My First Real Decorator!

I have wanted a Breyer decorator, the real kind from the 1960s, not the current ones, for decades. While woodgrain was a decorator color back them and I have a lot of woodgrains, what I am referring to are the colors wedgwood, copenhagen, florentine, and gold charm that were done on the Running Mare and Foal, Five Gaiter, Semi Rearing Mustang, and the Fighting Stallion.

You'd think that since I was collecting when those were being produced, I might have one, but I don't!

Prices on Breyers seem to be down, and so I have been watching eBay closely. This past week, I scored my very first REAL decorator as a result. (All photos from eBay auction listing.)

 A wedgwood Running Foal! My favorite of the four decorator colors!

 Wedgwood Running Foal, #4120, 1963-1964.

He's a lighter blue with gorgeous shading. He also has some black marks that I will need to remove and a broken ear that I need to fix.

I am pleased to have him - in the past, they have sold for upwards of $1500, more than I would ever spend on a piece for my collection.

But he is mine now, and I could not be happier.

The Passing of Amy's Vet

One of the last of the people who had connections to my first horse, Amy, has passed away. Dr. Heinze was the vet we used for all our horses and was considered the very best equine vet in the area. Although he had been retired from veterinary medicine for years, he is well remembered in the Purdue/Lafayette equine community.

Dr. Charles David Heinze

Erie, formerly of West Lafayette - Dr. Charles "Chuck" D. Heinze, age 92, of Erie, formerly of West Lafayette, IN, Hot Springs Village, AR, Stillwater, OK, Pocahontas, IA, and Manhattan, KS, passed away on Sunday, March 25, 2018 at the Sarah A. Reed Retirement Ctr. in Erie, PA. Charles was born in Wilson, KS on April 26, 1925, the son of the late Fred Charles Heinze and Ethel May (Hanly) Heinze.

Chuck graduated from Salina High School, Salina, KS and was in the US Army as a paratrooper during WWII and was honorably discharged in 1946. He received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Kansas State University in 1953. His work history included: veterinary farm practice in Pocahontas, IA (1953-58), Veterinary School Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK (1958-61), Associate Professor at Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN (1961-67), private equine practice in W. Lafayette, IN (1967-90), author/co-author of more than 50 scientific articles on equine surgery and treatment, retired in 1990.

Charles was Section Officer and Honor Roll Member of the American Medical Veterinary Medical Association, 1967 founder and General Chairman of the Indiana Association of Equine Practitioners (1967-90), 1982 was President of the Thoroughbred Association of Indiana, Executive Board of the Indiana Veterinary Medical Association, U.S. Trotting Association, Indiana Trotting and Pacing Horse Association, a Life member of the American Legion (former Commander 1956 Pocahontas, IA, 1999 and 2001 in Hot Springs Village, AR), Masonic Lodge (Master in W. Lafayette, IN 1990), Kiwanis International (Pres;1976 W. Lafayette, IN, 2003 Hot Springs Village, AR), Woodlands Presbyterian Church in Hot Springs Village, AR (past Deacon).

In 1962 Charles was awarded at Purdue University the Society of Psi Zeta, 1984 Gamma Sigma Delta Alumni membership, 1996 Indiana Masonic Grand Lodge Gold Award, 2001 the Kiwanis International George F. Hixon Award in Hot Springs Village, AR, 2002 the American Legion Honor Award.

Chuck enjoyed numerous volunteer work, traveling/sightseeing, dancing, fishing, boating, and downhill skiing.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his wife Maxine Helen (Russell) Heinze.

He is survived by his children: Korryn Fairman (Randall) of Hot Springs, AR, David Heinze (Lisa) of Elburn, IL, Theresa Fryer (Marshall) of Erie, PA, his grandchildren: Chad Heinze, Cameron Heinze, Marisa Fryer, Michael Fairman (step-grandson), step great-grandchildren; Jack Fairman and Elizabeth Fairman, one sister Catherine (Heinze) White.

