A New Mystery Horse

Every now and then, a friend who knows I am horsey will send me a text or message like this one that I got late last week.

After Karen sent me that message, I sent her photos of the black Western Horse and Black Western Pony pulled from the Identify Your Breyer site. 

Based on our message chain, I was expecting a black Breyer Western Pony.

What I got was this pretty boy, and he is most definitely not a Breyer Western Pony.

At first I thought he was made of styrene, but the more I handle him, the more I think it is another type of plastic. It's not quite light enough to be styrene and when I set him down on a table, he makes that gentle "thunk" sound that Breyers do.

The piece has what Nancy Atkinson Young called "scooper ears" in her notes for her books on Breyer Molds and Models.

The tack doesn't match Breyer, Ohio Plastics, or Superior, all of whom are known to have produced similar Western Horse models...

... although it does match Hartland's pretty well.

The saddle is missing its tapaderos and is made of a thinner plastic than the Breyer saddles are. But when I compared it to pictures of Hartland saddles, it seems to match. Could this be a Hartland piece?

I have one Hartland Western Horse, the Victor Over Clock (VOC). It's way up on the top of a shelf, but I am going to see if Craig won't help me get it down so I can compare the two. (I'm still under post op restrictions for lifting and climbing.)

I also have this Ohio Plastics horse and rider to compare the mystery horse to, and the two pieces are very different. My mystery horse is not an Ohio Plastic piece.

Clearly, I need to do some research - that's part of the fun of collecting. I have asked on a few Facebook sites to see if the folks there know what it is. And I may email Sande Schneider - her favorite mold is Breyer's Western Horse and she is a fount of knowledge.

In the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying having a mystery model on my hands. 

Grey Appaloosa Family Arabian Foal

Since I had my two grey Appaloosa FAMs out for yesterday's post, I also got out my Family Arabian Foal (FAF) in the same color.

 He is the belly band version with heavy splash spotting on the off side

and more minimal spotting on the near.  You can see the extensive bald face on this piece

 and its nice pink nose. There's a little pinking in its ears, too.

The FAF mold went through some permutations, and the ears were changed several times. Nancy Young wrote on page 196 in her book, Breyer Molds and Models, 1950 - 1997, "Version B: first leg stamped foals, ca. 1960-61: These have no belly stamp but instead a normal round Breyer Molding Co. stamp placed high inside the hind left leg..."

"... oriented with its central C symbol facing backward.... These foals also have the same round inward curving eartips..."

 You can see the inward curving eartips in this photo.

 Like the two FAMs in yesterday's post, the hoof bottoms appear to be made of grey plastic.

Just like the FAMs, I am not a big fan of this vintage mold. Having said that, I do think that this particular piece is pretty, and a very well preserved example of the color.

I'll see if I can't dig out my grey Appaloosa Family Arabian Stallion and take a closer look at him, too, in the next post.