It's Adorable

Cowpoke Lukie and Pony Pal Mila spent Saturday morning with Craig and me. As usual, they asked to come upstairs into my office and look at my collection, something I enjoy as much as they do.

Lukie wanted to see his favorite horse, Breyer's Autism Awareness Horse, and I smiled when he told me that it was "adorable." (A phrase his mama uses frequently to describe things.)

Notice that missing front tooth? He fell last week and knocked it out. Thankfully, the dentist says he thinks that Lukie's permanent tooth will be okay.

Lukie also likes Pony Pal Mila's favorite model, Under the Sea. He refers to that one as the "Water Horse," and deems it to be "adorable" as well.

Whether or not Cowpoke Lukie has the horsey gene remains to be seen. Regardless, he and I are making horsey memories together and that makes us both very, very happy.

You might even say, that's adorable.

Green Horses

It's St. Patrick's Day and time to bring out the green horses! I don't have photos of all that I own, but here are some of my favorites.

The small display in my office of green horses.

Pisces, from the 2015 Zodiac Series. He's supposed to be turquoise, but to me he looks green.

Cowpoke Lukie likes my favorite green model horse as much as I do.

Carnivale, a 2006 BreyerFest special run, 1,000 made.

Frankincense, 2016 Web Special, 350 made. (Photo from Breyer)

Lukie sure has the same taste as me - Under the Sea is my other favorite green model.

And, as he says in the video, she is adorable!

Auriverde, a 2016 BreyerFest Store special (1,000 made.)

Christmas Candy, one of four pieces for the 2019 Christmas morning Surprise. 350 of each color made.

Emerald, Christmas Morning Surprise, 2017

And last but not least, Eire, the model that will forever remind me of Pony Pal Mila and her unnerving comment,

"Grammy, can I have this when you die?"

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Circus Time: Comparing the Head Down Freeman Leidys

Teacher Daughter Lisa and I both taught in the same school for the 2013 - 2014 school year. (Was that ever fun!) One day we were standing together in the hallway while the kids were arriving for the day. A pair of identical twins who were in Lisa's class and ALWAYS dressed identically passed by us. As they went past, we overhead one say to her identical sister,

"Mrs. I., Miss I!! I can't ever tell them apart!"

Lisa and I looked at each other in surprise and then broke out laughing. I still tease her today that, despite 25 years age difference between us, to the twins we looked alike.

Lisa (far right) and me (next to her) at the staff Christmas party in 2013.

If those twins had looked a little closer, surely they would have seen "variations" between Lisa and me. And that's the way it is with model horses - looking closely can show you all kinds of interesting differences between models that initially look identical.

When I compared my newest head down Freeman Leidy to the one I already had, I found many of those differences. (In all photos of the two together, the new one is on the right.)

The first difference I noticed was the plumes.

The color order is different and the plume on the new pony is a little bit taller than the other.

Front hooves comparison. You can see the actual brush strokes on the hooves - the strokes are very uneven on the coronet band. The purple color on the pasterns and fetlocks vary too - blobby on the first; more thin and linear on the second.

Compare the position of the near hind hoof to the one on the newer pony.

It is set more fully on the ground than my first piece. That may be due to shrinkage during the firing process.

The bows and ribbons were a place where the decorating artists could have some fun. 

The new pony's ribbon on the first bow has been flipped and twisted a bit.

You can see other ribbon differences in this photo.

Eye comparison. I think those eyelashes are (as Lukie would say) adorable.

Hoof undersides on the first. That green is fabric chalk marking the hoof bottoms. I put it there to make sure I knew which one was which. It easily brushes off and isn't permanent.

Hoof undersides on the new piece. It's rougher in places than the first. It looks to me on both that the hooves had holes in the bottom that were later filled in during production. A quick (and careful) check of the head up ponies confirmed that they all had similar hoof bottoms.

The CO (Ceramics Original) mark is faint but present on the first piece.

Easily seen on the second.

Look at that all that beribboned, chonky goodness! Oh, how I love those Freeman Leidys! 

Next in the series? Some pieces not in my collection yet but that I am looking for.

Prepare to be amazed!