B Stampers: The Ones in My Collection

First Post of the Day

There are three reveals today - the usual Christmas Horse of the Day and the Advent Calendar Reveal, but there is also....

My B Stampers!

The first is the Overo Paint on the Stud Spider mold. He was made in 1979 only, the very beginning of the B stamp era.

There are three different patterns on the Overo Paint; this is the first and oldest one. The other two were produced 1979 - 1980 and 1980 - 1981. (Essentially, this model bookended the B Stamp era.)

One of my first B Stamp models, his story can be found here.

 

This vintage Pacer with a black halter joined my collection in February of 2019. The Pacer is an extremely tippy model, but unlike other Breyer wobbly molds (which I usually sell), I have a conga of them. 

I especially like this color on the Pacer mold. And the halter varies from black, brown, and red, so of course I need an example of each, right?

This Proud Arabian Stallion was my first B stamper found in October, 2017. 

He is in rough shape and I had actually left him behind more than once. But when I discovered that B stamp, I brought him home. He is still in sad shape, but hey, he's a B stamper!

The most recent B stamper to join my collection came in May of this year and was from my friend, Steff Bodamer.  At last year's Midwest Mini Mayhem, we did some trading for haversacks. Win-win!

I was actually first interested in the vintage box he was in but then I saw that B on his leg.

I have several Man O'Wars, but I did not have one that was a B stamper so home with me he came.

My next three B stampers are all the same mold - the Rearing Stallion.

 

Crane, the Halloween counterpart to Ichabod.

 

A very definite B stamp is on his hock.

For unknown reasons, Breyer never removed the B stamp from this mold as it did from others when the oil crisis was over in 1982.

I also have Breyer Show Special Little Chaparral, 1993, a companion to Limited Edition Chaparral who was made in 1992. 

Little Chaparral's B stamp.

This is Pisces from the Classic Zodiac set in 2015. (A really cool set - I took the plunge and bought them all.)

Not only does he have a B stamp, but his color is so pretty.

With the exception of one more that I'm on the fence about, that is all of the B Stampers I have. I'll share about it tomorrow.

Stay 'tooned!

Christmas Horse of the Day

Ivy, the 2015 Christmas Surprise Horse. He is a glossy dappled green with white points on on the popular Flash mold.

A gambler's choice, the other model was Holly, a glossy dappled red with white points. Only 350 were made of each color.

Advent Calendar Reveal - Day 8

An arch stock gate!

One that not only attaches to the other fencing but one that opens, too!

New Hardware

After my tumble a week or so ago, Tim has replaced the hardware at most of the gates.

This is the gate that popped open when I leaned on it. This hook was used elsewhere but it is more substantial than what was there previously.

Shiny new hardware on the gate that we have to pass through to get to the north pastures and the paddock behind the new barn.

Same gate, but not new - the wheel he put at the base of the gate a few months ago. I smiled when I saw it, but honestly, it makes it so much easier to open and shut this gate. Even when it is muddy!

New hardware on the gate into the southwest pasture, too. 

I don't plan to be leaning on any gates again in the future, but if I do, they're ready for me. More importantly, they're ready for a few leaning horses, too.

In Which I Take a Tumble

When you get to be a certain age, the risk of falling rises. So does your fear of falling, especially if you are alone when it happens. Add in a couple of horses and you have the scenario I faced a week ago.

Abby and Sultanna had come up for a visit. I'd fed Abby her peppermints and was getting ready to leave when I noticed that I'd dropped one of her treats on the ground by her feet. It was close to the gate and I figured that I could just bend over and reach through the bars, and retrieve it. No problem, right? 

I can't squat any more because my knees are really weak, so I was bending as best I could, but I still couldn't reach that darn peppermint. I had my arm between two of the bars and I could almost touch the candy. (Meanwhile Abby and Sultanna had their noses right at my outstretched hand, checking to see if there were more treats to be had.)

It's kind of hard to describe what happened next. I gave one last stretch, leaning against the gate... and the gate suddenly swung open.

All the pastures are lower than the ground around the new barn and so there is a little hill you must go down when you enter them. I tumbled forward down that hill as the gate swung open, my arm, with a painful wrench, caught in the bars, and went down onto the ground under Abby and Sultanna's noses.

Since having my hip and knees replaced, I rarely get down on the floor or ground - it's too difficult to get up and I need assistance to do so. So now I found myself on the ground in front of two horses, plus a gate now open into a paddock that had no fence on the north side, and no one around to help me get up.

