And...I am still alive!

Believe it or not, I am still around! Summer is when I spend a lot less time on-line and a lot more time outside.

Here's one big reason I'm busy

Her name is Rikki and she's a 7-year-old Boxer. She's a rescue, like most of my critters, and she does take a lot of my time.

As far as the ponies go, I've taken a break from them for a little while, at least I had until yesterday when I found some M.Love Quarter Horses and an old 57 Western Horse at an antique store...

Don't be surprised if you hear next to nothing for the rest of the summer, but I'm sure I'll have plenty to say later on!

I'm Still Alive!!!

Yes, believe it or not, I am still here!

Moving is a big adventure. Especially when it involves 2 horses, a bunch of fish, a leopard gecko, and lots of plastic ponies. And a spur-of-the-moment bunk bed.

Now there's Charlie, my recently adopted cat and Timmy, my roommate's new Golden Retriever.

It's a zoo!

On top of everything else, my checking account was compromised. What a mess! Luckily, it's getting slowly back together, but it's been a BIG FAT MESS!!!

As far as the horsey-stuff goes, I've picked up a few new Breyers now, some Stablemates and the new Classics Paint horse. Wow, that one is a stunner! My biggest purchase of late is a nice pair of  Easyboot Epics for my gelding. I love having my boy barefoot, it's done wonders for his hooves! And he seems to like the boots so far. I haven't had a chance to really try them on the rough terrain yet, I will soon though.

And photos. I will have photos soon. I hope :P

More New Stuff

First off, it's another Breyerfest SR,

Prince of Chintz

I don't like him. At all. In fact, the ONLY thing I like about him is the Espirit mold. Everything else (the flowers) makes me gag. Apparently though, quite a few hobbyists disagree with me. That's good, every model needs a few fans.

I'm glad there's still nothing I absolutely NEED at BF this year...hoping it stays that way!


The second new model to pop up in the past few days is much nicer, in my opinion.

This guy was a special offer for the Vintage Club members. From the gossip I've heard from member friends, extras (if there are any) will be offered to the Collector's Club. He's a cute horse for sure, and he's getting a lot of attention. Most of us figured there'd be an Old Timer in the VC horses somewhere, and he's finally popped up!

As far as my life goes, there's a few new things here as well.

First of all, my current obsession with jumping! This has lead to dusting off my riding helmet, collecting old wooden poles, new cues for Whiskey and me, and digging old tires full of putrid water out of 3 feet of weeds...

Please don't judge my lack of 2-point...I'm a Western rider and I'm still learning!

And then there's my brand-spankin' new HOTT PINK SADDLE BAGS!!! They also have a bunch of pockets which makes them even better!

Doesn't my gelding look sexy in hot pink? :o)

Buried Treasure

Scrolling through MH$P this morning I found an ad for this guy

This is "Buried Treasure", a run of 62 models that were supposedly found in the Breyer vault and were up for grabs yesterday for Collector's Club Members. As far as I know, there was no email or any other notification sent out, he was just there on the website. He's all sold out by now of course, so I have no clue what he went for. I think he's lovely, but I'm sure I couldn't have afforded him anyway. Besides, I was too busy yesterday teaching Whiskey to jump over a log! SO MUCH FUN!!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's "Dead Week" here on campus, and I've yet to figure out exactly why we call it that. It's the week before finals and the idea is that professors lay off the tests this week. No one wants anything to do with classes by now...including studying for finals next week...so we all just kind of look like zombies wandering around up here. Maybe that's where the idea came from.

Last week I focused on my real horse all week. The weather is finally nice and all I want to do lately is be outside! It was my cousins' daughter's birthday (just go with it) and she wanted to ride a horse. Of course, Whiskey and I volunteered for the job!

Here's the birthday girl with my awesome boy!

I have been slightly active in the hobby still (of couse!) The deal I was working on with my Earth model finally got wrapped up and I added some new models to my herd. 

