As I prepare for Breyerfest (in essence is still a bit less than three months away but will be here before we know it) around this time to help quell not only my sanity, but yours I'm sure as well, I do a part of my blog called Random Ramblings where I talk about other aspects of the hobby than just new releases. It could really be about anything as far as the hobby goes, which is why I call it "random" ramblings. Today, for instance, I finally finished unpacking all of my collection. I have a lot more horses than I last counted, apparently, and finding shelf space was... agonizing to say the least. I couldn't bring my shelves with me from Ohio, as they were built into our walls and ripping them out wouldn't have made the new owners happy to find the damage they'd leave. When we purchased our Kentucky house, I did ask how much shelf space they'd be willing to put into the house, and they kind of looked at me like I was crazy when I told them I'd probably need a whole room full. They were only willing to put in a closet full of shelves so I still had to buy a couple bookshelves. I finally found a place for everyone, and now I'm happy to have my models on display again. Yes, it took me this long. Don't even ask how our new barn and real horse pasture are coming along... Going through my collection made me stop and think. I've been concentrating so hard on limited editions and special runs that my regular runs are quite limited in my collection. My question to myself is... why? After all, when I first started collecting - and I'm sure a lot of others started this way to - the very first horse I bought myself (not including the Misty/Stormy set gifted to me at Christmas) was regular run Barbaro, and I was happy with him. I liked his color, the slight metallic sheen, the expression in his eyes. He was just a plain bay, but so what? He was the portrait model of a real horse I'd never own but could have in my bedroom. I remember mine even had a slight variation in the form of a sock on his hind leg. Sadly, I no longer have him in my collection, as I sold him off when I let go of my racehorses, but I do still have Treasured Move, another regular run that is sentimental to me. Her buddies on the same mold, the grulla overo mare from the mare/foal gift set that I named "Third Times a Charm" back when I still showed Breyers and Truly Unsurpassed, are also regular runs that I can't seem to part with. If flashy horses are your thing: Adiah HP, the Gangsters and Spordur fra Bergi are today must-haves. These guys have complicated patterns similar to a lot of the lottery run models Breyer makes that goes for $150+. Bluegrass Bandit, when she came out, had a coat color and dappling similar to the connoisseur series, yet she was a regular run. Today she is still relatively reasonable in price, and I'm thankful that Breyer makes these beauties in the regular run line for us to enjoy without breaking the bank.
I always love the eye candy I get from seeing the super rare Breyerfest volunteer models, raffle models or show prize models. However, at the same time, if I received one myself I'd honestly take the money over the model and live with the regret of selling it because if I kept it, I'd always be afraid of something happening to it to depreciate its value. A horse worth a couple hundred I'd probably keep, but not thousands. One little bump off the shelf and that $1000 would go down to $500 easily. At least with regular runs, if anything happened to them, you know you could easily replace them. I ended up selling the majority of my Stone collection because I felt like I was spending too much money for the risk of something happening to them. I had no idea before I sold my Stones how hard they were to sell. Even in perfect condition, I ended up having to sell each of them for far less than what I paid in order to get them sold. A couple of them had been sitting for a few months with no serious takers. Can you imagine how little I would've gotten if they had any kind of flaws? From now on, I'm going to be a bit more picky about what I add to my Stone collection because apparently I'm only going to be collecting for keeps when it comes to them. I decided to focus on DAHs instead, not only because they're less costly than the runs. The DAHs are now only being offered once a month, but hey ya gotta fight for the runs too, right? Back in the day, most Breyer model horses were basecoat chalky, meaning that a layer of white coating was put on before the paint was applied. This "primer" often would show only on white areas (like facial markings, socks and spots) or when the horse got a rub, especially on the hooves where rubbing was most common. While these vintage chalkies were pretty common back then, now they're worth slightly more than a non-chalky counterpart. I only own a handful of chalkies, all modern chalkies. Some of them, like Fabio and the Lillian/Molly set through the Vintage Club whom are in my collection, were intentional chalkies, meaning Breyer purposely made them all that way. Basically this means that their white markings are basecoat white and not bare plastic, so they won't yellow like pintos with bare plastic white areas. Since these guys were made purposely to be chalky, their prices are the same