There will be a private family ceremony to celebrate his life at a later time. The Dusckas-Martin Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc. 4216 Sterrettania Rd., Erie, PA 16506 was in charge of local arrangements.

Published in the Journal & Courier on Mar. 29, 2018

Maya's Binder

Years ago, a horse loving student of mine made me a very special gift at the end of her two years with me.

She'd taken a green binder and spent hours cutting horse pictures out of magazines and then taping them to both the outside and inside covers.

 I use the binder to keep the show records of my NAN horses.

And every time I open it, I am reminded of this sweet girl...

 ... who graduated from high school in 2017 with top honors and earned a full, four year scholarship to Indiana University.

She has stayed in touch as she's grown up, partly because of our two-year teacher/student bond, but also through our bond of...

Thanks, Maya. This binder is one of my treasures.

Show Prep

"Show prep" as in being the show HOLDER, not a shower!

It's been over twenty years since I held Lincoln Land Live I, II, and III in Urbana, Illinois. They were fun, but after the third show, I had gone back to school to get my teaching credentials and simply did not have the time to plan, prepare, and host a live model horse show.

But, I'm back!

A working draft of the show bill.

To celebrate my retirement, I am holding a free, fun show in my home with some of my collector friends who live within a day's drive. Since it's an invitational (I'm starting out small because, like I said, it's been twenty plus years since I lasted hosted a show!) it won't be a NAN qualifier.

And, it's the kind of show I would most enjoy myself - an all collectibility show for vintage Breyers.

 I ordered rosettes for the champions and reserve of the two division, medallions for the grand champion and reserve of show, and commercial ribbons for first and second placings.

I am using recycled ribbons from my own showing for third through sixth place. (Some of those ribbons go way back to the 1980s - they represent and are a real history of live showing!)

I have plans for gift bags to give to all attendees, a cake from my favorite baker to share, and maybe some fun games if we have time.

And, if the show is a success, I hope to expand Happy Trails to a full show next year, with a commercial venue, open entrant policy, and NAN cards. I'd like to have another division for vintage Hagen Renaker collectibility, too.

After all, I will be retired and have the time to get those plans done.

A Treasure Trove of HSOs

It's spring break, so that means I have time to scope out my favorite antique and thrift shops for  HSOs (horse shaped objects.) Although I found many, many HSOs today as I visited four of my favorite "search spots," only one thing came home with me, and it wasn't equine!

My very first stop had the most - it seemed that everywhere I looked, there were horses.

I saw this lovely Family Arabian Stallion and Family Arabian Foal as I stepped through the door (a portend of good things to come, I thought!) and they were in lovely condition and reasonably priced. However, I already have a nice set (along with the mare) plus they weren't enough of a variation on mine to pick up, and so I left them behind for some other collector to buy.

Two booths over I found my next HSO. But I'm not a Barbie horse collector so I left it behind, too.

A partial antique saddle. Intriguing, but no. (I gave my antique McClellan saddle to Tim for Christmas and do not want any more vintage real-horse tack. Er, except for bridle rosettes...)

More Barbie-style horses. Nope! I do have a twinge of regret for leaving behind the Black Beauty book you can see on the far left and may go back and get that.

And the HSO finds kept coming. There were...

... ceramic lamps ...

... a gorgeous bronze sculpture priced at $1,000 (I thought of my clanky collector friends as I examined it...)

... and another one for the clanky collectors. A metal (pot metal?) western-style horse that had had some customizing done with orange paint. (Check out its eye - ick!!)

This next piece made me pause and think. A chalkware circus horse! I don't have any chalkware at all in my collection, but I do collect circus ponies and horses, so I pulled him off the shelf for a closer look.

Unfortunately, he'd had a bunch of glitter added to his mane and tail. I don't know much about chalkware, but I left him behind. I'll do a little research and may go back to get him as otherwise he was in terrific shape.

This poor fellow has been for sale for months. He was part of the collection from the 80s with the JAH unpainted Indian Pony and Clydesdale Mare and the B stamp Proud Arabian Stallion, all of whom came home with me. I felt sorry for this guy, but he is so beat up and missing his tack. What would I do with him?