The mustang is an old one. He even feels vintage. I LOVE him, from his rich old shading, to his handpainted mane and tail, to his faded dorsal stripe. After agonizing over a name, I decided on just Mustang Jake.

I'm starting to love the Big Ben mold after adding "Sugarfoot" to my collection. I'm really fond of my original Big Ben, who I named Ginger, and this guy shows off all the mold's good points even better.

Then there's "Sam". The Brown Sunshine mold is one of my favorites and I just need the spotted mule to complete my conga. Love those mules!!!

There's lots of hoopla in the hobby right now over the new announcements Breyer tossed out this weekend: the new Mother's Day Web SR and the TWO models of dressage star Totilas.

 

Here's "A Mother's Love", Whinny and Nicker. Because I have no $$$ to spare, I won't be entering for them. Unfortunately I quite like the pair! I do have the original Susecion and Le Fire, so I won't be too put out by missing on these. It'll be interesting to see how much they sell for second hand...I imagine the mark up will be pretty high judging from the popularity of the molds.

Then Breyer's making some new molds for Totalis, the Traditional size preview looks promising, he's in a very nice extended trot. I don't know if I'll need him, I'll wait until he comes out this Fall (email says November)

The other model of him is going to be released as 5" resin in a piaffe. I'm guessing it's going to be like the little Breeds of the World horses that they have out right now. I'm not a big fan of them...hoping it's a little fad like the creepy Classics with the hair and glass eyes that came out a few years back. 

I'm probably going to stay about where I am in the hobby for a while, I've got too much real horse stuff going on to concentrate on the plastics for a little while! So don't be surprised if the blog gets a little more in detail about Whiskey and everything else going on in life right now :o)

Equine Affair in Ohio

Every year this big, awesome event makes me wish that I lived somewhere else for a week or so. I'd LOVE to go to EA (all the horsies!!!), but it's too expensive for a college kid with a part time job and a horse. That seems to almost be my motto lately...

Anywho, the EA always includes Breyer goodies in person, and one of my "modelholic" Facebook friends who was lucky enough to get to attend has graciously given me permission to use her photos on this blog. (Thanks Heather!!!)

First off, the single day ticket Stablemates. I rather like the Clyde and the G4 Draft, the Belgian is pretty as well, and I'm not a fan of the Friesian.

This is Nugget, avaliable at BF, possible RR later this Fall??? He's on my gotta-get-it list, drool worthy dun!!!

There's lots more (the BF SRs all look very nice in person!) Here's just a few final photos for you. 

Union Jack, translucent BF "souvenir" model

Tunbridge Wells, another BF SR

Black Beauty, another BF "souvenir" model

Hope you enjoyed the photos and to everyone who got to see them in person, I'm jealous!

All photos credit: Heather Bruen. Thanks again!

Updates

I've come to the conclusion that the thing we refer to as "the sky" is actually the bottom of a vast ocean and that yesterday someone busted through it with a really big shotgun. And now it's leaking. Possibly forever.

Rain, and lots of it.

Growing up in a farming community, I appreciate the rain and what it does for the land, but that doesn't mean I like being out in it! Plus I really, really, don't like mud!

I'm pretty busy these days. I've got lots of little painting projects, books to read, classes to study for, work (as usual), lots going on with Whiskey, and  THE BIG MOVE is just around the corner. I'm starting to get that going-to-be-overwhelmed-soon feeling that comes at the end of every semester, only this time there's more on my plate.

My tax return came sooner than I expected, it's not a lot but it's something. It's a new pair of jeans and the rest is going to open a new account specifically for my animal expenses (horse, dog, cats, fish, gecko...)

Whiskey got a surprise yesterday. Me, my uncle, and Natalie hauled her little Russian Arabian gelding, Sunny, out to Wellsville in preparation for THE BIG MOVE. Whiskey was pretty excited to have another "big horse" in the pasture with him. Sunny was more interested in the grass.
(I had plans to take photos and share them here, but it was raining.)