for all models... in other words, someone else's Fabio is worth the same as my Fabio should I go to sell him. I'm not, this is just an example. Now on the other hand, if there were chalkies thrown into a group of mostly non-chalky models, that would be a different story. One example of intentional chalkies was the Indian Pony, a buckskin with appaloosa markings made as a regular run on the Appaloosa Performance Horse mold. I believe it was every 1 in 6 were chalky with white basecoated markings, much richer shading and Indian war paint markings. These soared off the shelves and are still highly collectible, often selling over $100 even today. In 2015 Tractor Supply introduced a little palomino named Jesse... I wrote about him in my TSC Exclusives post last week, and I got a couple emails asking what did I mean by the chalky variation. Even today, most people don't know how to tell a chalky horse from a non-chalky horse. Whether this was an intention variation made by Breyer or possibly even repaints of leftovers on the mold, there were a few chalky variations going around when he was first released to TSC stores. After those first ones sold out, they were replaced by the regular, non-chalky colored specimens. Not every TSC store got in chalkies though... my own store didn't. I went around to several others and they didn't either. Try as I might, I just could not find the chalky variation, so I eventually sold the one I did have and just went without for a few years. Fast forward to this year, 2021, when a Jesse popped up on Mercari. I looked at it's pictures and could tell immediately from the darkness of the shading that this was a chalky. The seller didn't know that, as she said she was selling her daughter's collection so she knew nothing about them. I offered her $50 more than her asking price but she refused to take it, saying that they were sentimental and just wanted him to go to a good home. So chalky Jesse came to live with me for only $50 and I promised her he'd be here to stay. Just look at the shading on this boy! It definitely pops! Also note that his mane is colored versus the lighter mane on the original posted above. The boldness of the coloring is a huge giveaway. However, not everyone would be able to tell based off just that alone. The biggest way to tell if a horse is chalky or not is by looking at the white markings. A basecoat chalky horse will have painted on white markings, however the chalky that people refer to with Jesse is having a basecoat under the coat but the markings are still bare plastic. You can see in the pictures below around his blaze and sock it looks kind of crusty, as if it has been etched. Those are his layers showing through, that's his basecoat outline. This is the easiest way to tell if a horse is chalky or not, especially if it's new in box. Apparently regular run Hwin was another that came in chalky and non-chalky specimens. The chalky specimens were ironically also found at Tractor Supply, believe it or not. Maybe the factory that makes the Tractor Supply exclusives really does get leftover regular runs that didn't sell and give them a newly repainted coat? As with Jesse, my local TSC store didn't get in any chalky Hwins so I settled with the regular. She's still a stunner but it is nice always finding the rarer version, like when I found a glossy GG Valentine and Heartbreaker the first year they came out. Never was so ecstatic in my life. There was also the issue with some people finding glow in the dark Stellas at TSC but, of course, my local TSC store never gets in anything good. I did find the chase from the Spirit series 2 blind bags there one year though so I guess I shouldn't say never.
I hope this helps you understand a bit more about how to tell a chalky versus a non-chalky. The Tractor Supply limited editions were something I've always had a love/hate relationship with, mostly because the majority were stock horses, which makes sense since TSC is a Western store, but I'm not much of a stock horse fan myself unless it's a Quarter racehorse - which is usually in all essence a QH/TB cross from racing QH lines - then maybe. So in the beginning, I wasn't too interested in them. It started with Riderless, a grullo horse on the Flash mold dedicated to the Pony Express. The next few years, the Tractor Supply horses took a bit of a turn to concentrate on John Wayne's horses. Unfortunately, although my grandmother loved the Bonanza series, John Wayne was a bit too old for me so I never really was interested in that either. Since the majority of TSC shoppers were from that generation, it was a good call for Breyer to target that particular audience. It started with Dollor, who was a blood red chestnut in gloss on the Smart Chic Olena mold. It was followed by Duke, a white grey horse on the American Saddlebred Stallion mold. Zip's Cochise was next and I'm kicking myself for not keeping the one that I bought because I cannot find him anywhere now but I did own him at one time and sold him for dirt cheap. Banner was the final Bonanza horse, a glossy plain bay on the San Domingo mold. All these horses were hand numbered on the belly. In 2010 the focus still stayed on famous stock horses but no longer included Bonanza movie horses, and for the first time