Update on BreyerFest

BreyerFest ended two weeks ago, but it is still very much a topic on social media. While that is not too unusual, what is being discussed, is.

When would models begin shipping?

Some folks missed that Breyer said they would begin shipping the week of July 26 and thought they'd be receiving their models a few days after BreyerFest. Others believed Breyer would ship on the 26 and that models would start arriving by Wednesday, July 28. But Breyer clearly stated that our models would be delivered in August.

Some items did begin shipping on the 26 but the models from BreyerFest did not.

The Seven Arts Suprise Horse

After months of speculation, and Breyer keeping mum about it, someone received their surprise horse and was able to confirm that it was on the Dundee mold. (YASSS!!!)

As of this writing, photos of a pintaloosa have been posted and the other six are unknown along with whether or not there is a matte/glossy split. Sorry, I do not have permission to share pictures of the one that was revealed nor are any on Google Images yet for me to use.

Certificates for your models

Breyer has put links online to each of the BreyerFest special run models so that hobbyists can download and print their own certificates. 

I've never seen Breyer do this, and no doubt it saved them money and time to simply give collectors the link.

Shipping notices - the Box Weight is Off

Shipping notices began showing up in hobbyists' emails this past week. Some sharp-eyed folks noticed that the weights on their shipping information were off. For example, a package marked 12 lbs contained only Stablemates. That's not unusual - I've had a box with an unusual weight in the shipping info, too. Why? I don't know, but I can confirm that it can happen when Breyer ships models.

Extended BreyerFest

Finally, Breyer posted on their Facebook page that they were keeping the online BreyerFest content up and available to ticketholders through mid August.

Rodeo Dreams

Pony Pal Cambria has big dreams. She wanted to be a mutton busting champion, and she is. Now she hopes to barrel race when she ages out of mutton busting and I think there may even be some unvoiced dreams about being a rodeo queen.

This video that Mountain Mama Daughter Jessica made of Cambria rodeoing is a lovely way to illustrate those dreams. Enjoy.

New Hatband for a Vintage Hat

I don't usually wear my western hat, especially indoors, but I was wearing my vintage Bailey when I took my BreyerFest Saturday selfie.

I'd been out at the barn and had gotten it out of my tack trunk and brought it home.

I'd gotten that hat in 1971 and wore it when I showed Amy

and Cee back in the 1970s.

Our mutton busting grands, Titan and Cambria, have asked us to come out and watch them rodeo. We looked at our calendars and the date of the rodeo and said we'd be there. And if I am going to a rodeo, I'm going to wear my boots and hat.

The hat has held up well over the years, but the feather on the hatband is tattered. I decided that I would upgrade my hatband and did a little research, finding exactly what I wanted on Etsy from Knot-a-Tail.

She was fast and my new hatband was here within a week, well before we planned to leave.

And the braidwork is lovely.

My hat is dated - it's fifty years old, after all - but I don't care one bit.

This hat has gone to a lot of horsey events with me over the years, and I'm thrilled that I get to wear it to a rodeo, fifty years after I first popped it onto my head.

Give Me a Q!

 In order to honor Karen Crossley, a Canadian hobbyist and active blogger who unexpectedly passed away in July, 2020, Jennifer Buxton, Anne Field, and I are finishing Karen's project of going through her collection by alphabet and talking about the models whose names began with those letters. Today is the first anniversary of Karen's passing.

Give me a Q!

Queen NoorQueen Noor is the name I gave to Steel Dust, a 1994 JAH Subscriber Special. (That date is interesting - she has "JAH '93" inked on her belly.) Her coloring is soft and beautifully blended, and she has done well for me at live and photo shows over the years.

As for her name, she is named after the real Queen Noor, an American woman who married King Hussein of Jordan in 1978 and became Queen consort.

Quiatenon/Ouiatenon

The John Henry mold has its flaws, but if there were a model horse I'd love to have come to life so I could ride it, it would be John Henry (And Giselle - both look like sane, easy to ride, salt of the earth type horses.)

Quiatenon is the Western Horse from the 1994 JCP Holiday set. Since he is pre-2002, he is from the older "lumpy mold" - you can see those lumps in the photo. (The mold was smoothed out after 2002 - check our your Pech Merle if you got one.)

When I showed performance, he was my go-to horse. This is Qiuatenon at the 1995 NAN where he Top Tenned. (Kathy Bateman made his saddle.)

I now spell this model's name with an O instead of a Q. "Quiatenon" is actually a common misspelling of "Ouiatenon," the name of the French fort that was here on the Wabash River during the 18th century. (I was going to put in links to sites that spell it incorrectly, but there were so many I'll just suggest that if you are interested, do a search and you will see what I mean.)

And, the teacher in me has to ask, how many words do you know that either have a continuous string of four different vowels in them, either at the beginning of the word as Ouiatenon does, or embedded within the word?? Can you think of any?

Jennifer and Anne will soon be posting their own "Give Me a..." blog entries if they haven't already. Click on their names to check out their blogs!