As far as the model horse stuff, I've got 3 Stablemates that have been commissioned to take up my time, but I'm still waiting for 2 of the bodies in the mail. Plus the reference photos need to be printed out, and colors need to be mixed/found.
I also finally caved and bought my Brookside, who I promptly dubbed "The Pink Panther." He's a looker!
The new Appaloosa twins are really nice too, I paid them off and got to take them home last week. Finding the perfect family for them was easier than I imagined, it was like destiny! (I know that sounded cheesy, but really, that's what it was like!)

Now I've got some Walkaloosa twins!

I was surprised to find that the bay blanket insists he is a colt. Now I just need to decide what to name them, something sorta matching I suppose since they're twins, but I don't know how to get it to fit with the parents' names as well (dad is Enchanter and mom is Nancy Drew...oh, boy...)

Well, I guess i'd better get back to the reference photos for the little customs. I'd like to finish them before THE BIG MOVE.

Happy trails!

Wicked

  

WICKED IS FINALLY FINISHED!!!

This pretty girl is my second big etchie project. She started out as a Zenyatta with atrocious box rubs...what a pain. I was going to sell her, but then I got bit by the etching bug and thought "Huh, I wonder if I can turn her into a lovely Appaloosa?" 

Turns out that I could...but it took FOREVER! And just when I thought she was done, I realized that I didn't like her pattern at all. So it took even longer. Now that she's finished, here's some photos of her. 

  

She was definitely a challenge (why do the customs I'm doing keep getting harder?) but by far the hardest part was hand painting her hooves. I've always had issues with hooves, especially the "white" ones. These aren't prefect, but they are by far the best job I've done on hooves so far. 

It took a lot of reference photos (and Whiskey's white left hind) to convince me that horse feet really are kinda yellow. 

I'm really happy with how well Wicked turned out, now I've just got a few just-for-fun painting projects, one etchie Stablemate, and a three-horse commission *gasp* on my customizing plate!

King

There's something funny with this picture...can you guess what it is?

It's "King", the second release in the Vintage Collector's Club! The fighting stallion in vintage style buckskin, a perfect match to the old buckskin "Diablo!" I think he's great :o)  I'm not in the club, so I won't be getting one, but Diablo has always been on my list, and I LOVE the whole matching thing. Of course, the Never-Satisfied Club is bashing on him already...but that's there problem!

More Breyer Stuff

Breyer's Facebook Page has gone through a little change, complete with one of those great "set-up" photos.

I want to take these kind of photos!

I love everything about it except for the fact that Le Fire is off by himself while his momma talks to the Merrylegs next to her...hmm, what's up with that?

I spend too much time in the basement

So...it's been a little while since I posted, mostly because all the photos I wanted to share were stuck on my cell phone carrier's website, which flatly REFUSED to work for me! Ugh!

I'm a college student and currently living in a small trailer house with three roommates. That doesn't leave a lot of space for my herd (though I currently have taken over most of the safe "shelf space" in the house..my M. Love mustangs have claimed the piano as their turf.) so most of my ponies are living in one of my favorite places: my childhood bedroom at my parent's home.

That room is covered in horses. I am not exaggerating here.

Since I have no social life, and Spring Break left me with lots of time on my hands, I went home to visit my parents, along with my horsey roommate Natalie. Of course we had to move the collection around a little. (I was also hunting for my lost high school yearbooks--don't ask)

Normally, I like to keep similar colors away from each other, but this amused me and so I had to do it. With the (sort of) recent addition of my gorgeous Affirmed model to the herd, my Cigars and Smart Chics make a rather funny little pair of trios. 

Please read that last sentence again, it's great. 

Prizes

Breyer's released photos of some more Breyerfest 2012 models!

Bee's Knees (I know I'm late on this one, but oh well)

No. 711451 Open Show Grand Prize - Westminster Abbey 

No. 711461 Open Show Reserve Prize - Penny Lane 

I do like Bee's Knees (as long as they don't destroy her with metallic-ness or fishy dapples). She's a nice, simple, palomino. The Strapless mold looks great in a dilute! The live show prizes aren't that amazing to me, but I'm sure whoever wins them will disagree!