included two models to choose from instead of just one limited edition. Both horses were plain chestnuts, both on vintage molds. One was of Doctor T. Tari (aka Popcorn) who was a portrait model of a Quarter Horse on the Ranch Horse mold, the other was of Templeton Thompson's - the famous singer - horse, Jane, on the Stock Horse Mare mold. In 2011 the Tractor Supply models kind of went into a slump. Instead of releasing a Tractor Supply exclusive model, they instead released Kanaretah as a mid years release who ended up at some TSC stores. Another whom I now regret I never bought since he's now worth over $200, he was a beautiful grullo with Indian feathers in his mane and tail on the popular - at the time - Nokota mold. This is one grail I think I'm just going to have to live without. In 2013 the shift yet again changed from famous horse portrait models to now focusing on stock horse breeds. The first was Dillon, a splatter dapple grey (vintage style) appaloosa mustang stallion on the Semi Rearing Mustang mold. This boy I actually still own to this day, but he's the oldest of the first TSC exclusives that I do still own. The next year came another double They released Travis, a black and white pinto Sport Horse on the Carrick mold and Maverick, a grullo Missouri Fox Trotter on the same mold name. When Jesse the Quarter Horse was released on Wyatt in 2015, I remember trying to find the chalky variation. He was going for a ridiculous amount of eBay at the time so I was trying to find one myself, but between three TSC stores I went to, I couldn't find the chalky variation. After this many years of searching, I was able to find one just this year for only $10 more than the original price, so those of you who are on the lookout for something rare, don't give up. It'll come with time. The next year was another double year with Garrett, a Quarter Horse, and Santana, a Mustang. I don't collect the Silver mold due to him being too tall for my shelves, and I thought that Santana looked too much like the Treasure Hunt horse, so I passed on him. Garrett, on the other hand, I wanted to add to my SMO conga, however when I got him in hand I admittedly wasn't too impressed. I don't even know what to call his color... a buckskin roan? Bay roan? Though his roaning looked more like flea bites than actual white hair roaning. Basically I ended up reselling him because I couldn't find a flawless specimen. I admittedly loved the dappled palomino coloring on Lakota but I can't stand the Black Beauty mold quite literally because... well... she can't stand. I cursed Breyer to high Heaven for using that mold with that drop dead gorgeous color that year. Jacy I didn't like at all. He was a fleabitten grey without much shading and he was on the Geronimo mold, who with his boring pose needed a flashier paint job than that for me to purchase him. 2018 brought about a flashy guy named Boone, who looked like the twin of Salpicado, another horse whom I had at the time. I had to have Boone, although he came with a bazillion flaws. Jasper was another released this year, on the Desatado mold, but being a plain bay I decided not to add him to my collection. Getting into more modern times, many of you probably remember the 2019 TSC exclusives, which were (in my personal opinion) one of the best years yet. They came out with not just one, not even two, but THREE limited editions. My favorite was Sampson, the buttermilk buckskin on the Gypsy Vanner mold, who also had a few chalky specimens floating around. Then there was Hakan, a buckskin appaloosa on the Smarty Jones mold. Finally there was Stella who, despite being on the Bluegrass Bandit mold, was too plain for my collection, although several people did report her coming with glow in the dark plastic. Last but not least, for 2020 came yet another trio. Eclipse was by far the most popular, being on the Emerson mold definitely helped but also because of his blue iridescence on his black spots. He is a part of my own collection. Next was Solidago, who wasn't nearly as popular being on the cartoon-y Boomerang mold. However, his dunalino color isn't too common in Breyers so he also ended up in my personal collection. Lapwai, however, didn't make the cut just because of her bay coloring. I did like though that they gave her a Native American name since she's an appaloosa. She was on the Marabella mold. I'm hoping we see the 2021 TSC exclusives soon. In the meantime, I was sent a picture of this year's horses. There is Sayan, a bay Mustang on the Indian Pony mold. Cirrus, a grey American Quarter Horse on the Bobby Jo mold. Finally there is Wilder, an Arabian/Appaloosa cross that looks similar in coloring to Oak from Breyerfest, on the Ethereal mold. I need Cirrus for sure for my own collection and Wilder looks promising, but most likely my local Tractor Supply won't get them in until September/October when they start putting out their Christmas stuff (the only time they carry Breyers around here) and that also more than likely that also includes the new stablemates that have been floating around the internet. The chase piece in that series is gorgeous and is another I really hope I get to add to my own collection with time. ***Not my picture. All credit goes to the original photographer.
