unicorn that is simply a horse with a horn. To me, the unicorn ought to be treated as a separate kind of animal as it historically was, similar in shape to a horse but also compared to deer, goats, and even elephants depending on where you were. They should be something . . . else. So I am not a fan of the approach of just sticking a horn on a horse you already have. AT LEAST in this vintage example they chose a nondescript breed of horse, a wild-type in a kind of wild gait. Unlike many modern examples where they put a horn on very recognizable, very refined or sporty or just very specific breeds. The worst I think are the gaited breeds with horns. Why does a unicorn have the saddlebred gait? Why would you have a "show unicorn"? This defeats the concept of "unicorn" for me entirely. Now, this is a my opinion kind of thing and there is certainly no "wrong" way to make a creature that doesn't exist, but I would simply prefer to see unicorns treated a little differently than Breyer does. Anyway, I do like this guy, he was made 1982-1988 and mine was found in a thrift shop by my friend and given to me, which was pretty awesome. As a collection piece, I love having him. As a representation of a unicorn, he is not the worst!

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Some truly wonderful vintage models there!!My favourites are the Roy the Belgian combo!!!

The Running Mare, though not entirely realistic, has a wonderful charm! The Belgians are beautiful too. Great to learn more about the larger Breyers that I don't collect myself.