New Additions: January 2026

One of my 2026 goals was to buy fewer models and spend less money. I’ve long been out of space in the horse room, the Floorses are multiplying at an alarming rate, and I dropped a ton of money last year trying in vain to save my cat, so finding some discipline in both quantity and expenditure was in order.

That lasted exactly 18 hours and 31 minutes into 2026.

 

 

On the evening of January 1, a seller posted this delicious thing, a liver chestnut Pebbles Arabian Mare, on the Peter Stone Sales Page on Facebook. The seller wasn’t sure if she’s a OOAK You-Color-It or a You-Call-It model (the former is your choice of color, pattern, and markings on a pre-selected body, while the latter is pretty much anything goes, including some super extreme customizations), but what she is doesn’t really matter to me. I just said, “Yes, please,” and bought her.

Four days later, my washing machine entered the end of its life cycle. It’s still here, but multiple pieces (that are no longer made) are broken within the drum and it sounds like the bastard offspring of a velociraptor and a bad fan belt when it spins. We’ll have to get a new one sooner rather than later. Luckily that was covered by our home warranty, who sent us a Lowe’s gift card to go pick out a new one.

Two days after that, my water heater crapped out, which was NOT covered by the home warranty, and there went my “fun money” budget for the foreseeable future.

 

However ...

 

 

Then this happened.

 

I shouldn’t have even bought this guy, but come on - he is the definition of what I most enjoy collecting. Arabian? Check. Bay? Check. Glossy? Check. Painted by Audrey Dixon? Check.

Obliteration of Mel’s willpower? Check.

His issue name is Wisenheimer and he was a run of 3 models released in November 2018. I’ve looked at this guy’s picture on the Stone Horse Reference site dozens of times in the past few years. With a quantity of 3, I never thought I’d find one. I messaged the seller as soon as I saw him and said, “I’ll take him.” Didn’t even want more pics. Didn’t negotiate the price or ask for time pays, even though the seller probably would have accommodated the latter since I’ve bought other models from her in the past. I had grabby hands the second I saw him.

He snuck in just ahead of the snow storm we got last weekend, which dumped a foot of snow on us overnight Saturday and into Sunday evening and was followed by an entire week of highs in the single digits/teens and lows as frigid as -14 (this morning). I'm glad the seller shipped him out as fast as she did!

The Singles Bar: The Letter C (Breyer Edition)

Continuing on alphabetically by mold name, today’s Singles Bar post contains my lone wolves on Breyer molds that begin with C.

 

 

This is #711433 Opry, the BreyerFest volunteer model from 2013. There were 155 produced. I’ve had several Clydesdale Mares throughout my collecting years, but she’s the only one who remains.

I was lucky enough to be picked for volunteering that year and received Opry for helping with the diorama contest. I accepted entries Friday morning from 9-12 and gave them back to entrants on Saturday evening from 4-7 once the winners were announced. In addition to getting all the entrants’ information as I accepted their entries, I had to measure the entries with a plexiglass cube to make sure they fit the 12x12x12 requirement.

One gal, a teen in a wheelchair who’d recently had a major surgery and didn’t think she’d make it to BreyerFest at all, came up to the table with her entry pretty early in my morning shift. I could tell right away that the entry was far too tall. Both the entrant and her mom were visibly distressed. I told them that all was not lost - they had til 4:00 to trim down the entry and get it back to the booth. They asked for a pair of scissors and some tape, and spent probably 20-30 minutes moving things around and getting it down to the right size. Once it met the requirement, they turned it in, thanked me profusely - I’m not sure why, as all I did was remind them of the rules and hand them the scissors and tape - and went on their way.

I’m glad they were able to get it submitted, because her entry was one of the winners.

In 2013, they were still announcing all the auction models prior to BreyerFest, and I was a bit disappointed when Opry was announced as the volunteer model. A cream dilute draft? Totally not my thing. (Well, except Pamplemousse, but we’ll get to him another day.) I stuck her on a shelf in my living room when I got home and looked at her every day over the course of several months, and ended up absolutely falling in love with her. She’s still one of my favorite volunteer models to this day.

 

 

I’ve shown her a handful of times in collectibility under the name Patsy Cline. Her biggest win came at a non-NAN-qualifying show with an OF color division, where she was declared the overall champ.