These next few weeks winding down to Breyerfest are going to be rough. I'm trying hard to avoid MH$P, Mercari, eBay, Facebook marketplace and anywhere else that sells model horses so I can save for Breyerfest, mostly room sales because I only want a couple of the Breyerfest special runs for my own collection. For what was supposed to be a colorful year, I was expecting more... roans? Rabicanos? Peacock spotting? Maybe even mapping like Sprinkles? Then I realized something... they all have doppelgangers and I already own most of their past look-alikes. If this is your first Breyerfest, or if you've only been going for a few years, you may have never even known about these doppelgangers. We'll start with my favorite for this year, Uffington, who looks a lot like the Quelle Surprise cremello on the Lonesome Glory mold. The reason he appealed to me most is because I wasn't lucky enough to pull the rare cremello. I ended up with the chestnut pinto instead, my second favorite because of his metallic sheen and blue eyes, but it would have been nice to have pulled that beautiful cremello. Since I don't have the cremello in real life, I had to use the Quelle Surprise picture from the Identify Your Breyer website as a reference, and I feel I still need to give credit to Janice Cox even though she is sadly no longer with us for the use of the photo. If you don't know her, she was the face behind IDYB, which most of us, if not all of us in the hobby have used at one time or another. Her website the best encyclopedia on Breyers out there. I only hope someone is able to save the website that Janice Cox put years into to honor this amazing collector. Next... Pech Merle. Recognize him from Breyerfest 2014? I didn't at first, but it has come to my attention that he is very similar to Bonne Fete. The bay extended blanket appaloosa with realistically shaded hooves is the same, though I think Bonne Fete has a bit more detail. He has ghost spotting, lightning stripes on the legs, mottling on the nose and a silver tail. I currently own Bonne Fete and I think that's why I don't really care to own Pech Merle. Gran Cavallo is the less roan-y version of By A Nose. The sabino pattern is very similar. As with By A Nose, there may be some models with more roaning than others, which is why I'm on the fence about this guy. If I can get hold of one with quite a bit of roaning (I think I see some around his haunches) then I may add him. I'm imagining that Seurat was meant to look like Chanel. Unfortunately her sooty dappled palomino color ended up being a lot more orange than brown in real life. At least mine did though I've seen lots of variation in coloring with her. I'm praying the same thing doesn't happen with Seurat. Anyone remember the store special Mark of Distinction the chestnut pinto Saddlebred? Well, Tassili looks very similar, but instead of pearling Tassili will be glossy. Still, the horses look pretty similar. I think because I own Mark of Distinction already, this is why I don't want Tassili. Also, more recently, he kind of looked like the Hero's Welcome Surprise chestnut pinto from 2019 minus the blue eyes. If we're on the subject of the Hero's Welcome Surprise, Apollo looks almost identical to the champagne, and though Ansel doesn't look like a Breyerfest horse of the past, he does look like a Collector Club special run that I own... Out of the Blue. The blue roan pinto is almost exactly the same. I do plan to try for him, as I do like blue roans, however I think I would've liked him more if they'd left the white out. To top it off, we all know that Pollock is a cross between rainbow horses Prism, Spectrum and Giverny.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the brindle Josie and Rheverence are really the only colors not previously used for Breyerfest before, so they are the ones I'm mostly hoping to obtain for my own collection. Hard to believe that we now have only 2 weeks until the big event! Vermeer was released this past week, and he had some people who loved him while others... not so much. I wanted to love this horse, I truly did, but there's just something about him that I can't seem to put my finger on. It's neither the color nor the mold I dislike but more the combination of both of them. A Knabstrubber would have looked stunning in this color pattern, and vice versa the mold in a color like silver black, bay roan or dapple grey. Yes, I know that Friesians don't come in any of those colors, but plain black would have Premier Club members really upset that they're paying that much for a plain black horse, plus they're more of a drafty color than appaloosa. People are starting to get them in hand already, and while I do think he looks better than I was expecting, there is so much variation amongst them that I'm kind of glad I didn't take the gamble. The horse