Circus Time - My New/Old Remco Circus Horse

Recently a friend who knows my love of circus horses found a Remco Circus Liberty Horse and offered it to me in trade for a haversack. 

I had one of these when I was a kid, and played with it until it was in pretty bad shape. (I think I still have it tucked away in a box.)

Photo from Google Images.

The kit was distributed in 1969 so this is an old piece - no surprise that its glue is yellowing. (I'm kind of surprised that the plastic isn't yellower, too.)

The one my friend found has been well loved, too.

It needs some time with Dawn dishwashing liquid and I may even wash its mane and tail, too. (It's fake fur on a mesh fabric base and I have some just like it in my sewing stash. I will try hand washing some of that first.)

Someone in the past decided to hot glue it to the base. That's not necessarily a bad idea, but they didn't get the pegs down into the base's holes all the way when they applied the hot glue. As a result, the model lists to one side.

The Recmo Circus Liberty Horse is about the same size as a traditional Breyer so it won't be a problem to fit it on my shelves.

Thanks, Betsy, for thinking of me when you found this guy - I'll take good care of him!

Pagosa "Spurs" Visit

 Last week I wrote about how social media functions as a means for me to remain connected with former students. Here is another model horse connected one that recently popped up on my Instagram feed.

My student and her brother are clearly on vacation and enjoying paddle boarding. Wondering where they were, I gave a little start of surprise when I looked more closely. 

Pagosa Springs?? That connects back to my earliest hobby days back in the 1960s!

In 4th grade, I picked the location of my carpet herd stables from a random town on a map of the western United States. The town was abbreviated as "Pagosa Sprs." Naturally, horsey girl me thought that that stood for "Spurs," making it the perfect name for my stable.

My stable brand.

It wasn't until I was an adult that I discovered it was Springs, not Spurs!

Judging from my former student's social media post, it looks like Pagosa "Spurs" is still a good place for water sport, just as it was back in the 1960s!

Pony Pal Kate's Collection

While getting the kids ready for bed the other night, my daughter-in-love Emily did a quick FaceTime call to me. I was actually writing a blog entry when she called; little did I realize that that call would BECOME a blog entry itself!

(Emily does a FABULOUS podcast called Happy Outdoor Families. If you are interested in exploring things to do outdoors, with or without kids, you absolutely should listen. You can also follow it on Instagram.)

Pony Pal Susie (who was so excited she was wiggling and jumping all over) had just received the birthday pillowcase I'd made her and wanted to call and thank me.

She said she really liked the balloons and bunnies and then she showed me how she could get into the pillowcase and hop around in it. (A future western games sack race participant, perhaps??)

And then Kate wanted to tell me something, and that's when the FaceTime call went in an unexpected direction.

I got an unplanned "tour" of Kate's collection!

Emily's "quick call to Grammy" stretched on and on, and Kate just kept talking about her collection despite Emily's gentle reminders that it was bedtime.

Looks like Mila may have a little competition for getting my collection "when I am dead."

Lost Breed - National Appaloosa Ponies

 In this show program for the 1972 Columbian Park Horse Show,

there was a class for a pony breed that most people have never heard of:

National Appaloosa Ponies!

Screenshot of 1965 print ad from eBay.

Information about them is difficult to come by, and I only know about them because of the Columbian Park Horse Show. Having said that, I did find this snippet recently in an online forum:

There was also the short-lived National Appaloosa Pony Incorporated (NAPI), in Indiana, which was in business the same time as the POA, Inc. An advertisement in the 9-1966 Western Horseman magazine, the NAPI stated that they registered “the most popular riding size pony… the Appaloosa Pony 40 inches up to 14 hands.” In the book America’s Horses and Ponies, the registry is called National Appaloosa Pony Association [NAPA] with height requirements from 40 inches up to 55 inches. The NAPI mantra is that the registry is “preserving the Appaloosa Pony” as found, as opposed to the POA which is “creating a new breed”. 

The 4th Annual National Appaloosa Pony Sale, held 4-8-1967 was promoted in the 2-1967 issue of the Horse Bits magazine. Many NAPI ponies were double registered in the POA. Registered Appaloosa stallions were sometimes used in NAPI programs. Holliday Dancer ApHC F-3110 (also sired POAs) and his son Dancer’s Jim Dandy ApHC F-3575 were used by the G-C Ranch (Appaloosa horses and ponies), owned by Glen Coons, Maquon, ILL. Dancer’s Jim Dandy’s sons, Dandy’s Running Otter ApHC T33049 and Dandy’s Redheart NAPI P1135 were also used in the program, and were crossed on NAPI daughters of Holliday Dancer ApHC 3110. Mary Tolan also bred and/or owned POAs that were double registered with NAPI- Tolanka’s Raindrop POA T2330 (Colimo line), Apple Jack POA T2140, and Tolan’s Peggy POA T4645. Tolan had other NAPI registered ponies, including Tolan’s Roan (to Dragon POA 103), Black Beauty T38, Tolan’s Pixie (Colimo line), Tolan’s Colimo, and Tolan’s Maggie.