Opry will likely remain my only Clydesdale Mare for the foreseeable future, as the only others on my want list are somewhat difficult and pricey to obtain - the Connoisseur model Lanark’s Rosebud and the BreyerWest special run Del Mar.

 

 

A BreyerFest surprise model named after beer and released the first year they had the beer tent? Yes please!

This is the #711510 Rotating Draft Surprise in silver bay, one of six colors they used on the mold that year. I’m not typically a Cleveland Bay mold fan - he is sooooooooo loooooooong and takes up a ton of room on the shelf - but I had to have one of these as soon as I saw the color. There were 1200 made.

I had an astonishing four BreyerFest tickets that year. In my defense, it was the first BreyerFest back in Kentucky after two years of online-only during the pandemic, and I liked a ton of the special runs. I ended up with four surprises - two Wedgewood pintos, another one I don’t remember (maybe a buckskin pinto?), and a matte gray appaloosa, who ended up being one of the rare ones. A friend of mine avidly congas the Cleveland Bay mold, so I sold him to her for cost, and then bought this silver bay guy from my friend Nina, who had a duplicate. Everyone ended up happy!

Other Cleveland Bays on my wish list include obtainables O’Leary’s Irish Diamond and Griffin. I had a Griffin but sold him at BreyerFest 2024 and instantly regretted it. He wasn’t at all popular due to his Cheetos-orange color, so finding another won’t be difficult. The only unobtainium Cleveland Bay on my wish list is a glossy O’Leary’s Irish Diamond.

 

 

So I have a thing about cows. 

For my birthday one year late in high school or early in college, my sister got me a stuffed Beanie Baby Pillow Pal named Moo-Moo. Moo-Moo became a whole thing in our family. We affectionately refer to her as The Family Disorder - everyone talks to her. My sister crocheted her a sweater. Moo-Moo has been gifted many hats (including some fancy Kentucky Derby hats). My best friend sends her a birthday card every year. Moo-Moo has a whole personality including likes and dislikes, cannot be trusted around beer, and faints every time she hears any beef-related food words.

So when this Cow model, #711256 Diwali, was announced as the animal special run for BreyerFest 2017, she went straight onto my want list. In sixteen BreyerFests, she’s the only animal run I’ve ever purchased from the tent line.

I don’t have any other Cow models on my wish list, not being a collector of the animal molds, but I wouldn’t pass one up if I stumbled upon it in the wild and the price was right.

 

 

This is #B-BF-10089 Miss Independent, a run of 2200 pieces from BreyerFest 2024. I liked the color immediately, but there were others higher on my want list that year and I only had one ticket, so I passed her up.

If she looks downhill, that’s because she is, at the moment - she got a trifle warm during her journey in a shipping container from China and her left front cannon bone softened like overcooked spaghetti, ending up at a 90-degree angle. I can fix her with a heat gun, just need to drum up the courage to do so. I snatched her up during room sales last year for only $40. If I ever show her, her name will definitely be Spaghetti Leg.

I’m quite a fan of this mold, though I haven’t always liked the colors they’ve put on it. The only ones on my wish list at the moment are True North from the Premier Club and the unobtainable raffle model Rangoli.

 

 

This is #712435 Shelbourne, a release from the 2022 Stablemates Collector’s Club. I purchased him direct from Breyer. The Cantering Morgan mold seems popular enough, but I’m not a fan. This guy gets to stay because I like his color and because I like Shiny Things. The only other one I’d like to have is the 2020 BreyerFest single day model, Skye (who is also a Shiny Thing).

 

I have several Stone Chips that are singletons and was going to cover them today as well, but this post is already kinda long. I'm gonna do February Mel a favor and save the Stone Chips for next month.

Other Makes: A Very Special 3D Print

In my first Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth post on November 17, I talked about my cat, Felice, who I lost right before I started this blog (and this blog probably wouldn’t exist yet if I hadn’t lost her). My friends honored her with some amazing gifts, which I included in that post.

Little did I know there was one more coming.

On December 4, I was working at my desk at the back of our living room when I heard the clunk of the mailbox, followed by the beeps of the scanner from the post office. We’d already started to order Christmas gifts by then, so I expected the delivery was one of those. Our area isn’t really prone to porch pirates, but you never know, especially around the holidays, so I usually get all our packages in quickly.

