Do That Conga: Stone ISH, Part 3

We’re up for part 3 of my ISH conga - the factory customized (FCM) models.

The 2005 Stone Base manual defined factory customs as, “[S]culpting the molds at the factory with additions or subtractions to the original.” For their upcoming 2026 SHCF show, Stone defines factory customs as: “[M]odels that can have a range of customizing from their standard form up to mane and tail swaps, gender swaps, ear repositioning, and adding unicorn or other smaller horns. Manes and Tails can be altered from the original version (IE tails customized to swish, ends of manes customized to be windblown, manes and tails modified to fit other sculptures).” There’s also a category called Extreme Factory Customized (EFCM), which includes turned/tucked heads, added wings, moved limbs, crazy detailing in the mane/tail (I always call that Spaghetti Hair), adding feather to the legs or extra bulk/less bulk in various parts of the body, or completely coating the body in another texture (for example, the dragon horses they’ve done from time to time that are covered head to toe in scales).

With a few exceptions, I don’t find a lot of Stone’s EFCMs to be realistic or attractive. I look at most of them and say, “Yeah, cool idea, but that’s not how [legs, necks, etc.] work in real horses.” One of my self-imposed collecting rules is that if I’m gonna drop a fortune on a Stone, it has to be showable in breed, and a lot of the EFCMs, while pretty pieces, just aren’t biomechanically sound.

FCMs that have simple mane/tail modifications are more my bread and butter. It’s not a surprise that they’re the most populous ISH body style in my collection. Here they are, in order of acquisition.

 

 

Banjo was a run of 15 windswept ISHs made for the Midwest Horse Fair in April 2019. I love Stone’s strawberry roans (universally, on any mold) so he was a must-have as soon as I saw his picture. Stone allowed orders via Facebook Messenger back then, so I messaged Elaine and snagged one. His show name is Bandurria - I wanted to keep with the theme of a stringed instrument.

 

 

I just talked about White Luna, a run of 7 models produced in 2017, in my bonus post for March about silver things, so you can read her full deets there. Still thrilled I was able to find her.

 

This horse is without a doubt my favorite ISH in my entire collection.

In 2023, I was a member of the Stone Loyalty Club. Members got special early-bird shopping at any in-person events, including Equilocity, which always occurs in Lexington during the same week as BreyerFest. That Friday, I hopped the shuttle from the CHIN over to the Fairfield Inn at the appointed time to get my shopping wristband, and then hung out in the lobby until it was time to go in. I wasn’t really interested in any of the runs, so I went straight to the OOAK tables.

I was initially eyeballing a beautifully shaded seal bay Arabian Foal named Norman, because I don’t have any of that sculpt in my collection and it would have filled a hole in my show string. In the end, though, I couldn’t resist the pull of a bay ISH. His issue name was Bear and he was painted by Dawn Quick. I had him glossed, of course.

 

[Side note: I do hope to still add Norman to my collection someday.]

I say this is my favorite ISH because he immediately grabs my eye from across the room. On multiple occasions, I’ve plunked him on a show table, gone back to my own table, and nebbed on the class from afar, and I’ve seen him and gone, “Wow, who is that, he’s gorgeous!” Only to realize it’s my own horse. I have five solid bay ISHs, four of whom are shiny, and he’s the only one who gets that Wow reaction out of me, every time.

He has been on the table at ten shows so far and has 7 breed NAN cards and 2 collectibility NAN cards. He’s only been completely out of the ribbons once, and given what else was on the table at that show, it was totally fair for him not to place. His show name is Desert Road.

 

 

If forced to choose a second-favorite ISH, it would be this gal, Cheerleader, a run of 14 ISHs from the 2019 Stone Super Bowl event. She was painted by Audrey Dixon and, like most Audrey Dixon chestnuts, it was love at first sight for me. I had a chance to buy her during the sale, but we’d just purchased a house not six months prior, and I couldn’t justify the expense.

In October 2023, a seller listed one on the Peter Stone Sales Page on Facebook, and the rest is history. Her show name is Chalice.

 

 

I have mixed feelings about this ISH.

He’s a DAH who was listed for offers in November 2024 and was immediately bid up higher than most DAHs typically go for. The reason was obvious - he was absolutely gorgeous in the seller’s photos. His sooty parts were super dark and contrasty and he had shiny, satiny finish. I was slightly uncomfortable with how high he went, but ended up with the high offer.