This is not a HSO, but it is a Breyer and in nice shape and priced well. But I have five boxers already and he isn't a variation of them at all, so he stayed on the shelf, too.

Some cute clinkys were in this booth and none were broken or chipped.

A couple of modern resins were in that booth, too. Good prices on them, but I left them behind.

Even these Japan minis, all part of the same set and from the era when manufacturers were producing family sets of animals (sheep, pigs, dogs, cattle, birds, etc.) I was tempted, but did not buy them and don't plan to if/when I go back.

Thunderbolt! An old favorite, but I have him already. As for the smaller one, I prefer my models without hair - the few vintage customs I still have are difficult to keep clean. My flockies, too.

(By the way, I am still in that first shop!)

This piece was huge - was it a toy for a toddler to pretend to ride?

Another set of the Barbie-style horses. This time, one of them was articulated.

I left that first store marveling at how much I had seen and with fingers crossed that my luck would continue. But, there was nothing to be found at the second shop, a big one with lots of walking, outside of a metal western horse atop a clock. But I don't collect those (I forgot to take a picture.)

The third stop had a few things including something to look up when I got home.

These bunnies are old and the style of paint was used by Hagen Renaker in its very early years. But other potteries used it, too. The paint job on these did not look like HR quality nor did they have the "feel" of one, but I still took a photo, just in case. (They were not HRs; glad I left them behind.)

Shop #3 had several of the Barbie-style horses. (That's a term I coined for my personal collecting use - they are not all manufactured by Mattel, but they look like the two Barbie horses I bought for my daughters when they were young, so I lump similar pieces into that category, true Barbie or not.) I do like the middle piece - those eyes!

A Japan clinky - I admit a fondness for the clunkiness so many of the Japans have.

Backscratchers with horse-head handles! Fun to look at, but nope!

At this point, I had visited three shops and had bought nothing despite the numerous horsey items available and sprinkled among the booths. There was one more shop I planned to visit, and my daughter, Lisa, wanted to come with me to that one as she collects Moon and Stars glassware and his shop has shelves and shelves of it in a variety of colors. It's out of town, and she always goes with me when I decide to hunt for HSOs there.

This shop also has a vendor who is slowly selling off a collection of Breyers. I have bought many HSOs from this vendor, including a woodgrain Brahma Bull. But the Breyers that were on offer from were badly rubbed or had chipped ears, etc. And Lisa discovered that someone had purchased much of the Moon and Stars glassware - was she disappointed!

So, she and I kept looking, and I finally found a Hagen Renaker! Only it wasn't a HSO, it was...

... a cat, Sparkle! The Monrovia version and the perfect match to the Glitter already in my collection! I pulled it off the shelf to examine, and at $5 decided I would take it home, carefully placing it into the cart and keeping an eye on it as we continued to wander around.

Then, a sweet surprise from Lisa. She managed to pay for Sparkle along with her purchases and gave it to me as a gift. It may not be a HSO, but it is a Hagen Renaker and now has mama-sentiment tied into it. You can bet that piece isn't going to be sold!

It ended up being a great day, despite not adding any new HSOs to my collection. But I am still smiling at the "CSO" (KSO?) that I am putting into my china cabinet. (Thanks, Lisa!)

My Retirement Announcement

I handed in my resignation letter to my principal on Wednesday.

It was hard.

And seeing this cryptic note on the teachers' announcement board, knowing that the meeting was to announce my retirement, was even harder.

Linda (my principal) was in tears, and there were audible gasps of surprise from the other teachers when she told them.

I have always said that when the time came that I felt I was not at the top of my game, that I was not quite able to teach at the level my students needed, then I would step aside. I have reached that point. I am tired, my body hurts all over, and I face another surgery this summer (that will make three summers in a row.) It simply has gotten harder and harder for me to do my job.