The box was pretty small and addressed to me, and the return address was from a friend and fellow hobbyist, Michelle Weston. I usually wait til after work to open my packages - kind of a reward for getting through the day - but I didn’t remember ordering anything and curiosity got the best of me, so I opened it right away.

 

 

This is what was in the box.

It’s Felice.

 

 

 

When I say it’s Felice, I mean it’s not an approximation of Felice, or a cat that looks sort of like Felice. It’s her. Michelle must have looked at a ton of pictures to paint her, because she nailed it. She got the black that ended above Felice’s right eye but looped around underneath her left, the stripes on her forehead, and the little white patch that went up higher on the left side of her nose than the right.

 

 

 

 

She got the little white patches that went across the back of Felice’s neck, the orange that zigzagged up her back, the orange patch that ran across her hips from side to side, the black patches on both hips, and her mostly-black tail with tiny patches of orange.

 

 

 

She got the big orange spot under Felice’s left arm and the small one under her right arm, and she got the pink and black toe beans. I am awed by the attention to detail.

The miniature Felice came with a card that Michelle had written. My friends Heather B, Kelly K, Kelly W, Heather M, Stacey K, Sara R, Beth E, and Cory H had reached out to her to commission this perfect little replica of Felice for me.

And Michelle didn’t stop there.

 

There was this little ziplock bag in the box. On it was written “Dude.”

 

 

 

Inside was this.

 

 

Which is a miniature version of this - Felice’s favorite toy, her Dude.

Dude is the first toy I bought for Felice. Felice was eight weeks old, just a tiny little thing, and was terrified of me after I chased her down the middle of the Parkway West. I thought she might want something to snuggle with until she warmed up to me, so I went to the pet store that night and bought her this little dog toy, which was about the same size she was, thinking she could cuddle with him.

I don’t know if he ever served his intended purpose those first few days, but as you can see by his bedraggled appearance, she loved the hell out of her Dude her entire life.

 

 

She carried him everywhere. She could barely see over him when she had him in her mouth and looked absolutely ridiculous, but that never stopped her. The picture with the blinds is exactly how I found them that day - she had set him up to watch the birds with her. Sometimes she’d see birds on the back deck and purposely go get him in her mouth to show the birds what a vicious killer she was. (She did that with toy mice sometimes, too. And nevermind that she never killed anything bigger than the occasional spider or centipede.) She’d routinely bring her Dude to me when she was hungry - we called it her “offering.” Whenever she’d bring him to me, I had to acknowledge him; she wouldn’t walk away until I did. At the end of every day, I’d go find wherever she put her Dude and bring him upstairs to put him on the bed where she slept.

My friends didn’t mention anything about Felice’s Dude when they ordered the commission of Felice from Michelle - mini Dude was all Michelle’s doing. He’s the size of my thumbnail. I don’t know how she made something that tiny. He’s perfect, just like mini Felice. I would have loved the Felice sculpture by itself, but having her little Dude to go along with it was the icing on the cake. She and her Dude were inseparable in life, and now mini Felice will be playing with mini Dude forever.

 

It goes without saying that this is one of the most special things in my entire collection, and that I have some of the best friends in the world.

Fantastic Finds: Friend-Assisted Liberations

For today’s Fantastic Finds post, I’m going to show a couple really cool models that friends have found in the wild and then passed along to me.

 

 

In October 2017, my friend Beth (yes, the same Beth who has enabled many of the models I’ve talked about so far) got a text from a friend about some Breyers at an antique store. She went the next day on her lunch break and stumbled upon the mother lode of boxed models from the 70s and 80s. She bought the entire bunch and then offered the ones she didn’t want to keep to our friend group at cost. Man O’ War is my favorite race horse of all time, so as soon as I saw this guy, #47 Man O’ War, with his pristine box, I had to have him.

 

 

Man O’ War had a tremendously long run, from 1967-1995. I knew this guy was from the early 80s due to his box, and this was confirmed when I saw his B stamp, which was put on molds from 1979-ish to 1983-ish to distinguish the plastic blend from their regular cellulose acetate. Like many B stamp models, he is a hair taller and larger overall than my other Man O’ Wars.

 

 

By far the coolest thing about this guy is his ephemera. In addition to his box, he came with a 1980 catalog, his original purchase receipt (how awesome is that!) from June 14, 1983, a plastic bag with a price tag that says K&K Toys, and a Horse of Course magazine subscription insert. 