From Opinions about Appaloosas, Mexican in the Mix, by Rangerbred Researcher, Sherry Byrd, undated.

Notice how it states that the breed was short-lived and that the breed registry was here in Indiana. Proponents of the breed felt the POA was a created breed whereas the Appaloosa pony was a distinct breed in and of itself and the registry was trying to preserve them. (It reminds me of the Foundation Appaloosa Horse Registry.)

Robert and Violet Giltner bred these ponies and they and their ponies were well known in the late 1960s/1970s here in Lafayette.

They also owned a shop, Hoos-Yer Square, that sold square dancing clothes and western wear. (The name of the store is a play on the word Hoosier and then connects the word Square from square dancing to a busy local shopping area named Market Square.)

Their little shop is now a business office, but I remember shopping there and being amazed at all the frilly square dance dresses.

The Giltners' influence on the local horse community was enough that the NAPIs got their own classes at the Columbian Park Horse Show. No other breed got that privilege.

So, what happened to the National Appaloosa Pony Registry? To the ponies that were bred, sold, and shown? I don't know. My sister Leslie also draws a blank when it comes to the Giltners and their ponies. It's as though they and their NAPIs just quietly disappeared.

Just as the breed did.

From Baseball Field to Horse Show Ring and Back - Part Two

Continuing on from yesterday's post about the baseball field that was also a horse show ring. Apologies for some of the photos in today's post. They are very old and I didn't want to remove them from their photo album to scan, so I simply took photos of the photos.

The baseball field at Columbian Park was the site of the biggest horse show between Indianapolis and Chicago for forty years or so.

It went by several names (Lafayette Horse Show, Lafayette Society Horse Show, and the Lafayette Charity Horse Show), but Leslie and I simply called it the Columbian Park Horse Show.

This is the class list from the 1973 program in the previous photo. You can see how the name differs. (I showed my Quarter Horse, Cee Hunt, in the 1973 show.)

The baseball field as it was when it was used for horse shows. This is prior to the extensive renovations it underwent two years ago. (Photo from Google Images.)

Trucks and trailers would roll onto the grounds surrounding the baseball field and park around the attractions. See those stairs to the left?

Those are for the Big Dipper slide. Can you imagine parking your trailer around that and unloading your horses while kids are going up and down that slide, screaming all the way? Somehow it worked for us! (Photo from Google Images.)

The show encompassed as many disciplines as it could. (Heading toward first base! Haha!)

And it was my first exposure to live gaited horses.  (Rounding to second base now.)

This is Hot Cotton. He was an Appaloosa and Leslie and I looked forward to watching him jump every year. I even have a model named after him.

We also looked forward to when the English riders would be asked to hand gallop. Oh, the dust that would kick up, but we didn't mind!

The night show always began with a parade of colors under the lights. By this time, Leslie and I were hot, sweaty, and dusty, but we always stayed for the night show.

Leslie and I would furiously record the names of the winners in the program but we couldn't always keep up with the announcer. (Besides, we wanted to see the winners, not just write down their names!)

The pitcher's mound was where a table with awards was set up along with the announcer and an organ. Throughout the show, and especially when the horses were cantering, the organist would play along with them.

It just felt right to hear organ music on the field again during the Aviators game.

As I was going through my old Columbian Park Horse Show photos and programs, I noticed something, something I had tried to find via Google but had gotten no results. It's a breed of horses that was very, very local (although there was a registry for them) and I don't think any of them exist any more.

More on that breed tomorrow. Stay 'tooned!

From Baseball Field to Horse Show Ring and Back - Part One

Yesterday, Craig, Teacher Daughter Lisa, and I went to a baseball game in the newly renovated baseball stadium, Loeb Stadium, at Columbian Park and Zoo in Lafayette.

It's beautiful and the home of the Lafayette Aviators, a collegiate summer baseball team.

The Aviators are a nod to Amelia Earhart who joined the faculty here at Purdue University in 1935. 

She was a counselor in the Study of Careers for Women and Technical Advisor in the Department of Aeronautics and was still on faculty at Purdue when she disappeared in 1937.

Earhart with Purdue dignitaries at the Purdue Airport. (Photo from Purdue Archives.)

Even though I am not much of a baseball fan, it was a lot of fun.

But I couldn't help but think back to my childhood and teen years when I used to sit in these seats on warm summer days with my sister, Leslie. But we weren't there to watch baseball.

We were there to see show horses. Can you imagine a horse show being held right here on this baseball field? With horses trotting and cantering around the outfield? It's true - they did.

The location was listed as Columbian Park Recreation Center - also known as Loeb Stadium.

This horse show was the highlight of the summer for Leslie and me. Our mom used to drop us off at the stadium at noon with money for lunch and snacks, and we'd be in it for the long haul until the evening show was finished. Sunburned but happy, it was the absolute best day of the year for us.

More tomorrow. Stay 'tooned!