Singles Bar: The Letters G & H

This post was supposed to go up on Saturday, but life got in the way a lot last week, so today’s bonus post is getting shuffled to another month and I’m playing catch-up on my Singles Bar series.

I have made the difficult decision to suspend the blog for October, except perhaps sneaking in a “Hey, it’s been a whole year of blogging” recap toward the end of the month. In spite of my careful planning and photo-taking, the blog is already too much to keep up with due to everything going on at work and some new developments in my personal life that are going to require a lot of attention and emotional energy for the time being. (As evidenced by missing Saturday’s post, and this one taking me an hour to write because my brain just wouldn't brain.) Something’s gotta give, and unfortunately this is where the give has to happen.

For now, enjoy my singletons on molds starting with G and H. I’m going to save my oldest model for last because she’s a sentimental favorite, but the rest will be in order of acquisition, as usual.

 

 

My only Hanoverian at the moment is #951 Borodino II, a regular run from 1996-1997. I don’t have an exact purchase date, but I suspect it was sometime in 1996, since he doesn’t have the creepy lizard eyes that the early 1997 models did.

I don’t have any Hanoverians on my wish list, so he’s likely to be a loner for awhile.

 

 

This is #88719 Hanoverian Mare - Bay. She’s a CollectA and was given to me as a Christmas gift from my parents in 2015.

She has only been issued in this color so far, so she’ll be a loner til they try a new paint scheme on her.

 

 

This cute little pony is #1238 Donner, a regular run from 2004-2005 on the Haflinger mold. I’ve always loved this release for his shaded red bay color (shocking) but it took me quite awhile to acquire one. He joined my collection on 5/2/2019, when I decided to stop at an antique store in eastern Ohio on my way to Stone Horse Country Fair for the Paint Your Own event. The antique store had been a Breyer dealer in the past so they had a lot of NIB stuff. He was pretty high up on one of the shelves; I had to ask for assistance in getting him down.

The only obtainable Haflinger on my wish list is RDA Strikey. I’ve seen several for sale at the CHIN over the years, but they’ve either been damaged or had fish scale dapples. I can wait for the right one to come my way; Donner told me he's just fine hanging out on the shelf next to my Indian Ponies. Unobtainium Haflingers on my wish list include Sceptre and Cavalcade, both prize models from past BreyerFests who will likely be outside my budget forever.

 

 

This is Whippletree from the #711268 Best of BreyerFest Series 4 set, a run of 2000 pieces in 2023. I bought the set from the Breyer store during BreyerFest. I think the Giorgio Stablemate (the mini version of the Traditional-sized Georg)  is super cute, so Whippletree won’t be by himself for long.

 

 

My volunteer Georg, #B-EV-10781 Vegvisir, just got his turn in the spotlight in late July, so you can read more about him there. He’s super fun and has no eyes!

The only Georg on my wishlist is the original release from the Premier Club, and he’s another one of those “I’m waiting for the right one to find me” models.

 

 

Saved the best for last. 

My only Halla is #820 Noble Jumper, a regular run from 1990-1991. I don’t have a purchase date on her, but she is without a doubt one of the first models I acquired after starting my collection with the JCPenney sets for Christmas in December 1990. She was discontinued after 1991 and would have been harder to find after that, and I definitely had her before September 1992, when I photographed my collection for the first time, so I know she’s one of the models I’ve had the longest.

The Halla mold has never really wowed me, but something about this girl has always resonated. I’m super sentimental about her; I just love her.

Back in 2023, during our second rendition of Are You Kitten Me Live, I was the judge for Traditional/Classic Breyer. We had several clinky cats that we were using as Judge’s Choice awards that year, to hand out however we saw fit. 

My Judge’s Choice award that day went to a Noble Jumper. I couldn’t pin her in the class, but I loved that someone brought her along and stuck her on the table. I announced the award and everything, and thanked the shower for bringing her out.

Please think good thoughts for me as we roll out the new health record for the rest of the organization at work on October 3 ... and if you could spare some good vibes for a family member with a health issue, I’d sure appreciate that as well.

Catch yinz on the flip side.

Other Makes: Clinky Things Part 1

With Clinkypalooza imminently on the horizon (just three weeks from when this blog entry posts) and my “Other Makes” series up for discussion today, I figure now is as good a time as any to talk about a couple clinky pieces in my collection.

