Susan Bensema Young's Lapis Lazuli

Susan Bensema Young is one of (if not the) best tack makers in the world. She started making tack in the late 1970s and she quickly became renown for the quality of her work and the intricacy and creativity each piece exhibited. From bosals and mecates, to bridles, saddles and absolutely incredible parade sets, Sue's work has stood the test of time and she continues to create fabulous pieces decades after she first began. (You can read about her work on her blog here. You can also check out her website. Don't miss either one!)

Sue in my home with an early Hagen Renaker Head Up Circus Pony. (September, 2018.)

Perhaps her tack making skills obscure the fact that Sue is also very much a collector with a high quality collection that spans decades of Breyer production. She and I are also "e-pen pals" and write each other frequently, discussing all the things that horse enthusiasts, both model and real, have to talk about. So, when I finally, after decades of searching, found not one but two decorator Running Mares, Sue emailed me the story of her lovely wedgewood Running Mare, Lapis Lazuli, and how she obtained her.

I loved the story, and Sue was gracious enough to let me share it on the blog. Here is the first email.

Lapis Lazuli  (I know, not the most imaginative of my blue names, but pretty good for the time) came to me as the result of a letter and an ad in the model horse magazines, which were at the time still the majority way to sell and buy.  I wrote a letter, the owner replied, I mailed a check with another letter, and then I sat down to wait.  And wait.  And wait.  I don't recall exactly how long, but it was months -- much longer than it should have been.   I was starting to become seriously worried by the time a box finally showed up. 

As I said this was my most expensive Decorator by an order of magnitude.  She cost $200 at a time when most OFs cost $20.  My other Decos had ranged from free to elaborate trades to $20.  It was 1993.  We had just bought our house.  The Internet was starting to make a mark on the hobby (HayNet started in 1992) but I was not a part of it.  I would not discover email until 1994, and then it would be in Denmark!!  as part of our sabbatical there… (By the way my Wedgewood Running Mare did travel to Denmark.  I made my first Peruvian bridle on her there.)

It turned out the reason for the delay was that the owner had had second thoughts about selling.   She changed her mind about the Florentine Running Mare and let me have the Wedgewood -- I have the dimmest memory I was trying for both.  You may suspect I was derned glad to get even one Running Mare.  I'd had the foal since about 1981 and the stallion (Fighting Stallion) since about 1983.

Lapis was opened reverently downstairs by the piano.  I have never again managed to buy a Decorator.

She had a somewhat crooked front leg, and this led to one of my most shameful episodes in The Black Art of O.F. Enhancement.  I straightened the leg but at dreadful cost.  I overdid the heat and her paint got cooked on that leg.  It turned chalky and whitish.  When this happens, it can be largely counteracted by gently scratch-rubbing away the white layer with a fingernail.  Anything harder will truly scratch and damage irreversibly…  It takes a very long time to scratch, very carefully, with one's fingernail, an entire Trad foreleg, but I did it.  The result is a polished look to the color, almost a gloss.  It's much better than anything else I know of to do, certainly better than leaving the leg white, although it also seems to make the paint appear thinner, as if it had been flattened.  ;)  Over time, handling alone will give an O.F. a lovely semi-gloss shine, and such a repair would tend to vanish. 

The second email included photos of Sue's pretty girl.

Picture 1: Handling her, I see I painted her hooves with pink nail polish.  I was proud of having gotten exactly the right color.  [Compare with Saffire's matte hooves]

Picture 2: You can just see the scratch lines, on the near forearm.

Picture 3

Pictures 3, 4 & 5 show a different kind of damage a model of this age can suffer.  The yellowish spots and patches are mold damage.  I do not know the specific name of this mold.  It grows very slowly in warm moist dusty environments, on undisturbed upper surfaces, and favors where the horse has been touched by human hands.  It appears as a yellowish fuzz and tastes of tangy copper (obviously I'm still around, even if not smart).  In time (years) it can eat away small circular spots in the paint.  A gloss coat on the horse defeats it.  It does not happen to chinas, it stops in winter, unpainted resincasts are easily washed free of it; and the use of an air conditioner pretty much slows it down to a crawl.  After I discovered this mold, my matte horses started wearing blankets all the time.  When I realized it had gotten my upper shelf Decos (foolishly, I thought the damage restricted to a lower zone of moisture condensation), my Wedgewoods and other special horses started living inside plastic bags.  The habit of shelving them in the open, free and unencumbered, easily accessible for 40 years, could no longer continue.

So that's how model horses helped us purchase air conditioners for the basement.  This goes in the same category as painting Brasenose helping push us into cleaning out the storage shed.  :)

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6:  Lapis's family:  Charlemagne the stallion and Saffire the colt.  This Fighter has also suffered mold damage, though it is slight.  There is a story about Charlemagne.  My grandfather gave me a proof silver dollar for my 21st birthday, no doubt intending to increase my investment portfolio (he was an autocratic sort about money).  Alas, I went and spent it on a model horse, one which was rare at the time (1981) and more precious to me.  I recall vauge family upset, but I've never regretted that decision.  Today Charlemagne is my best Decorator, and has won prizes at Intermediaire.

Sue, thank you so much for letting me share the story and photos of your lovely decorators. I know you have others, so if you'd like to share them and their stories here, too, I would be happy to do so!