Ok, so some housekeeping first.
The right side pane now lists the blogs I follow (which I highly recommend checking out!) and I have a follow button of my own. A friend (thanks Macie!) also pointed out that my blog posts weren't listed on the side for easy catch-up. That meant scrolling ... and scrolling ... and scrolling. Which, nope, so I fixed that, too.
A thousand thank yous to those who have faithfully tuned in despite my technical ineptitude. I'm apparently That Person who builds complex Power BI data models and dashboards for a living and plays with Excel formulas for fun, but has to read Reddit threads and watch YouTube videos to lay out a simple blog. Sigh.
On to the ponies!
Remember the last one of these, where I talked about my awesome friends? Today’s Gift Horse post is actually about horses this time – all the models I received as gifts from friends this year.
This awesomely maroon (ha!) dude is #10118, Beowulf, the 2024 Halloween horse. I love the Semi-Rearing Mustang – I have a dozen of the things – but I was a little leery of buying this guy because of some controversy surrounding his design. Turns out I didn’t need to worry about buying one, because my friend Heather B gifted me one in March when she found herself with an extra.
These three lovely creatures are the other Classics I got for free in April from my friend Donna S (the fourth being the Spanish Norman Toys “R” Us special run from last month’s Special Effects post).
The lighter bay is Jet Run from the #3035 U.S. Equestrian Team Gift Set, a long-standing regular run from 1980-1993. This particular Jet Run has a B stamp, indicating he was made with cellulose propionate instead of cellulose acetate, which puts his production between 1980 and 1982. (Cellulose propionate can't be reground and mixed with cellulose acetate, so they had to have a way to distinguish the former from the latter.) I have been known to seek out B stamp models in the past, so having this guy end up being one is pretty neat.
The chestnut is from the #3055 Classic Arabian Family, an even longer regular run from 1973-1991. Some had tan feet and some had gray; I’m not sure which is more common. Of my four #3055 CAMs, three have tan feet and one has gray.
The dark bay is #601, Kelso, who was a regular run from 1975-1990. He doesn’t have a Breyer stamp, indicating he’s one of the earliest releases, which is also really cool.
And now for a longer story.
The Friday of this year’s BreyerFest, I woke up with a debilitating tension headache. I’ve been getting them with increasing frequency over the past year and they’re right on par with my migraines as far as intensity, pain, and general disruption to my life.
I was surprised by this particular headache, but looking back, I shouldn’t have been. BreyerFest is a week of sheer craziness from one end to the other, with intense heat, a lot of activity, little sleep, poor hydration, and a few missed meals, plus I was really stressed from worrying about Felice. A bad headache was practically gift-wrapped for me.
I couldn’t stand the thought of missing a whole day of BreyerFest, though, so I dragged myself out of bed, showered, forced myself to eat something, took a lot of ibuprofen and Tylenol, downed some Liquid IV (which is seriously amazing stuff), and went to Kentucky Horse Park with my roomies.
Due to a severe underestimation of the number of people wanting to enter KHP on Friday morning, the line was still horrifically long at 11:30 when we arrived. My roomies braved the long line and blazing sun, and wouldn’t hear of it when I said I’d wait with them. They installed me under a tree by the gate and settled everything with the staff manning the entry so I could just hop in line when they reached the front. We picked up our special runs first, and then I held everyone’s bags and spent a good ninety minutes up in the air-conditioned section of the covered arena where the Breyer staff eat their lunches, sitting on the floor in a corner with my sunglasses on and trying not to throw up, while my roomies were waited in line and shopped at the Breyer store. A couple of the staff checked in to make sure I was okay, which I also appreciated, and said I wasn’t bothering them at all being up there. My friend Cory kindly snagged a set of the Best of BreyerFest stablemates for me while she was there, and we settled up later. My roomies took really good care of me all day.
Before heading back to the hotel, everyone wanted to eat, so we went to the café near the front entrance. I ordered a plain chicken sandwich, still not trusting my stomach. As I was setting my food down, my friends Beth E and Sara R came into the café. Beth said, “We got you something,” and handed me two models.
The Friday of this year’s BreyerFest, I woke up with a debilitating tension headache. I’ve been getting them with increasing frequency over the past year and they’re right on par with my migraines as far as intensity, pain, and general disruption to my life.
I was surprised by this particular headache, but looking back, I shouldn’t have been. BreyerFest is a week of sheer craziness from one end to the other, with intense heat, a lot of activity, little sleep, poor hydration, and a few missed meals, plus I was really stressed from worrying about Felice. A bad headache was practically gift-wrapped for me.
I couldn’t stand the thought of missing a whole day of BreyerFest, though, so I dragged myself out of bed, showered, forced myself to eat something, took a lot of ibuprofen and Tylenol, downed some Liquid IV (which is seriously amazing stuff), and went to Kentucky Horse Park with my roomies.
Due to a severe underestimation of the number of people wanting to enter KHP on Friday morning, the line was still horrifically long at 11:30 when we arrived. My roomies braved the long line and blazing sun, and wouldn’t hear of it when I said I’d wait with them. They installed me under a tree by the gate and settled everything with the staff manning the entry so I could just hop in line when they reached the front. We picked up our special runs first, and then I held everyone’s bags and spent a good ninety minutes up in the air-conditioned section of the covered arena where the Breyer staff eat their lunches, sitting on the floor in a corner with my sunglasses on and trying not to throw up, while my roomies were waited in line and shopped at the Breyer store. A couple of the staff checked in to make sure I was okay, which I also appreciated, and said I wasn’t bothering them at all being up there. My friend Cory kindly snagged a set of the Best of BreyerFest stablemates for me while she was there, and we settled up later. My roomies took really good care of me all day.
Before heading back to the hotel, everyone wanted to eat, so we went to the café near the front entrance. I ordered a plain chicken sandwich, still not trusting my stomach. As I was setting my food down, my friends Beth E and Sara R came into the café. Beth said, “We got you something,” and handed me two models.
Beth knew I hardcore conga the G2 Appaloosa - it’s tied with the G2 Warmblood for my largest Stablemate conga, at 32 pieces - so she grabbed this guy for me from one of the sample bins in the BreyerFest store. This colorway was used in a couple sets over the years: the regular run #59197 Little Red Stable and the Target special run #720597 Red Stable Set.
I took a picture of my sample guy (on the left) with my matching #59197 Little Red Stable model (on the right). The sample guy is darker and oranger in coloring, while the regular run is lighter and softer. I love that they’re different and easy to tell apart!
Sara was aware of how much I love the colorway on the Classic-sized American Quarter Horse Stallion from the Playful Pony Family set (first issued through Tractor Supply, now a regular run). We had even split one of the sets earlier in the year, as I only wanted the Stallion and she only wanted the Mare & Foal. As soon as she saw this sample guy in the Breyer store, she knew I had to have him. The regular run set came with some fences, which were included in the bag with him.
I thanked Beth and Sara both profusely and told them I’d pay them for the models, but they both said, “Nope, you’re having a hard day. We got them for you to cheer you up.”
I am not a crying-in-public sort of person, nor am I an “I’m going to hug you when I’m sweaty and gross” kind of person, but I sure did both that day.
I hope everyone is lucky enough to have friends in their life as great as the ones I have in mine.
I thanked Beth and Sara both profusely and told them I’d pay them for the models, but they both said, “Nope, you’re having a hard day. We got them for you to cheer you up.”
I am not a crying-in-public sort of person, nor am I an “I’m going to hug you when I’m sweaty and gross” kind of person, but I sure did both that day.
I hope everyone is lucky enough to have friends in their life as great as the ones I have in mine.
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