Back in the 1990s, a student gifted me with a bag of little horses from her collection. I hesitated to take them - I didn't collect tiny non-Breyer horses (Hagen Renaker miniatures excepted) and I certainly did not want to take so many pieces from her collection.
I can still see Catherine's face - she was so earnest in wanting me to accept her gift. And so I did.
They've been kept tucked away every since with other minis that I have acquired over time.
Once in a while I pull them out for props or something, but generally those minis have been put away for over twenty-five years.
I assumed they were Creatas, Winner's Circle, or Breyer Mini Winnies, but it wasn't until Corky Visminas posted this sales notice on Facebook that I decided to pull them out and ID what they were. (Screenshots of Corky Visminas' sales notices from Facebook.)
I was pleasantly surprised. Corky had posted pictures of Winner's Circle sets she was selling that were new in box, and I was able to identify some of mine from that.
Winner's Circle, Series 1, 1996, Appaloosa set.
Winner's Circle, Series 1, 1996 American Saddlebred set.
Winner's Circle, Series 1, Thoroughbred set.
That took care of the bulk of the unknown minis, but three were still unknown.
and a larger, non 1:32 scale foal that felt rubbery and had an unreadable stamp under its belly.
It was time to pull out the reference books and Google and see what I had.
Stay 'tooned!
The foal looks similar to one that was part of a snap together stable I had as a child, I seem to recall it being British made but couldn't for the life of me tell you what it was called. Came with the stable, some fence, various horses and riders. I've seen the actual foal from my set with a lot on Etsy, same body and head but with a front leg up like it was going to stand. The whole thing was somewhere between Stablemate and Winner's Circle in size, I also remember having some of those, the jumper particularly but I think they were all lost in a house fire. I had thought some of the MiniWhinnys looked familiar but I never would have made the connection.
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