Do That Conga: Stone ISH, Part 4

It’s the Fourth of July, and while I wish this country were worth celebrating right now, at least it’s kinda cool that the fourth part of my ISH conga will be presented on the fourth? Today I’ll talk about the short-mane-long-tail version, which is arguably the most used of the non-custom bodies and also arguably my favorite.

 

 

I ordered this Design-A-Horse on January 3, 2020. Because of the pandemic, he took a full six months to get to me. [Ironic that that’s now become the minimum DAH wait time for Stone - and sometimes they take even longer. As of mid-June, there were still folks waiting on DAHs from last September!] 

Though I’m not usually a fan of loudly-patterned horses, I was perusing the albums one day on the Facebook DAH Colors & Patterns group and saw a mid-2010s extreme tobiano with a dark head and thought, wow, that looks really awesome. I am a person who prefers solid dark heads on both real and plastic horses - give me maybe a small star or a thin stripe and that’s about it. I especially like roans and duns, whose dark heads contrast with their lighter bodies.

Stone made a new extreme tobiano DAH pattern for 2019 and continued it into 2020, so I finally ordered one. In gloss, of course. Despite not being factory customized, he holds his own in the show ring against much fancier paint horses. His show name is Ibiza Bar.

 

 

This is #IS17022 Cutter, a regular run in 2002. I bought him in May 2023 from my friend Mandy and picked him up from her a couple months later at BreyerFest to save on shipping. He doesn’t show all that much, but when he does, I kept the name Mandy gave him - Cooper.

 

 

This lovely shaded flaxen thing is Bellame, the Quarter Horse Congress model in 2007. She came in both matte and glossy, and both have been on my want list for a long time. I purchased this matte gal from a seller in Australia in January 2024. Her show name is La Mia Bella, but she’s temporarily retired until I fix an eartip rub.

 

 

I never intended to buy this ISH, #9982 All I Can Bee, a dealer special run of 50 glossed models in 2002. Like, he wasn't on my radar at all. I was arranging to buy a few other ISHs from a seller in New York in early March 2024, and she tossed in a picture of All I Can Bee. He looked like a Shiny Bay Thing (though he’s actually dark chestnut) so I said sure, why not, and tossed him into my “cart” as well. He's rather pretty in gloss.

 

 

I talked about #9980 Lapis Lazuli back in my Winter Blues series - he was my last room sales purchase during BreyerFest 2025.

 

This ISH, #964 Bessie Girl Micia, a run of 200 from 2001, has a funny story.

Last July, not too long after we got back from BreyerFest, my friend Heather B. stumbled across a Facebook marketplace ad for a Breyer collection just a couple miles up the road from me. She messaged the seller and arranged to purchase all the Traditionals in the lot; there were a bunch of Classics as well, and I agreed to buy those. The seller sent grainy pictures of the horses as a large group, taken from mostly overhead. As such, it was not easy to tell what all of them were.

At the bottom of one of the pictures (so viewed almost completely from overhead) was a traditional-sized chestnut stock horse that Heather and I were stumped over. We were all over IDYB, trying to see what sculpt it could possibly be, and tossed around a whole bunch of ideas. An eternity (at least 10 minutes) later, finally, this happened:

Heather: I just can’t think of any trad that looks like that.
Me: Me neither. I’m totally stumped.
Heather: OH
Heather: IT’S AN ISH
Me: OMG
Me: REVOKE MY COLLECTOR’S LICENSE RIGHT NOW
Me: HOW COULD I NOT RECOGNIZE AN ISH

It was the only Stone in the entire collection, so I wasn't thinking about Stones, but with 29 ISHs in my collection, I definitely should have recognized it. Heather doesn't collect Stones, so I ended up with Bessie Girl Micia. She’s not in showable condition at the moment, but if I ever get her touched up, her show name will be Can't See for Lookin'.

There are 20 short-mane-long-tail ISHs on my wish list - with glossy Bellame at the top, of course.

Sentimental Journey: Man o' War

Eeeeeeeeeeeee it’s almost BreyerFest!

Back in 2020, the year where everything sucked and we couldn’t do much of anything, I spent all of July writing lengthy Facebook posts about how important BreyerFest is to me and how much I missed it that year. While a lot of those posts revolved around people and rituals and activities and memories, some were more model-related, and I’ll be borrowing heavily from those. Today is one of those days. My original post content will be in italics.