on right looks great, very similar to how Blaylock originally designed him. The horse on the left, however, looks more like what I would have expected. The grey is way too faint and hard to see, and the horse has less of a creamy color. Most of them looked like this. I can't wait to see what they come out with on this mold in future. I kind of wish they would have held off on making Harley until after they released this mold. The mane on this mold is a bit too long for him, I know, but we can pretend he grew it out. Blaylock stated on her Facebook that Georgian Grande horse could be a possibility. While any Friesian cross would work, I think this American Cream draft horse shown below (after all it's been many years since we've had that breed made as a Breyer) would make a cool regular run: Breyer was going super big on duns the past few years to the point where I actually made a post titled "Are we dun yet?" talking about that. This year, it's appaloosas. I've honestly never seen so many appaloosas in my life. It started the last day of the year with Ambrose, followed by Klaus for the Stablemates Club, then we were given Lionel for the flagship horse and the Collector Club released two appaloosas as lottery draws: Goji and Bilberry. It wasn't surprising that we had Oak in the Breyerfest lineup and the grullo appy for the 70th series. Just as a heads up to those who don't already know... they decided to make the Artist Signature ornament for the holidays this year with appaloosa horses on it. It seems to me like possibly they're gearing up for the colorful Breyerfest next year so I don't think the palate of color is going to go away any time soon. Which I'm perfectly fine with, by the way. I'm loving my two new additions who are as colorful as they can get: I love appaloosas in real life, but when it comes to Breyers, I prefer the realistic ones. I don't like Breyer's vintage splatter spots or blurry dots on their appaloosas, though lately they're getting a lot better. I went to Breyerfest last year for the first time specifically for the 30th anniversary stablemates and Zipped in Black Magic. Prior to that, the only appaloosas I owned in my permanent collection were DZ Weedo, Toro and Impress Me Shannon because of their realism. I have since also added Oak from this year's Breyerfest, flagship special Lionel and Quill (when I went to Breyerfest for Zipped in Black Magic).
I sold Klaus and traded my Nayati appy for a pinto because of all the bare plastic on them. I don't like a ton of bare plastic on my horses, though as an artist, I understand that leopards are much more tricky to paint than they look and take a lot of time whether base coated or not because of all the masking involved. I just prefer chalky models over bare plastic. The only exception was Lil Ricky Rocker, and that's only because of sentimental reasons... he was a symbol of Breyerfest for years. I do hope that Breyer continues being awesome and making realistic looking appaloosas, and hopefully we'll see more in the upcoming year. If there's one color pattern I need more of in my herd, it's appaloosas. We took 2 weeks off for Breyerfest prior to COVID and decided to spend the weekend in Virginia Beach since we wouldn't be heading to Kentucky next weekend. We stopped by what's left of The Meadow where Secretariat was born on our way home. We couldn't actually go into the barns because tours were cancelled due to COVID but we could still drive up to view them. The land that The Meadow stables was on has apparently been turned into fairgrounds. Only few original buildings remain, including the foaling shed and the training barn. It made me sad to think that at one time this beautiful piece of land was once home to hundreds of racehorses frolicking through the grass. At least they were able to preserve it rather than turning it into a housing development like so many other properties. My plans for purchasing extra Breyerfest items than I had typically planned on getting was foiled when we hit a deer coming back through Pennsylvania. Thankfully nobody in the car was seriously injured all but some minor whiplash and hubby had marks on his arms from the air bags. The poor beast was a large 200+ pound buck that unfortunately didn't survive the ordeal and did quite extensive damage to our car. Our car is in the shop getting repaired and that means that my Breyerfest savings will be mostly depleted. I'll have enough to buy the pre-orders for people, special runs and the store specials I wanted but I'm not sure how much more than that. If you're wanting anything from the Breyerfest store and couldn't buy tickets, pre-sales are the way to go since I probably won't buy any extras to have available after Breyerfest thanks to the collision. I'm offering pre-sales up until Thursday of this week through MH$P.
