Meet Brittany of Brittany's Breyers!
Horse crazy as a child, not changing much as an adult, Brittany started collecting Breyers when she was gifted the Misty and Stormy set as a young girl. When she got her first job as a teenager, she'd go to the local farm store each week (who also was a Breyer dealer) and purchase a new Breyer with her paycheck. Born into a family that just didn't understand horses, her parents tried hard to sway her away but when they saw it wasn't going to work, they finally gave in. Brittany would always beg her parents for a pony ride at the fair and began riding in 4-H as soon as she was old enough at 9 years of age, her first mount being a BLM branded Mustang which she boarded at the group for $50/month. On her 11th birthday, she was gifted her first horse, a blood red chestnut Thoroughbred mare named Camry that she rode until Camry was 28 years old.
As a teenager, she began volunteering at a farm animal rescue working primarily with the horses. Even the president of the sanctuary recognized that horses were in her blood and referred to her as a "horse whisperer" for her ability to control difficult horses. The sanctuary provided secondary homes for off track racehorses and retired buggy horses from the nearby Amish community. By the time she was 16 years old, she was a sanctuary board member, and the youngest at that. Through the sanctuary, she got to work with many breeds including Quarter Horses, Standardbreds, Belgians, Percherons, Arabians, Paint Horses, Appaloosas, ponies, a Hackney and her favorite of all: Thoroughbreds. She became a well rounded rider because of it with lots of experience in no particular discipline and was also the guinea pig placed on the green horses that came to the rescue.
Once she graduated from receiving her degree in Information Technology, she got married and started a family. The responsibilities took up too much of her time so, during this time, she dove into Breyer collecting and never looked back. The models helped replace a piece on her heart she lost when she could no longer work with real horses. Although she did some training jobs and rode friends' horses on the side, she didn't get her next real horse for about 6 years while she raised her children. In 2008 she started her eBay business for side income, followed by her blog in 2015 and moved her eBay sales primarily to her website in 2020.
The family moved to Kentucky in 2022 to start a horse rescue using the funds made from Brittany's Breyer business as startup. The year before, they searched high and low over Kentucky to try to find the flattest piece of land possible with good grass for grazing... and it wasn't easy given the state's many forests and the Appalachian mountains running through it, but they finally found the perfect place. Nestled in the Pennyroyal region of Kentucky near the Green River, they purchased a plot of open land with only a few sparse shade trees and an old barn that could fit six stalls in it. They hauled her horse at the time, an OTTB named Ace, the 7 hour drive from Northeast Ohio to south central Kentucky. Thus, Rock N Rohl Ranch (using our last name as a pun) was born.
The family moved to Kentucky in 2022 to start a horse rescue using the funds made from Brittany's Breyer business as startup. The year before, they searched high and low over Kentucky to try to find the flattest piece of land possible with good grass for grazing... and it wasn't easy given the state's many forests and the Appalachian mountains running through it, but they finally found the perfect place. Nestled in the Pennyroyal region of Kentucky near the Green River, they purchased a plot of open land with only a few sparse shade trees and an old barn that could fit six stalls in it. They hauled her horse at the time, an OTTB named Ace, the 7 hour drive from Northeast Ohio to south central Kentucky. Thus, Rock N Rohl Ranch (using our last name as a pun) was born.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote Little House on the Prairie, was Brittany's author as a child and read her entire book series. She'd always dreamed of living out west, but unfortunately being tied to family in the east made that big of a move difficult, so she had to improvise. The land they bought in Kentucky reminded her of the prairie lands Laura mentioned in her book. Like Laura's family, Brittany and her husband built up the house starting with a bare bones cabin kit and added their own designer touches to the interior to create the dream home they'd been wishing for. All in all, the project took about 9 months total. They plan on completely renovating the old barn in 2024.
Now, the majority of her business sales goes towards her real rescued horses rather than her own Breyer collection. She started a rescue blog for her real horses. She also loves birds in addition to horses (the Birds of a Feather series is her favorite so far) and has a couple parrots that keep her company when she's not outside. As far as her Breyer collection goes, she continues to be a Stablemate, Vintage and Premier club member every year. Her personal collection consists of about 100ish traditional models (that's basically all she's got room for in their cabin) and about double as many stablemates. In addition to running her online business, she also works full time for a big name shipping company.
Now, the majority of her business sales goes towards her real rescued horses rather than her own Breyer collection. She started a rescue blog for her real horses. She also loves birds in addition to horses (the Birds of a Feather series is her favorite so far) and has a couple parrots that keep her company when she's not outside. As far as her Breyer collection goes, she continues to be a Stablemate, Vintage and Premier club member every year. Her personal collection consists of about 100ish traditional models (that's basically all she's got room for in their cabin) and about double as many stablemates. In addition to running her online business, she also works full time for a big name shipping company.