Glass horses - that's what Leslie and I called our china horses. I don't know why; they certainly weren't made of glass. I think it was because we were so young and didn't have a clue what china was. Glass equaled breakable, and these pieces certainly were that. Hence, glass horses.
My collection began with a glass horse, Brownie. Brownie is absolutely my most treasured piece in my entire collection. He is also a mess.
Santa brought him for me when I was six; no wonder he is a mess. All those breaks were lovingly fixed by my father using the yellow drippy glue from his workbench. Each of those gloppy lines is a reminder to me of how patient and loving my dad was as he fixed Brownie again and again.
A picture I drew when I was little of me getting Brownie for Christmas. That's my dad in the chair.
Hobbyist Heather McCurdy knew how much I loved Brownie and actually came across another one a few years ago. She purchased it and gave it to me at a Great Lakes Congress show. It stands next to Brownie in my china cabinet, a reminder of a very thoughtful friend.
Santa had no idea what he was starting and the glass horses began accumulating on shelves that my mother purchased using her S & H Green Stamps from the grocery store.
Leslie and I used to be in charge of gluing them into their books. It was so exciting to go redeem them and get a new shelf for our ponies!
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, a good place to find Hagen Renakers and other makes of china horses was in a gift or flower shop. Here in Lafayette, we had Bowers Gift Shop. Bowers only carried those chinas that were made in Japan; I was unaware of Hagen Renakers until I read an article in Horse and Rider magazine and saw photos of Zara and Zilla.
Leslie and I used to stand and look at Bowers' beautiful glass horses (hands behind our backs so we didn't break anything!) and wish and dream that they could all come home with us. Some of them did, and I still have almost all of my earliest pieces.
Diamond Dindy, a Lefton, was my favorite foal. He has two leg breaks and a chip on the side of his head, but I only have to pull him out of my china cabinet to feel my heart soften and my eyes get a little misty. I loved Diamond Dindy (and I still do; I teared up just writing that.)
Of course, Diamond Dindy had parents. His father was Black Diamond, a Lefton Saddlebred. Black Diamond was the very regal and dignified leader of my glass horse herd.
The beautiful Trimontware Falda (a misspelling by me of the name of the horse Falada in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, The Goose Girl) was Black Diamond's wife and the mother of Diamond Dindy. She was the boss mare in my 1960s herd.
Like the Freeman Leidy circus horses, Falda has beautiful eyelashes.
Despite being the size of a Breyer Traditional, Mollasus was a gentle giant. And, when I got Needles, a woodgrain Running Foal and my very first Breyer, she became his mom.
I kept Needles and Mollasus together until about five years ago when I decided that she would be safer in the china cabinet rather than out on the open shelves with my Breyers. Doggone it if I didn't feel a pang separating the two!
Using scraps of wood from my dad's workbench, I built Mollasus and her "husband," Desert Wind (long broken and gone) a barn.
Leslie, Jenny, and I would play with that barn and Mollasus and Desert Wind out under our crab apple trees.
Counterpoint was a sweet, Little Bit sized Saddlebred/ Tennessee Walker. His name came from one of my favorite books at the time, Scarlet Royal, by Anne Emery.
The only pony in the glass horse herd was Bobol. A gift from my friends, Bobbie Sue and Carol, I combined their names to get his. He is one of the only members of my glass horse herd that doesn't have any breaks!
Old Maude wasn't actually mine; she belonged to Leslie and was Leslie's favorite glass horse. Like Brownie, the original Old Maude is not in good shape but she is lovingly packed safely away. I bought this one from Karen Beeson because I, too, had loved Old Maude.
I'd always wondered where the name "Old Maude" came from - it's not a name a little girl would come up with. It was on Thanksgiving Day, 2020 that I discovered the story behind the name. I cherish the china Old Maude even more now that I know why she was named that.
An old Lefton mare and foal set (that is missing the standing foal that was part of it.) This mare was added in the 1990s; I don't know what happened to the original mare and the other foal.
There is a box of carpet herd chinas tucked away in the closet. I always open it and unwrap each piece when I am reorganizing or cleaning. The trip back through beloved memories is always worth it.
Those models may be chipped, broken, or even missing pieces, but I remember them as they were and the joy they brought me. And you know what? They still do.