I love Chinas, and there are some truly outstanding OF and CMG China pieces in the hobby that would look really pretty on my shelves - but I don't collect them. That’s for one reason and one reason only: If it’s breakable, I’ll find a way to break it. I wish that wasn’t the case, but just as with real horses, I prefer to admire from afar, rather than touch.

So how is it, then, that these two highly breakable things found their way into my collection?

I was antiquing at The Hub in Pittsburgh in January 2018 and saw them for $25 apiece, and impulsively bought them, that’s how.

The top one is Pamela Du Boulay’s “Black Beauty and Merrylegs,” issued through the Franklin Mint in 1990. The bottom is “The Arabian Knight” from the Lenox International Horse Sculptures collection in 1988. I really know nothing about them other than that. They're the two biggest clinky things I have. The other six are minis, and I'm planning to talk about them in October, along with whatever free goodies I might bring back from Clinkypalooza.

I’d love to move these guys on to someone who will appreciate them more than me, but I haven’t gotten any bites when I’ve listed them for sale, and the thought of having to pack and ship (or even pack and transport) them somewhere makes my skin crawl, so they’re still on my shelves.

Show Stoppers: Traditional Paints

It’s no secret by now that my collection heavily favors Stock molds. I’ve rotated quite a few models in and out of my show string over the years, trying to spread the love, mostly between my Lady Phases ... and trying to figure out what judges like in stock molds, with only moderate success.

Here are six models I’ve shown in the Paint class over the years.

 

 

This Lady Phase, #1214 Palomino Pinto, was part of the 2006 treasure hunt. I took a drive out to a closing Breyer dealer in Blairsville, PA (Horse & Rider Etc.) in May 2011 when they were liquidating their inventory and mentioned having a bunch of her for sale. I think she was $15.

She only brought home a single 6th place ribbon in her first half dozen times out in the show ring, so I retired her. Her show name was Fashionably Late.

 

 

This Lady Phase from the #1446 Overo Paint Mare & Foal set has been one of my most successful stock horses. She’s placed in some massive classes and has about a 50% success rate in getting a ribbon. Of the 21 times she’s been on the table, she has 10 ribbons, 2 breed NAN cards, and a section reserve champ. I hand-picked her from my friend Bonnie’s Breyer dealership (Breyers By Mail) in February 2012. Her markings are some of the cleanest I’ve ever seen despite the intricacy of her pattern, which might be part of why she does so well in the ring. Her show name is Alice.

 

 

#711161 CC Shuffle Surprise was a BreyerFest special run in 2013. This gal, the blue roan pinto, was the rarest matte color. She’s now retired due to some slight yellowing, but got a couple breed ribbons and a couple collectibility NAN cards in her show career. Her show name was Sheza Lil Loopy, which you can read more about back in my Nov 2025 Show Stoppers post where I talked about goofy names.

 

 

#90174 Bobby Jo is one of my favorite Premier Club releases. I think the sculpt is conformationally excellent and she looks good in a lot of colors. I wasn’t in the Premier Club that year, so I bought her secondhand from my friend Kelly W. in May 2016.

She’s been on the table 15 times so far, placing in breed six times, earning 4 breed NAN cards, and cleaning up at the 2024 NY Breeders Show in Region 10 with a section champ and overall division champ.

 

 

I first talked about #90122 Hope N Glory in my February 2026 Special Effects post, where I discussed the few Connoisseurs in my collection. She has a cool acquisition story; you can read about it back on the other post. Her show name is Phrenology. She gets into the show ring quite a lot because she’s both a good breed horse and a contender in collectibility. She does okay; as I mentioned in my February post, there’s another Hope N Glory in my region that she’s often up against, and that one is a little nicer.

 

 

This #711400 Seven Arts Surprise in glossy bay maximum sabino was a run of 325 pieces at BreyerFest 2019. He was just featured on my blog back in July when I talked about glossy surprise models. He’s been on the show table 7 times and has four ribbons and a section reserve champ so far.

I like naming my horses something analogous to their issue names, so it was a no-brainer to assign him as Bob Ross. I grew up in awe of the real Bob Ross and regularly watched The Joy of Painting on WQLN (our local PBS station in Erie) as a kid. I couldn’t (and still can’t) believe what that man could do with a canvas and oil paint in just 30 minutes.