Ugh! Why does this have to happen a week before Breyerfest? I'm often asked why I make so many Halloween customs. When you scroll through my custom horses, you'll notice that a huge portion of what I make are Halloween horses, sometimes using my own ideas and other times inspired by previous Halloween decorators made by Breyer. Honestly, Halloween decorators are so much fun to make. They're challenging without being impossible, they're unique and they're popular. Most importantly though (and I totally understand if after this post you think I'm a weirdo and stop following my blog though I'm hoping the majority of you will find it interesting) is my own experiences with the paranormal. If y'all don't mind, I'd like to drift a bit away from the model horse hobby and take you on a ghost hunt. Well, actually several ghost hunts because, aside from Breyer, I'm a huge believer in spiritualism. I can completely understand if you're a skeptic and if you stop reading right here. It's ok. If you do decide to continue, I would like to share with you my own experiences with the paranormal. Anyways, we'll start with the first time I ever encountered a ghost. Actually, I didn't realize it at the time that I did, until I got home and reviewed the pictures I took on my camera. It was at Washaba Street Caves in Saint Paul, MN. My husband grew up there, and we were visiting relatives when he suggested going to this place reported to be one of the most haunted places in Minnesota. I wasn't expecting much. It was a tour, so I figured with all the people around, nothing would show up. Then, we got to near the back of the cave and the guide (dressed in 1920s attire back in the day when Washaba was a speakeasy during prohibition) told us to take pictures while he tried to summon the spirits. He said that this back area was the most haunted part of the cave, and that we were bound to catch something. I saw nothing in real life, but when we got back home, I was shocked to find an orb sitting right over the man's hand as he was speaking to them! In a couple other snap shots, I saw a yellow and red orb, which I thought was weird, but unfortunately I lost the pictures in a move since that time so I don't have them to show you. However, I do have a few pictures I've saved from more recent years. The first was taken at the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, WV. This is reportedly one of the most haunted locations on the east coast, and hubby wanted to see it. We took a daytime ghost hunt, as I wasn't up to par at the time at the thought of being there in the dark with the spirits, and it didn't disappoint. Honestly, it was this location, not necessarily the Wabasha Street Caves, that got me interested in the paranormal. During an EVP session, hubby ended up capturing this floating orb/mist on the bottom left of the screen close to the dowsing rods. Although we didn't catch anything else in photos, we did get some words on the spirit box in a different room, in which we heard a loud boom as we were leaving the room, both of which were caught on video. Another time we heard what sounded like someone dropping marbles in a sink. When we went into the room we heard it coming from, it stopped. We walked back out and started down the hallway, then it started up again. We returned to the room to again find nothing and the sound stopped. On our way out into the hallway this time, I got cold chills all of a sudden, and goosebumps on my arms/legs despite it being a warm, humid June afternoon. I truly believed that I walked through whoever was in that room making those sounds and that was my body's reaction. Our final encounter that day was while my husband was recording a video. A ball of light flashed in front of his camera while I was talking to the tour guide. Although I can't add the video on a free Weebly site, maybe one day I'll upload it to my Youtube channel. It's raw footage, and obviously we're complete amateurs so it's not going to be a Ghost Adventures quality documentary, but it's still interesting. Last weekend, we stayed in Gettysburg at the Tillie Pierce House. This was our first stay in what was known to be a true haunted house, as it was a field hospital during the battle. Now let me tell ya, if you're into ghosts, Gettysburg has it going on! The place is so haunted that the people who live there are meandering with spirits on a daily basis, and they've got plenty of stories of their own. To get back to horses for a moment, we did go on a guided horseback ride through the battlefield, which is really cool and I highly recommend to all you horse lovers. We rode the battlefield the last time we were in Gettysburg a couple years ago on our own horses but this time we had a narrator to tell us what we were riding over. Hubby was on a pretty little palomino named Disney, who was very, um... shall we say... mare-ish, and I rode Blue, who ironically shares a name with our dapple grey at home. This Blue, however, was a fleabitten grey with very little actual grey, mostly white. He was probably a dapple grey at one time and then faded to white as he got older. I did think his pink nose was adorable! He was fun to ride, one of those horses that isn't so barn sour they just follow the leader. He actually listened to my commands, and every time we'd stop, he'd look back at me as if asking what we were going to do next. Disney, on the