Speaking of prizes, I've got a Blue Ribbion Tirekicker one to hand out. I'm not normally one to rant about sales-gone-bad, I realize that more often than not, life happens. Sometimes it's the plastic pony or the real life one in my case, and Whiskey always takes priority. This time though, I am annoyed. And amused.

I've got a slightly expensive model listed on MH$P right now and got an email from an interested buyer the other day. Since it's my emails, and this is my blog, and because I'd love some feedback on this, I'm just going to post the entire conversation here. Enjoy. 

Her: I would like to buy him if you can two payments?

Me: I can take short payments. I'll attach a copy of my Time Payments contract, you will need to read it, fill it out and sign it if you agree, and email it back to me. If you are a minor (under 18) I'll need email contact from a parent/guardian and they will also have to sign the contract.

Let me know if you are still interested.

Thanks! 

Her: I am not a minor and if you need to ask questions about me or references.  I prefer I didnt hear about it from friends third party and you would email me personally. 

***What? ok someone is touchy. I'll have to try extra hard to be professional and not offend her***

Me: I always look people up on MHHR when they inquire, as I did with you yesterday. I didn't find anything (good or bad). I'm also a member of another similar group where I ask if anyone has done business with the contact if i didn't find anything on MHHR  (which I also did yesterday and found nothing). 

Your message sounds like I did something to offend you, which was not intended at all.

I always make sure that buyer's who are minors talk to their parents, as I have had some deals go bad in the past. I'm not trying to accuse you of being a minor or of anything else. 

I usually only ask directly for references if I can't find anything on MHHR or the other group and if I think there is something fishy going on. If you'd like to provide some, that's great.

Are you still interested in the model?

Her: I am interested.  My feelings are hurt that you couldnt come directly to me and trust me to be honest with you about things.

*** Trust you!?! Lady, do you know how many dishonest people there are online!? No way am I gonna go just off of what someone claims, not even in your case. You probably are a good person, but there's always a chance that you're not.***

Me: I am sorry that you were offended, I did not mean to hurt your feelings at all. One has to be careful when dealing with people online because, unfortunately, not everyone can be trusted. That is why I do things the way I do and also why I have a contract for time payments. I always assume people in the hobby are good, honest people, but I try to take precautions in case I run into someone who is not. 

If you are still interested in Earth, I need to know when you plan on making the payments, how much each time, and how many payments you plan on making. Since your first message said two payments, and the total is $75, I'm guessing you planned on two payments of $37.50? 

I'll also still need you to look over my contract and sign it. I don't think you are an untrustworthy person, but I will not do time payments without the contract. If you have problems with anything in the contract, let me know, and I will try to alter it so that it works for both of us. 

Thanks

Her: I have purchased an earth thru an online purchase on ebay.  I would of glady bought yours, sorry I don't need one now but will watch for horses you may list later.  

Notice that as soon as I inform her that she will still need to sign my contract if she's interested, she immediately backs off, "nope not interested anymore." I got that last message literally minutes after the reply before it. Her messages still kinda sound like a minor to me...

Maybe she is honest and did find another model cheaper on eBay. That's still annoying since she was already in contact with me about buying mine. And how did she afford the one on eBay right now, but needed time payments on the one I had listed???

Anyways, I'm glad I took precautions. Now I'm trying to decide whether I should give her a yellow light on MHHR...

Me Stuff

I'm taking a break from buying models for a while...at least until The Red Balloon's new order comes in. (they put in another Breyer order just because me and Natalie showed such *ahem* enthusiasm, and they promised to call us when the new stuff comes in!!!)

To make a long story short, I am. Short, that is. On $$$. Which is nessecary to buy more models. So I am taking a break from them.

I did get some much-needed work done on my most recent custom models and I have a bunch more to etch/paint and photograph, plus this blog, so that'll have to be enough for now. And I have 9 horses and 2 cows that need names...

Enough to keep me busy for a while :o)

And I always have my pets to spend my money on! They are worth it though.