The owner of the agribusiness next door injured himself and putting his fence up is on hold. Tim has been kind enough to not complain and we simply have not used the paddock for horses for the last eight weeks. But, if Abby and Sultanna decided to come through that now open gate, they could conceivably hightail it for even greener pastures and be loose, an even bigger problem that the one I was already facing.

I do not remember how I got up off the ground after extricating my arm from the bars. (I do remember that part - I have a torn rotator cuff in that shoulder, and tumbling forward down the hill with my arm caught in the gate really, really hurt.) But somehow I found myself up on my feet, feeling very wobbly, and I pulled the gate closed so the horses did not come through. 

As I stood there and caught my breath, my arm hanging down because it hurt too much to move it, I realized that I had another problem. The gate was now closed, but how was I going to secure it so that it stayed shut? The chain was still there and I couldn't see any broken links - just what had happened? 

I looped the chain around the post and then fastened it like usual, examining it and trying to figure out why the gate had popped open. It was definitely closed and with the chain wrapped around the post and over the hook, I felt confident that it would not pop open again. Still very shaky, I drove home and then texted Tim to let him know that there might be a problem with the gate.

Tim being Tim, he was concerned that I was hurt. And, he went out immediately to check the gate to see if he could determine what had happened. We both are puzzled as to why the gate swung open like that. 

I didn't do my shoulder any favors when I caught it in the bars of the gate, but it is feeling better. And aside from some lingering bruises on my arm, I'm fine now. 

 

OUCH!!

Spend any time around horses, and you are bound to have an injury or two.

Tim's whimsical carving of an injured cowboy may be tongue in cheek, but there is truth behind it. (Witness his accident with Sultanna earlier this fall that required surgery for a shattered clavicle and six broken ribs.)

I had a minor injury out at the barn Friday before the weekend snowstorm blew through. I'd hurried out to visit Abby and had gone through the paddock gate. The gate was at my back as I closed it; I was scanning the pastures for the herd, and wasn't paying much attention to where things were in relation to my body.

I stumbled and fell backwards while raising my arm to latch it and was closer to the gate post than I had thought, whacking my arm hard against the edge of the latch.  Chills ran through my entire body and and my fingers and lower arm went numb. I stood frozen in place for a few moments, eyes watering, and waited for my fingers to come back to life and the pain to subside.

(Meanwhile, Abby and her buddies were watching me impatiently from the northeast pasture, wondering if they should amble on up or if I was ever going to move.)

Three days later I've still got a large bruise on the underside of my upper arm and tenderness from just below my shoulder to my elbow. (It was a really hard whack.)

Crazy injury, right? Just goes to show that there are a multitude of ways to get hurt when you have horses. And a horse wasn't even involved!

Loose Horses!

(Sorry, no pictures for this entry - I wasn't there when it happened.)

Friday around noon the herd went sightseeing down the road. (Sans Diablo. For whatever reason, she remained behind in the pasture.) Alice, the woman who lives in the old farmhouse, saw Abby and the twins bucking and cantering past her front window and called Tim to let him know the herd was out.

Tim, the sheriff, and even Alice (who is older and has difficulty walking) were out to round them up. Apparently Abby and the twins were easy to corral and lead back home, but Trouble and Hokey had gone further and took longer to catch. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the horses were not hit by any cars on the road.

But how did they get loose?

The east gate by the old barn was standing open when it was discovered the herd was running free. Did someone prank us and deliberately set the horses free? Tim secures all the gates on the property really well - so well, in fact, that sometimes I don't go out in the pasture but just visit with Abby over the gate as it takes a lot to open and then re-secure the gates. Whoever opened that gate would have had to make a concerted effort. Plus, Alice has a huge and very vocal watchdog who barks loudly at anyone coming down the access lane to the old barn.

(I suppose it is possible that someone could have approached the gate from the next door property and thus circumvented Alice's watchdog. I've walked up from the new barn through the pastures and not been spotted by her dog before.)

Or maybe someone left the gate open while working with the horses? That doesn't make sense for several reasons. First, it is just Tim and me who go into the pastures. (Alice and her husband are mostly housebound due to age-related issues.) I did not open it when I was there Thursday; I visited with Abby in the barn. Secondly, that particular gate is not one that gets used. It only opens to the access lane to the old barn which is just used for storing hay and shelter. All the tack and the indoor arena where Tim rides are in the new barn, so if he is going to ride or work with a horse, he opens the gates over by it.