A quick Google search tells me that K&K Toys was a chain that grew to 136 stores before being acquired by KB Toys in 1991. A fellow hobbyist shared some pictures of her Horse of Course magazines with me and told me it was produced in the 70s and 80s by a veterinarian in New Hampshire.

I’m generally not an ephemera collector, but having this original stuff with him is really freaking neat.

 

 

Another friend of mine, Heather M, also goes antiquing on the regular. She found this lovely palomino #4 Faith, Family Stallion with a mostly-intact sticker and messaged me to see if I wanted him. The answer was definitely yes! The palomino FAS was produced in matte from 1967-1987, but the large blue ribbon sticker dates this one to 1969-1970. My guy doesn’t have the USA stamp, either, which was added sometime in 1970, so he's from earlier in the run.

I only had two stickered models in my collection when Heather messaged me; both were the small blue ribbon and only partial stickers. Having this almost-complete large sticker was something unique for my collection. I show him occasionally at all-collectibility shows. His show name is Stick ‘Em Up.

 

 

In August 2019, Heather M went to a consignment sale, where this guy - #300306 John Wayne’s Dollor, a Tractor Supply Company run of 3000 models in 2006 - was not only marked super cheap, but he was also 25% off. She messaged me about him and I congratulated her on her find - but then I found out she’d snagged him for me! She knew I’d been looking for one for awhile and that I had had some recent near-misses. He was $50 total after the discount. I picked him up from her a couple months later at the QH Congress show.

He’s marked #233/3000 on his belly and his show name is A Fistful of Dollors.

Show Stoppers: Traditional Customs

Of my 1500 or so models, 98% of them are original finish (OF). There are some amazing custom artists out there, but for whatever reason, I’ve never grabbed onto them as a collector the way I have OF plastic. Thus, when I’ve gone to shows, I’ve only had a handful of customs to take with me.

Here are the ones from my Traditional show string. I’ll get to the minis in March.

 

This model is the first custom I ever owned. He started life as a Stone Thoroughbred and was customized into a Warmblood type by Tiffany Purdy. I’ve been a sucker for gray tobiano horses since I saw a gorgeous one at the Ohio State Fair in the mid-2000s when I was living in Columbus. I saw this model for the first time at a local show in December 2010 and instantly fell in love; almost exactly a year after I saw him at that show, he popped up for sale on MH$P, and I pounced. He has a crap-ton of NAN cards from his previous owner and from his show career with me - 17 breed cards, 4 workmanship cards, and 2 performance cards, along with a few champ/reserve rosettes. His show name is Synchronicity.

 

 

This guy is the second custom to join my show string (though not my second custom, as I’d started painting a few of my own by the time I got this guy). He’s a Breyer Big Ben by Sheryl Leisure. I picked him up from a seller on Model Horse Sales Pages in August 2012.

 

 

The tiny details on him are pretty spectacular. 

Breyer has released a lot more competitive warmblood breed molds since I bought him, so he doesn’t show much anymore, but I adore the Big Ben sculpt so he’ll continue to look pretty on my shelves. His show name is Baratheon.

 

 

I bought this Stone Arabian as a nekkid body for $15 at one of the Equilocity events between 2011 and 2014. He stayed sans clothing until early 2016, when I decided it was finally time to do something with him. I sent him to my friend Myla Pearce, who turned him into this incredible dappled bay with tons of shading. She had his base color done in time for a show in April 2016 that we were both attending, so we stuck him on the table and eyeballed him for a little while to decide on leg markings. We turned to each other pretty much at the same time and said, “Something really low on the back right and that’s it?” So that’s what he got.

His show name is Altero, which is Italian for haughty. I thought it was fitting, given his raised head and the expression on his face.

 

*****

In December 2016, Copperfox listed some “blank canvas” models for sale on their website. I’ve always liked their Irish Sport Horse, so I bought one.

 

 

As soon as I opened him, it was clear that he wasn’t just a blank. Someone had started painting him at some point, then abandoned him and hastily slapped on a coat of primer. And I do mean hastily - some places had very little primer coverage, resulting in a lot of texture, and other places had runs and drips from how thick it was.