Then I got him in hand and was … seriously underwhelmed. I understand that models can look somewhat different depending on the lighting, but he looked like a totally different horse. He was lighter and washed out, not dark and contrasty like the seller's pictures. I like him significantly less in-hand.

That being said, he’s done pretty well in the show ring so far, with three NAN cards out of four shows. His show name is Gone Overboard - a reflection of how I got caught up in bidding and paid more than I should have.

 

 

Lance of Earth was a run of 30 pieces for the 2022 Art of the Horse event. He came in three colors - palomino, liver chestnut, and black, with 10 pieces made of each color, and he was a gambler’s choice - you didn’t know which color you were going to get. I only liked the liver chestnut, so I decided to wait to see if I could find one on the secondary market - hoping at least one of the ten had been glossed.

In December 2024, a glossy liver chestnut popped up on the Peter Stone Sales Page on Facebook, and I pounced. He has not been shown.

 

 

This is the customized version of Gleema My Star, a run of 30 produced in 2010. He was featured in my “Top 5 purchases of 2025” post. An absolutely gorgeous model. I bought him from my friend Ellen.

 

 

This ISH, Ruffalo, a OOAK produced for the 2019 Midwest Horse Fair (the same event where I got Banjo) and painted by Audrey Dixon, was in my top five most-wanted ISHs since he was released. I put out an ISO for him prior to BreyerFest in 2024; his then-owner responded to the post and said he was not for sale at the time. However, in September 2025, she was ready to part with him and put him up for sale on the Peter Stone Sales Page on Facebook. I didn’t see the post for several hours and thought I’d be too late, but he was still available, and now he is mine. He is unshown.

 

 

Ima Shifty Goodbar, a run of 15 for the 2017 Quarter Horse Congress, was featured in my March 2026 New Additions post, so you can read more about his acquisition details there. I’m so glad I finally have the big one to match the little one! He’s going to his first show this coming weekend. I named him Cagey Clark.

 

Most of the ISHs on my wish list are FCMs. Top of the list are Big Bad Wolf, Excuses Excuses, Firestarter (a 2008 Tom Bainbridge OOAK), Niveous, Rum Runner, and Seeker - because who doesn’t dream of one day owning a Seeker? 

Sentimental Journey: Ducky

In case the cat didn’t make it obvious enough, I am a person who likes rescuing things.

In mid-August 2014, on Blab, fellow hobbyist Amanda Reed shared an eBay link to the dirtiest FAM I’ve ever seen:

 

She was so gross that people didn’t know what she was - a supremely yellowed and/or scorched alabaster? A partially stripped bay or heavily damaged appaloosa? 

Well, she pinged my rescue nerve, so I made an offer significantly lower than the BIN price and to my surprise, the seller accepted. I received her a few days later and broke out my trusty bottle of old Lestoil. I made a thread about her on Blab called “One Ugly Duckling” to track her progress. Most of the photos here are from that thread.

As soon as I started working on her, it became clear that all the brown goo was grease splatter. The seller acquired the model as-is in Nashville, but nothing else was known about her. I wonder if she was just hanging around in a diner somewhere as part of the decor. Here's what her back looked like after the first round of Lestoil and some industrious scrubbing:

After half a bottle of Lestoil, a bunch of toothpaste, and lots time in a sunny window, she looks pretty darn good. She lost some paint from her mane/tail in the process, but I’m really pleased with how she came out. Apologies for the relatively shitty pics; my camera setup back then wasn't the best.

 

I named her Ducky.

Here are both sides of her, from start to finish.

 

(Bottom photo taken today with a much better camera)

(Bottom photo taken today with a much better camera)

Quite the transformation.

 

Here's a pic of our little rescue man from this morning, also, for tax. He's about the cutest thing ever.

 

New Additions: April 2026

How is it almost May already?

I was again fairly well-behaved in April, adding only three models to the collection. (I think. I may have forgotten something. I do that a lot.) Here they are, in the order received.