Here's the newest addition to the family:

Meet Jenga! This is a 10 inch leopard gecko that was wondering around work for about a week. Since we never saw him, and then suddenly were seeing him all the time, we're pretty sure that some JERK dumped him to fend for himself behind our fish tanks....

Sometimes people make me angry.

Anyways, he has a home now with me! He's a bit ornery, I'm hoping he'll settle down soon. If not, he's still pretty cool, and mesmerizing to watch.

Here's my boy Whiskey in his new fly mask, complete with ear protection! I'm sick and tired of the awful little bugs that get in his ears and bite him (and I'm sure he hates them just as much as me!) I saw the first ones flying around this weekend and decided it was time to take action!                                                                                                                                                                               As far as I know, this is the first time Whiskey's ever had a fly mask of any kind on. He didn't seem to mind. I don't plan on leaving it on him yet, that'll have to wait until the semester is over and I move

Did I mention that I'm moving? 

:o)

Joey!

That's right, he's finally here!!!

For the sake of space, all my photos of Joey can be found here.
He's really a very handsome model, despite all the collector criticism and the whining about the halter. His paint job is fantastic, he's a really nicely shaded bay. His markings are clear and accurate, and he has no big glaring box rubs!!!

I attribute that lack of box rubs to Breyer getting a little bit smarter about packaging.  Joey had two of these inserts on his legs to prevent any part of him (well, except for the bottom of his hooves) from actually touching the box. I approve. 

Maybe it's a sign of more good things to come from Breyer this year?

A Nice Surprise

So...on my way home in between classes to snag a quick sandwich, I found a curious little box addressed to me in the mail. There was no return address.

I thought "Oh no, what is this? Did I pay for it?"

All I'm expecting anytime soon is the M. Love mustang family in Appaloosa, and this box was much too small for them. (Well, and I'm expecting Joey soon (he got shipped today!!!!), but he's going to another address)

At the risk of being late to my Greenhouse Management lab, I opened the box.

This is what I found! I've been wanting this little mare for some time (I love this mold!) but I didn't want to buy the entire set just for her. I mentioned off-hand in a comment on a sales list on Facebook that I'd like to have her someday, and then *viola!* she shows up in a neat little surprise box!

I'm pretty sure I know who sent her (the postage gave me a convenient zip code, which I typed in to Google and then looked over the addresses of my model horse friends that I happen to have). I sent the supposed sender a thank you message. 

What a way to make my day :o)

DISCOVERY!!!

Ok, yesterday was amazing!


I got to hang out with my Mom and little sister. We went to the movies and shopping, and for ice cream. The weather was perfect. What a great afternoon.

Things got better!

Here in Northern Utah, the model horse hobby is not large. It's rather small. But, there are a lot of horse people (or at least people who own horses) if you know where to look, and many of them have a Breyer or two sitting around their house for decoration. So there are places around that sell models.

I can list every place I know of in the area to buy model horses. Look, I'll do it now.

There are 2 tack/feed/western stores (three others in the valley don't carry models--boo!)
3 antique shops that sometimes have a few treasures
There used to be another retailer but they went out of business in 2010 (which was ok because all the ponies went on super clearance!)

That makes 5. Which is a lot of opportunity really, especially if you consider the other places across the mountains. I can usually find the RR ponies I need. But here's the downer, none of these stores get the new horses in until late in the year (good news=I have longer to look at other collectors' photos and decide if I really need that particular model).

Anyways, now there are 6!!!
Welcome The Red Balloon


Yes, that's right, there is a new store in town. And guess what? They have several of the 2012 Breyers in stock!!!!!!!!! Before anybody else in the valley!!!!!!!!

So, myself and my partner-in-horsey-related-crime/roommate, Natalie, raided the new store yesterday and squee'd with excitement over all the new pretties :o)

We probably scared the sales girls a bit.

Anyways, it's pretty exciting. And I've now added some ponies to my herd. And there are two other store locations further south in Utah where we can possibly have other ponies shipped from there to up here.