Could it be that the horses had an altercation and ran into the gate, somehow popping it open? As secured as those gates are, it doesn't seem likely, but then, neither do any of the other possibilities.

I feel a little unsettled about the whole thing, and wish we knew how that gate became open. And, I am really grateful that none of the horses were hit by a car and are now home safely.

Pointing the "Hoof of Blame"

During my visit with Abby this afternoon, I noticed this:

 Someone took a gate down between the pastures.

 It happens occasionally - the horses will want access to the "grass is greener over there" pasture and worry the gate until they finally knock it over somehow.

 I've watched Trouble take one down in no time flat...

... and Hokey, too.

So, when I saw the gate was down, I took a few pictures of it and sent them to Tim so he would know that  a repair was needed.

Trouble often lives up to his name, so I couldn't resist and told Tim that I'd seen a big sorrel horse standing by the downed gate. Not true, but Trouble WAS a reasonable suspect, and Tim knew it.

So, he texted back a tongue in cheek response. "Interesting...because I just talked to Trouble and he pointed a hoof at Abby. She did not want to talk about it..."

We'll never know which one took the gate down!

Hmmm,

Interesting

Because i just talked to Trouble and he pointed a hoof at Abby.

.... she did not want to talk abt it.

Hmmm,

Interesting

Because i just talked to Trouble and he pointed a hoof at Abby.

.... she did not want to talk abt it.

Hmmm,

Interesting

Because i just talked to Trouble and he pointed a hoof at Abby.

.... she did not want to talk abt it.

The Best Visits are the Ordinary Ones

The snow has mostly melted and the lane to the old barn is clear and not too muddy, so I was able to easily visit with Abby this afternoon. As soon as she heard my voice, she came over, softly nickering as she approached.

She's got some mud on her, but I don't mind that - she spends most of her day outdoors, after all, and is very happy. (Tim calls her love of rolling in mud her spa treatments.)

She's not a cribber nor does she chew wood, but she does like to lick the metal bars of the gates. It's an odd habit, and she only does it after she's had her treats.

 One of my favorite things about Abby is the pink coloring inside her nostrils.

Who'd have thought an animal's nose could be so pretty! It's super soft, too.

It was just an ordinary visit today, but those are the best. I drove home, remembering that gentle nicker, her happiness at seeing me, and thinking how lucky I was to have a horse in my life.

Discoveries in the Dark

Lisa sent me this picture last night. Guess whose backside this is? 

That's Hokey, and he is scratching his backside so hard against the gate that he loosened the post the gate is attached to and bent the bars of the gate as well! (You can see the top bar is bent upward.)

Lisa was concerned, and rightly so, that Trouble and Hokey could get loose, so she called me and I went out in the dark to check the fence. After a phone conversation with Tim, we decided the gate repair could wait until morning.

But Lisa had also noticed something else before I arrived - she had counted noses and could not find Mason. She asked me if I knew if he had been sold; I didn't, so I texted Tim to find out - a missing horse can be an emergency.

 I had to laugh at his observation that he would not want to steal a horse with her around.

I was not overly attached to Mason, but Lisa was very fond of him. (Okay, let's be honest. She's fond of every horse at the barn!) He liked to follow her around the pasture and be skritched. Here she gives him a kiss on the nose as she was petting a barn cat. He was plodding along beside her, and when she stopped and bent over, he put his face right up to hers.

That puts us at six horses, although if Dolly is in foal, that's six and a half. Time will tell on that one!

Gate Get-Together

This afternoon, Trouble was by himself in the old barn, while the other horses were in the west pasture. To get to the barn, the horses have to wind around past some scrubby trees, around a long fence row, and through a small paddock and past a hay rack.

He wanted his carrot, and the way Tim has the pastures configured at the moment (he has a maze of gates that can be opened and closed so that several pastures are growing up while the horses are in another) two gates to the same pasture are side by side. However, to get to each other from one gate to another, the herd must make that long and winding walk.

So, tonight I had horses at both gates - which actually simplified the carrot-giving process. Trouble couldn't bully Abby away!

 True to form, Hokey was the first up for carrots - he is so eager he always trots on up as soon as I call.

 Pretty Diablo, herd leader, comes up after Abby and Hokey. She will pin her ears and chase him off, but she and Abby get along well and are friendly.

 Abby looks like she's threatening to chew the bars of the gate if I don't hand over the carrots!

 And Trouble makes goo-goo snorts with Diablo. 