I thought long and hard, spent time in prayer, and feel I have made the right decision. But right isn't always easy, especially when you love what you do. For me, teaching is not just a career, it is more of a calling, and I love being with kids all day, learning and laughing. There is much joy to be found among children.

It was a difficult decision, and I am quite sad.

A Breyer in the Classroom!

I love when my students present papers they have written (they may be fourth and fifth graders, but some of them truly write PAPERS) and the projects that accompany them. It always makes me smile.

Sometimes, my smile gets even bigger.

Hannah S. created a scene from the classic, Anne of Green Gables and presented it yesterday. See what's in the pasture?

A Breyer G2 Stablemate Clydesdale sculpted by Kathleen Moody!

Long story short, Hannah told me after presenting that her sister loves horses and collects Breyers. So, I  spoke to their mother after school and this summer she is going to bring the girls by my house to see my collection and then we are going out to the barn to visit Abby. (You have to support your fellow horse lovers!)

I may also drop Kathleen a line (she's an old friend) as I think she would get a kick out of seeing what showed up in my classroom.

State Champs!

(Not horse-related, but this blog post is because I am so proud of some former students.)

Four of my former students are on the Harrison High School Quiz Bowl team, and they just became the state champions!

My students are the four on the right and are Nick Nolte, Jon Hillery, Noah Wert, and Jacob Schwartz. My class is a two year class, so I had these boys for both 4th and 5th grade.

Quiz Bowl is a game in which teams compete head to head to answer questions from all areas of knowledge - history, literature, science, fine arts, current events, sports, etc. It is very difficult, and requires lots and lots of preparation. The competition is fierce.

The team heads to New Orleans over Memorial Day weekend to participate in the National Quiz Bowl. I am thrilled for them!

Amy and Abby

Abby bears a striking resemblance to my very first horse, Amy. In fact, I had no intentions of being a horse owner again, and then during a visit to Indiana Horse Rescue to help my sister find a horse, I encountered Abby and ended up buying her a month later as a result of that resemblance. (A blog entry about that can be read here.)

 Amy (with Cee, Leslie, and a friend, 1980s.)

 Abby and me, 2012. (She loves a good scritch!)

Not only is their color similar, their size is, too, and so are their personalities. Both have a bit of sass in them, enough that it added to their personalities, but not enough to make it difficult to work with them.

Amy was my horse of a lifetime, and we bonded deeply. And since she lived on our property, I was responsible for her feeding and care so we were together several times a day all the way through junior high and high school and on into college. That bond we built went deep - never have I loved another horse the way I loved Amy. (Abby is a very, very close second.)

When I married Craig, we left Indiana after he finished grad school here at Purdue and moved to Central Michigan University for two years and then the University of Illinois for twenty-seven years. We started our family and I simply did not have the funds to pay to board Amy nor could we afford a horse property. So I left Amy in the care of my sister and she lived her life out happily at the farm Leslie bought.

With one teeny, tiny glitch...

Someone put a yearling stud colt into pasture with her by mistake and she ended up presenting Leslie with a foal eleven months later. Leslie kept Rusty and had him trained, and then one day had a bad accident on him. He reared up and fell over backwards with her. Fortunately she was wearing a helmet (which was broken by the force of the fall), but she ended up selling him shortly after that.

Amy and Pokey, 1974. 

Abby, 2017. Just look at that resemblance!

Amy, me, and Cee, 1976. 

Ready to take Craig for a trail ride back when we were still in the dating phase of our relationship.

A friend once asked me if I thought Abby was actually a reincarnated Amy. She pointed out their close similarities in nearly every aspect and how uncanny that was. And she's right, they could almost be the same horse.

But I think they are two separate individuals, and that I am just lucky enough to have had lightening strike twice when it comes to horse ownership. Two sweet gals, both of whom hold big pieces of my heart.

Bridle Rosettes - Circus Style

I do not like circuses. Even though my sister and I dreamed of being bareback riders and performing in a circus when we were children, and even though I have attended several, I just do not care for them.