I have now seen several of the new horses in real life, and want to see more! They need to get in a Brookside, he is calling to me...and possibly those new Appy foals (I saw them, Natalie's loot. They are adorable.)
Since the spare money is short, I contented myself with the most needed Stablemates with no visible flaws.

Here is my loot!

Not completely sure I'm keeping this one...

...or this one...

"Fleeting Time" 

not named yet, but my favorite of the set

"Rustler"

"Rico"

Mystery Foals!!! I've been waiting for this set!!!

Gorgeous paint job on this mare, lightly roaned

And the freaking cute foal!

*...spending waaay too much time trying to arrange photos...*

The Polka Dot Parade set, my favorite of the Mystery Foals sets, and my favorite two new Singles. 

Now I just have to name them all...

Quick BF SR (and life) Update

Breyer's released some more photos of Breyerfest models

This is Cheerio, a normal ticket/tent SR

In addition to this draftie, there's another Store Special, a very nice bay Ballyduff named Killarny. I think they're both nice, but neither of them are on my gotta-have-it list. If Killarny wasn't a procelain, he might be...but as is I'm afraid he'd break!

So far, Taskin and Aintree are still my favorites. And neither of them are absolute needs I suppose.

Anyhow, my model horse life currently consists of finding names for my old M. Love mustang family and my new little blue roan Shetland (yes, she finally came!!! More on her later I'm sure). And waiting on my Joey STILL. I guess that's why they call it a pre-order. A few have finally popped up on evilBay, so I'm hoping my dealer gets them in really soon.

Now it's off to help my boarders haul some hay and say hi to my gorgeous gelding. I fell off him yesterday, luckily I landed in a big pile of SNOW. First time I've fallen off in around a year...it doesn't get any easier!

Trash?

"There are so many thigs wrong with the original trad. Man O'War mold that they need to trash it altogether. It's an insult to any horse they use it for, same as the original Secretariat mold was an insult the second it was cast."

I just found this on a Facebook post of the new War Horse model. Now, I am not denying her of rights or her opinion, but that is very, very harsh. I know a lot of people don't like the old molds because of conformation, lack of detail, molded on tack, etc. But a lot of us LOVE the oldies (me included!)

Chris Hess created both molds mentioned above and many of the model horses that were/are very loved by hobbiests are on his molds. I think that this lady's comment was rather rude, after all, someone puts a lot of time into sculpting each of Breyer's molds. Maybe they aren't perfect but still, can't folks show some respect?

One of the great things about the model horse hobby is all the variation. There are collectors, customizers, showers, tack-makers, and on and on. There are Traditional, Classic, Stablemates, old molds and new molds. Why do you think there's such a wide range of people in the hobby? There is something for everyone, and just because a particular something isn't her style doesn't mean she needed to "trash it all together."

Collect what you love!

Happy Leap Day

How convenient that Leap Day just happens to be on multiples of four (2000,2004,2008,2012...) Can you imagine the confusion if it was off? This is the only way I'll ever be able to keep things straight!

I suppose February 29th should be celebrated epic-ally, after all it only comes once in four years. We should at least get a day off from school right? Anyways, it's Wednesday which means my plans include: one class, 6 hours of work, and it's Stall-Cleaning Day (I keep telling Whiskey that he's not allowed to pee in his stall, but he never listens to me!). If I'm really lucky I'll have some time to squish in a quick bareback jaunt before work.

As far as hobby things go, if I'm really, really, really lucky my little blue roan Shetland pony will be here soon (maybe even today...maybe). And someday my Joey will come. Don't get me started on how bad I am dying to get him!

Yesterday my Arabian foal halter arrived, so here are some photos to drool over.

 I absolutely LOVE this halter set! They are both beautiful and fit well, everything I wanted. (Thanks to Jennifer Selby for creating these!)

 My non-horsey roommate called them "impractical." Good thing she has no idea what she's talking about, otherwise I would have been rather annoyed. Practicality is not  the point!

"Rebellious Dove" and "Little Fire Gem"