other hand, sure made sure we kept our distance. She was side-eyeing Blue the whole ride LOL. After our 2 hour ride, we went back to the hotel until 11 PM when we decided to take a ghost tour in town that went to the Jennie Wade House (who was the only civilian to be killed during the war) and the Orphanage. Again, as with the Wabasha Street Caves, it was a big group so I didn't think we'd be likely to catch much, and I was correct with the Orphanage. We didn't really get much activity there. The Jennie Wade House, however, was a different story. Only two things in the house are original: a clock and a bread pan. Jennie was apparently making bread on that bread pan when she was shot, and when I took a picture of the bread pan, I caught this: Apparently Jennie is still baking bread in the exact same place where she was shot over 100 years ago. It was the only picture in the house that I captured that had a mist both times I took the picture. I tried it again to take a better one but the mist was still there, though not as bright. In another part of the house, the guide said it was haunted by a little boy, and that he particularly liked this trunk: While taking a picture of the trunk, I saw a ball of light flash through the lens of my camera. I didn't catch the ball the first time, but I did the second time. Was it the little boy? After leaving the attic where the trunk was, we headed down to the basement, where Jennie's father is still said to reside (and where Zak from Ghost Adventures was pinched in the rear after climbing on top of her dead "body"... yeah you'll have to look that one up if you've never seen it) and for some reason, I felt drawn to this hallway, so I started filming. I ended up capturing a video of what looked like the shadow of a little person peeking from behind the veil that was covering the hallway. I truly wish I could upload videos to share it with y'all because it creeped me out! Not only that, but I saw it out of the corner of my eye before I realized I caught it on video. It was pitch black down there and everyone on the tour was sitting down, so I see no other logical explanation. One picture that I can share with you though is a picture I snapped of the battlefield on the way back from our ghost tour. I figured since we were walking down the road beside it, why not? At first, I didn't see anything, but then on further inspection, I ended up zooming in on what I thought looked like a soldier staring back at me beside the tree on the far left. It was night so there should have been nobody else on the battlefield since the park closed at 10 PM, and honestly it looked too transparent to be a living person. Note the hat he's wearing. This was the first full body apparition I've ever caught as of yet. This was it, however, as we were woken up at 5 AM to the sound of footsteps and someone heavy breathing down the hallway, past our door, and ended at the stairs before we heard no more. The owner said she never stays at the house, and the only other people in the house at the time were in the room to the right of us while the stairs were to the left. I thought maybe it was one of them and they had asthma or something, only to find out that the footsteps had woken them too, and that they were both still in their room sleeping when it happened. Who was it then? Well, the only explanation I can come up with possibly a soldier who had a pierced lung and died while the house was used as a field hospital.
While this isn't all the haunted places we've been to, it should give you an idea of the inspiration behind my Halloween horses. I hope you enjoyed this post, even though it wasn't really horse related. Please feel free to share any paranormal experience you've ever had. Take care until the next post :) Sneak peeks. The 70th anniversary collection. Blind bags. Breyer sure does have a way of driving us nuts! I'm starting to lose count of which series they're on. Apparently my local Walmart is the slowest in the world at getting in the blind bags because they completely skipped the series 3 Mini Whinnies and went straight to series 4, which I only liked the Paint horse. The others were kind of plain. The chaser, Vegas, apparently looks like this: Quite a simple paint job compared to most MW chasers. The chaser for the Unicorn Surprise, on the other hand, is jaw dropping. I didn't care much for the blue or pink chaser but the past few have been awesome. I'm still trying to track down that gold and black Magnolia for a decent price, who seemed to go as quickly as she came. On the other hand, my three rainbow Magnolias are staring at me as I type this. I have a feeling this pandemic is going to make me miss out on the beautiful purple chaser too: Honestly it doesn't seem like I'll ever see the series 3 unicorns at this rate. Besides the chase, I also liked the Walking Arabian, whose coloring is very similar to Rose from the Fairytale Friends Club, and the blue Thoroughbred, whose coloring looks similar to Seafoam from the FFC. The other three are too similar to colors I already have. I didn't join the FFC because it didn't seem worth paying that much extra for glittery manes/tails and the prices on the second hand market aren't really that great, so it's unlikely I'll join next year either unless they do more intricate (perhaps realistic?) paint jobs. As with other horses, I'm very picky with my unicorns too.