I think Diablo nickered at me tonight. She has done so a time or two before, but I could not tell if it was she or Abby who did the low nicker as I produced the carrots.

I am a little concerned that Abby may be losing weight. This photo shows how angular she is looking.

 Tim is going to get his weight tape out for me and check her plus he's going to deworm all the horses.

She just looks a bit angular to me, more than she should. I'll be really interested in finding out what the weight tape says she weighs.

Toss those Carrots and Run!!

I went out to the barn earlier than usual this afternoon, heading out around 5:30 instead of my more normal late evening/after 8:00 PM. And a good thing I did, too.

Tim had emailed me earlier in the day that he'd moved the horses to the west pasture, but I was still a bit surprised to see the green gate by the water trough in the south pasture open. I could see tire tracks in the dirt; he'd been hauling hay through the gate. It was unusual that he'd left the gate open, but since the herd was in the far pasture, and with two more gates between them and the green one, they were safe. And perhaps it wasn't Tim; maybe the other boarder had been careless since the horses were in a different pasture and just had not bothered to close it.

I walked past the red gate (also open, to my surprise) into the north pasture and headed to the old barn to find Abby. Hokey spied me and came walking to the gate that separates the north pasture from the west pasture. To my consternation, I realized that that gate was open, too! I rushed toward it, hoping to swing it shut before Hokey got into the north pasture.

The gate was off its hinges and leaning against the fence. There was no way I could drag it shut and block Hokey from entering the north pasture.

The pasture with not one but two open gates.

Which could mean horses running loose.

Intent upon the treats he knew I was carrying, Hokey broke into a jog and quickly came through the gate. The rest of the herd had become aware of my presence and was heading over, too. Once they got into the north pasture, there was no way I could prevent them from getting out the open gates and freedom!

Thinking fast (and knowing that Hokey can be a bit of a pig) I tossed the carrots on the ground to distract him, knowing he'd stop to eat them. Then I took off at a run - I'm not fast at all, but my only hope was to get to the red gate and shut it before the horses reached it.

I hobbled as fast as I could go, and then my heart sank as I heard hoofbeats behind me. Hokey had finished the carrots and was pursuing me in the hopes of getting some more! Luckily, I barely beat him to the red gate and was able to swing it shut just as he got there.

Whew!! I felt pretty shaky, knowing what a close call that had been. I latched the gate with the chain and then called Tim to let him know that someone had left the gates open, but he did not pick up. So I texted him and then went and closed the green gate - I wanted EVERY possible escape avenue shut down!

Tim texted me back right away - sheepishly admitting that HE had left the gates open! Whoops! He asked me to reopen the red gate so the horses had access to the water trough, which I did, and then I went home.

I am now almost to the point where I can smile about what happened. I imagine Hokey was pretty surprised when those carrots came flying at him! I wish I could've seen his face but I was too busy hustling to beat him to the gate.

And I've been thinking back to the day I got Abby, and how that evening I had a very strong sense of the Lord's happiness for me having a horse again, that sense of fondness and "Just wait until you see what I have in store for you" I had felt as I prayed.

Now I wonder if the Lord was smiling and thinking then that one of those "things in store for me" was the time I would toss those carrots and RUN. And the image made Him smile and send me that paternal feeling.

It probably DID look funny.

Nightly Ritual

This is the last thing I see at the barn just about every evening now. Abby follows me up to the gate and says goodbye.

And she stands there watching me as I walk to my car, get in, and pull away.

It may be my imagination, but she seems a bit wistful as she watches. It pulls my heartstrings - clearly she enjoys my visits as much as I do.

And again I wonder, how could anyone have neglected and abused such a sweet little mare?

Must You Go?

Abby seems to be starting a new habit. She comes and gets her treat(s), goes off to graze while the other horses get theirs, and then, as I am leaving, comes back over to say good-bye.

Tonight was no exception. I actually hung around, waiting for her to come back, and even called her a time or two. She did not seem interested, and I did not feel like hiking across the pasture for a last hug - it was almost 10:00 PM and fast getting dark. I figured that tonight she was breaking with what had become a habit.

And then suddenly, up went her head and she quickly ambled over to me for a few sugar cubes and some rubbing on her face and around her ears.

But I don't think she was through visiting - when I began walking back to my car, she came over to another gate and stood there, watching me.

 I don't think she wanted me to leave!

Abby stood like this for quite some time, watching me, and was still there as I drove off.