 

[Cat update following the models; I will neither know nor be offended if you skip straight there. 😉]

 

 

#CF615G, Toby, was a run of 250 models produced by Copperfox in 2017. I like Copperfoxes a lot, especially this sculpt, but for whatever reason, a Toby never landed on my shelves. There was one in the Copperfox sale on Valentine’s Day, but I forgot to check the sale until they were thirty or so minutes in, and I missed him.

A few days later, my friend Macie posted about her National Show Horse conga on her blog (if you don’t already follow it, I highly recommend it!) and in the first picture of that post, Toby was visible on the top shelf. I jokingly messaged her that I was grabbing him and running off with him, and she said, “I actually could probably be persuaded to part with him.”

I didn’t end up having to do much persuading. 

She threw more pictures of his glossy goodness into our Messenger thread and said she still had his box and COA, and it was pretty much a done deal. She then reached out to a mutual friend of ours, who helped us set a price for him that both of us were happy with.

 

 

I haven’t participated in Breyer’s Collector Club Appreciation (CCA) Sale since … 2021? It’s been awhile. I knew I was doomed to participate this year the second I saw the glossy blue Big Lex as one of the four models you could receive. I ordered a bunch of pony pouches (because the last thing I need is more models) and the CCA model, and hoped for the best.

Luck was not on my side. I’m not a cream dilute fan in general, and I could already tell from the response to the sale that Cloud was going to be the least popular (and the least likely to be able to trade for a Big Lex), so of course that’s who I got. He’s been sitting on the dining room table for a couple weeks now, but the more I look at him, the more I like him. The chalky basecoat helps a lot. He might end up staying.

 

 

Unlike last year, when I signed up for both the Stablemates Club and the Premier Club, I didn’t choose to sign up for any of the optional clubs this year. I just went for my usual, the Deluxe Collector Club - because seriously, who doesn’t want that bay mini PAM?

So of course they had to release my favorite G1 sculpt, the Quarter Horse Stallion, as part of this year’s Stablemates Club, #B-CS-10578 Westley. Luckily Macie intervened again - she would end up with an extra and asked if I wanted him at cost. Damned right I did! She even had him shipped direct to me from Breyer.

That’s the end of the model acquisitions. Now to hijack the blog again for a cat update; the number of comments I got on the last one seems to indicate to me that yinz don’t really mind the subject matter detour.

 

Our little rescue guy is doing pretty well. He went to the vet yesterday and was terrified, but still a sweet, gentle soul. He didn’t growl or hiss or anything; just tried to become one with the back wall of his crate. He got really stressed when they tried to get bloodwork from him; they quickly deemed it not worth it. I’ll bring him back next week with some good old gabapentin on board to help keep him calm. I wanted some answers about his FIV/FeLV status and some reassurance that his overall systems were healthy, but we’ll have to wait a few more days. As much as I want to know exactly what we’re dealing with, I’m 100% okay with doing things on the little guy’s timeline.

The vet thinks his skin wounds were from scratching rather than cat bites - she didn’t see any evidence of puncture wounds or abscesses. That was reassuring. We didn’t find any live fleas on him last night and he didn’t itch at all while we were with him, so hopefully that means we’re getting on top of the problem. My boyfriend washed all his blankets and gave the room a thorough vacuum while I had the little guy at the vet. To my absolute shock, his fecal came back negative for everything. We’re going to give him the dewormer anyway, though, since I know he probably ate some fleas. Tapeworms are a hard nope.

Everything else about him looks good so far. His digestive system is a little wonky from the food change, but that should take care of itself soon enough. (I’m also going to see if I can get him to eat Felice’s favorite thing ever - canned pumpkin.) 

 

The vet thinks he’s a year or two old, which fits with the timeline from the colony caretaker. 

 

He continues to make progress in getting comfortable with us and his space. On Monday night, he gave himself a fairly thorough bath while we were sitting near him in the room. Last night, he gave himself a full bath while sitting on my lap. (And I mean a full bath ... raised leg and all.) He has shown trust with us from the very beginning, but to have him comfortable enough in his space to groom on my lap, rather than curling up to make himself as small and unnoticeable as possible, was awesome.

He’s a pretty great little guy. Name is still TBD, but the list is getting smaller.

 

One final picture. You know that feeling you get on the back of your neck when you're being watched? I had that this morning after I sat down at my work desk. Turned around and this is what I saw.