So why do I have such a love for circus ponies and horses? I have asked myself that question many times, but I have no answer. My dad did have a circus pony named Oh Boy. (Here is a blog post about him.) But I don't think that's it (after all, my dad loved tractors and owned eight antique ones when he died, and I am definitely not a tractor aficianado!)

I think think it's simply that I find them charming. And so I collect those that I find, some realistic (think Donna Chaney's lovelies) and some not (the huge Freeman-Leidy clinkies.) The Hagen Renakers, the Shikens, the Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Breyer knock-offs... I avidly collect them all.

But these are a first for me:

Circus pony bridle rosettes! (Photo from eBay auction.)

I was doing a search for circus ponies and these popped up. I watched them for a while, and then decided to put in a bid for them.  They arrived Wednesday and are beautiful!

I am not sure what I will do with them - I'd thought a necklace maybe but now I think I like them as is. And as I have done research on bridle rosettes, I have discovered a whole new world of collecting, including a blog by a woman who collects and researches them. 

I don't think this is the beginning of a new collection for me, but...

Sneak Peek

I am in the midst of parent/teacher conferences this week, both before and after school, so my time right now is very, very limited for blogging. I do have another post about Amy and Abby to finish; it just may be a few days!

In the meantime, here is a sneak peek photo from that upcoming blog entry:

Visiting Abby Pre-Spinal Fusion

This is how I used to have to visit with Abby before I had my spine fused in 2016.

While I still keep the camp chair in my car's trunk, rarely do I need it. I can walk down the lanes, across pastures (unless there's snow and ice), and stand with her as we visit.

It's been almost two years since I had that surgery, and I am truly grateful I did - I got my life back in so many ways!

(To see a video of my first visit with Abby after my fusion, go here.)

Thor - Another Horse from the Past

My sister and I love Appaloosas - they're our favorite breed of horse. (We diverge on our second favorite breed - Lippizaners for me, Standardbreds for her.) I'm not sure what it is about Appaloosas, but I cannot remember ever liking another breed more.

Leslie's owned two - Rusty and Thor. Here's Thor.

Thor reminds me a bit of Breyer's Appaloosa Performance Horse.

I didn't know Thor very well; in fact, I only remember riding him maybe once or twice. At the time she got him, I was living in Illinois and was busy with my children. And, when we came back to Indiana for visits, there were two sets of grandparents to visit as well as other aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was more common to have family gatherings at the grandparents' homes, not at Leslie's.

But I do remember him and how big he seemed (hence his name.) He was not very bright; in fact, the vet deemed him "slow." As a foal, Thor had somehow fallen into a parked combine and injured his head, leaving a visible dent in his skull. (We would love to know the story behind that!) We don't know if that was the cause of his lower intelligence or not, but he was still a kind and friendly horse as well as beautiful to look at.

Like all the others, Thor found his forever home with Leslie and lived out his days well cared for and well loved.

Leslie and Cee

Since she lost Skippy and Coco so recently, my sister has been going through pictures of some of the horses she's owned and loved. One of them was Cee Hunt.

 Cee and Leslie taking a spin around the pasture. Early 1980s.

Cee was my 4-H and show horse. A Quarter Horse gelding, he earned many, many ribbons (I still have one of them hanging in my horse room.) But I loved him most for his quiet personality and the fact that you could do anything with him and do it safely. I do not recall ever falling off him. I can't even remember him shying at things. He was a very, very safe horse to ride or be with on the ground.

Me swimming with Cee in Burnett Creek, 1974.

He also loved to swim, and with the Wabash, Wildcat, and Burnett Creek close to hand, he got a lot of time in the water.  Cee would leap off banks, paw, roll, and thoroughly enjoy himself. Some of my fondest horse memories are of spending time with him as he played in his favorite element on a hot summer day.

After I had been married a while and had had a few children, I gave Cee to Leslie as a Christmas gift. She was over the moon as she had loved him for years.

His final days were spent in a nine acre pasture with Amy and Pokey, with a barn that allowed him to go in and out at will. He passed away peacefully at an old age and was happy and content until the end.