Although this changes throughout the years as new molds are added, I would like to make a list of my current favorite molds. I've already made a list detailing my favorite Premier Club molds, but now I'm going to take it a step further and list all my favorite molds ever up to this day. So here goes! They are in no particular order, by the way. Smart Chic OlenaWhen this mold was first released, it blew all other previous stock horse molds out of the water. The long, wavy mane and tail, the alert expression and the muscular body all pointed to a very well-made stock horse. He's been made in so many colors, you can find just about anything on this mold. To this day, this mold still remains one of my favorite stock horses despite all the new molds of similar breeds. I still even love him over - gasp - Dundee. MarwariIf you haven't realized by now from reading my blog, I love the uncommon breeds of horses, especially those that have attributes that differentiate them from other horse breeds. Such is the Marwari with their inward curving ears. These horses are one of my favorite of the worldly breeds, next to the Akhal Teke, so it is a mold that I try to collect when possible. MistyIf I had to choose a favorite vintage mold, it would no doubt be Misty. Not only was she my first Breyer ever, I also love her for her unique shabby coat. Most Breyer horses are smoot but Misty has kind of a rough texture to her coat. Although I don't like every color ever made on this mold, I would love to see some more modern colors done on her. ShannondellHonestly I used to favor the Othello mold until Shannondell was made. I love the fact that this bulky horse is more compact so as to fit on the shelf better, whereas I always had to turn Othello because he was such a shelf hog. The only fault is that Shannondell can be tippy but usually the legs are easy to fix to make him stand better, should you get a tippy model. HamiltonI've always been fond of gaited breeds ever since I rode an ex-trotter as a child. I'd been waiting for Breyer to replace that tippy, pasture potato Pacer with a new Standardbred mold, and to this day I'm still waiting for it. Although they replaced that chunky, googly-eyed Four Gaiter with the American Saddlebred Stallion, I longed for a mold showing the Saddlebred in action, like they did with the Icelandic mold. Finally, and I mean finally they came out with just that in the form of Hamilton! This horse is honestly the first mold I thought about having a conga of. Forever SaigeI know many people didn't like this horse but I thought she was amazingly detailed for a mustang. Her mane and tail have that windswept look about them, she is sniffing the breeze with inquisitive eyes like she's keeping her eyes on something behind her. One foot is lifted and her back legs braced for if she needs to flee. Yes, I believe she is a magnificent sculpture, even if she isn't "performance quality" like people were saying. To me, she is one of the most realistic mustangs done to date. Fell PonyLast, but certainly not least, is the cute-as-a-button Fell Pony. The fluff about this girl makes me surprised that Breyer hasn't turned her into a unicorn by now. Her feathered legs, flowing mane/tail, beard and forelock covering her eyes makes her stand out from all other pony molds. Unfortunately, her only downfall is that she hasn't been made much. To date, she's only been made in three obtainable colors, and two are still very hard-to-find.
Of course, you can't talk about Breyerfest without mentioning the Kentucky Horse Park, so I've saved the best for last. Many of you have probably already been here, but if you haven't, or if you never actually looked around the entire park since Breyerfest only makes up only a portion of the park and often times it's too hot to walk around much, I will share some pictures of the park. One of the first things you notice when you enter the Kentucky Horse Park is the Secretariat statue right in front of the admission office. You can also visit the Man o'War statue without paying admission, and yes, the horse is actually buried under there, along with some of his get including War Admiral. Once you enter the admission office, you can then either visit the gift shop (where a lot of regular run Breyers are available for sale) or purchase a ticket to enter the park. Once you purchase your ticket, before you walk out of the admission office into the park, you will see this beautiful garland of roses that is put over the winner of the Kentucky Derby: The park is a dream for horse lovers. There are arenas for various disciplines (show jumping, eventing, Western riding) plus a steeplechase track and polo field. There are plenty of barns full of horses to visit including the Breeds Barn with horses of different breeds from around the world, the Big Barn which houses the drafters, the Hall of Champions where the famous racehorses (both trotters and Thoroughbreds) live and the police horse barn. There is also an additional barn used only for special events, like Breyerfest, where horses can stay temporarily. You can go up to the horses and pet them. Sometimes you can strike up a conversation with an employee and they'll even bring the horse out for you. They love to show off their horses here. They're like their children. The best part of the park though, at least in my opinion, is the guided trail ride that you can take at extra cost. Among the miles upon miles of white painted post and rail fencing, there are plenty of statues and graveyards in the park. Some of the horses buried there were famous, like John Henry, Cigar and Alysheba. It really is a beautiful place. The grounds are very manicured, the barns are always clean and the grass is always green. It truly is almost Heaven.
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