I knew I wanted a dapple rose gray and that I wanted Sheryl Leisure to paint him. I completed a commission form on her website in March 2017 to see if she was interested. With the submission, I sent a ton of pictures of his poor condition and told her that I would be happy to compensate her for whatever extra time it took to prep him, or that I could send him out to another prepper first if he was too much for her to do. She didn’t hesitate to take him on and didn’t end up charging me any extra for the prep, even though I’m sure it was extensive.

 

 

Four months later, here’s what she did with him! I left his white markings as an artist’s choice, so they’re all what Sheryl thought fit him best. I’m so pleased with how he turned out. I show him fairly regularly; his show name is Maserati.

 

 

In 2019, my friend Beth asked for some help cataloging her collection. Being the utter spreadsheet nerd that I am, I asked her to send me pictures of her shelves and I’d put something together for her. As I was looking at the pictures, I noticed this custom Breyer Silver, painted by Julie Kuiper. He’s part of that weird glitch in my brain that goes, “Dislike cream dilutes. Dislike pintos. OOOOOOO LOVE cream dilute pintos!” I sent her a bunch of heart-eye emojis about him.

A couple months later, in September, Beth said she was willing to sell him to me, but I was short on funds after only working part-time that summer, so I said maybe someday in the future.

That “someday in the future” turned out to be a month later, when Beth and I attended the QH Congress Model Horse Show and Beth just set him on my show table and said, “Here, he’s yours.” I don’t remember why she insisted on giving him to me for free - I had a full-time job by then and could have afforded him - but Beth refused all of my efforts to pay her.

Sometimes friends are just awesome like that.

His show name is Maximum Overdrive.

Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth: Birthday Gifts

After I received my first Breyers as Christmas gifts in 1990, I had Breyers on my birthday wish lists throughout the rest of my teenage years (and even occasionally into adulthood). As I'm sure I've said before, my parents have been wonderful enablers of my collection my entire life.

 

Today’s Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth post will feature some models that I know I received as birthday gifts. There are probably more, but I didn’t really keep track of when I acquired models until 2010, and I had to rely on family photos to help me piece these together.

 

 

This is #810 Action Appaloosa Foal, a regular run from 1989-1993. I got him for my 12th birthday in 1991. Even though I’m not usually big on appaloosas, I’ve always loved this little foal. As one of my first two dozen Breyers, he’s very sentimental to me.

 

 

1991 was a good birthday year, because I also got these guys, the #3040 Black Beauty Family, as gifts. This set had a long run in the Breyer lineup, from 1980-1993, and the molds are named after the models - Black Beauty, Duchess, Ginger, and Merrylegs.

Merrylegs suffered an accident in childhood shortly after I got him - a friend was playing too rough with him and broke his right rear leg. My Dad superglued him back together for me. This mold is pretty tippy to begin with, but Merrylegs’ repaired leg makes it even more difficult for him to stand, so he needs support under his back foot. He’s special enough to me that someday, I’ll send him to a repair artist for a more seamless and sturdy repair.

 

 

This set of three models is #710493 Wild Horses of America, produced for JCPenney in 1993. Nancy Young notes in her book that the projected production amount was 1500 sets, but no official amount was ever recorded. I was obsessed with the Fighting Stallion right from the start so this set was a must-have. I’m not sure if the Mustang from this set was my first, or if I got Rarin’ to Go before him.

I got these guys for my 15th birthday in 1994.

***

I collected only sporadically between 1997, when high school ended, and 2010. This was due to several reasons - the expenses of college, student loans, and grad school being the primary ones. In May of 2010, I quit a very terrible job, and the day I did so, I decided to buy my first BreyerFest ticket. That jump-started me back into collecting.

 

 

As I was browsing the internet and trying to get caught up on hobby stuff, I ran across this model, #712040 Valvella, a run of 700 models produced for the Rolex Three-Day Event at Kentucky Horse Park in 2009. I don't remember where I saw the ad for her, but it was through a retailer. My parents were aware of my renewed interest in the hobby, so I sent the ad to them and said if they wanted to give me something other than cash for my birthday, they could get me her.

So of course, they did.

Though I think she's one of the prettiest Strapless models they've ever produced, there are better sport breed molds out there, in my opinion, so I only show Valvella for collectibility purposes, and usually only at all-collectibility shows where the class lists are bigger. Her show name is Ghost Dance.