 

 

 

When I was a horse-crazy kid, my ever-enabling parents bought me some of Walter Farley’s books. While I loved the stories about the adventures of the Black Stallion and Flame [and credit them for my obsession with Arabians], my favorite Walter Farley book was about the legendary Man o’ War. I read that thing cover to cover more times than I can count. I was fascinated by the descriptions of his speed, his size, his spirit, his record stride length, and his absolute dominance on the track. If I had to pick a favorite racehorse of all time, it’s him. [Interrupting to add - American Pharaoh, as the first Triple Crown winner of my lifetime, is a perilously close second.] I have often wished I could have been alive during his time to see how spectacular he truly was.

 

 

Breyer has made several renditions of Man o’ War over the years, in several different scales.  One of my first Breyers as a kid was #47 Man o' War, who was produced from 1967-1995. I started collecting at Christmas in 1990, and according to my records, I had Man o’ War prior to September of 1992, when I photographed my collection for the first time. I don’t know exactly how I came by him, but back then, there were really only two ways I got Breyers - as birthday or Christmas gifts from my parents, or by picking them out at Kraynaks or Toys R Us. My gut tells me my parents are responsible for my ownership of him. 

 

 

I’ve got a few other versions of Man o’ War. My B-stamp (top photo) and chalky (bottom photo) versions of #47 have already been covered in previous blog posts, so I won’t say much about them here. The Classic-scale in the top photo is #9149, who was featured in my December Show Stoppers post. The smaller guy in the top photo is #711282 from the 2018 BreyerFest single-day Stablemates. There were 1750 made. I’m really glad I picked up the full set of single-day Stablemates that year at cost during BreyerFest - their secondary market prices are often $150 and up!

 

 

This lighter Classic-scale is the original release #602 Man o’ War, a regular run from 1975-1990. I got him from my friend Heather B.

 
Someday, I’d love to add a #47 with battleship gray hand-painted hooves, as well as the 48-piece WEG release.

 

I’m going to wrap up this post with the rest of my thoughts from 2020, because I really can’t say any better what Man o’ War means to me.

During my first BreyerFest in 2010, I discovered that Man o' War is buried at Kentucky Horse Park. Most famous horses are not buried whole when they die, but he was – every bone of him is right there at the front of the park, underneath a giant statue, surrounded by a fountain and flowers and plaques describing his life and racing career. I can't describe what it was like the first time I visited him there. I've seen other grave sites of some pretty amazing horses -- Cigar, Affirmed, even the mighty Secretariat -- but none of them have evoked the same feeling I get when I visit Man o' War.  It is always humbling and inspiring to stand just feet away from the final resting place of one of the greatest horses of all time. It’s serene and quiet there, and every year, that is how I purposely choose to end my BreyerFest trip. I love to spend those last few minutes of the best weekend of the year hanging out with him, thinking about how great he was, remembering what it felt like as a kid to read about his achievements, and thanking him for being what he was.

If you want to find me on Sunday at 4:00 after the raffle is done and BreyerFest is over, you know where I’ll be. 

Full Spectrum: Custom G2 Scrambling Foal

This time next week, I will be in Lexington!!!! I can't wait! 

 

I have arranged a couple purchases in advance: The newest edition of my friend Penny's Breyer Animal Quick Reference book, the newest edition of Lesli Kathman's Breeds & Colors book, a cull Grazing Mare purchased from a friend, and four Stones purchased from an estate a few friends of mine are helping to disperse - two Arabians, an ISH, and my first Stone Tennessee Walking Horse!

 

Before I immerse myself completely in the joys of BreyerFest, I've got one more rainbow pony for Pride month. 

 

 

This adorable little thing is the third custom from the group I won at Rainbow Rave Live last year, a rainbow striped G2 Scrambling Foal. She makes a complete family with the two adults.

 

Pride Month has been an interesting experience this year. I'm glad to see companies still promoting it despite the bigotry, discrimination, and threats by the current administration, but the hateful voices have gotten a lot louder, and it's scary to watch our society take giant steps backward in a way that puts folks who are non-white, non-cisgender, non-heterosexual, non-wealthy, and non-male more at risk than ever. We need to do better.

 

Be inclusive and kind, love your neighbor, treat others as you would want to be treated, and value the beautiful diversity of the human experience.