Saturday at BreyerFest is usually a nice chill day for my sister Sarah and I. We get to sleep in a bit, linger over coffee with our parents and chatter about Breyerfest, and then make our way out to the Kentucky Horse Park to pick up our celebration models and special runs.
This year, we both mostly just wanted the stripey special runs, and happily, we each were able to buy them. We have an affinity for zebras, quaggas, zorses, and even the Lisa Frank fever dream that is the delightful day-glo Astrid below. Another one for the conga!
After picking up our models, we had some time to kill before the raffle later that afternoon, so we ambled through the barns visiting real horses. I snapped a bunch of pictures for art references. Nothing like being able to see fine details up close!
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| Pretty fleabit grey |
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| A close up |
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| I love the way the spots on this guy look like they were splashes of wet paint that ran! |
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| Lacey socks and flank spots |
Speaking of colorful Thoroughbreds, I was unprepared for the blind bag surprise special runs this year---the Winx mold in 6 lovely colors, 4 of which are definitely found in the Thoroughbred gene pool. I'm not a fan of gambler's choice offerings, so I never opt for a ticket for the surprise SR. Doh! I'm going to have to track down the glossy versions of all of these eventually. Might need to take a on a third job first though!
We managed to find seats in the stands at the end of the covered arena where the raffle is held, so we sat for a while and watched Athenian Lady (the celebration horse) and Amanda Delgado perform.
Not long after, we found our friends Sue Rowe and her husband Todd. They are fellow Minnesotans, and we met them at the 2nd or 3rd BreyerFest way back in the early 1990s. We see them just about every year, and they and their kids have become extended family. It's not BreyerFest until we see them!
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| Todd, Sue, Sarah, and me |
Sarah and I traditionally only buy $10 worth of raffle tickets each---we're just too frugal to spend much on games of chance (hence also my dislike of gambler's choice offerings). Needless to say, we didn't win, making us 1 for 35 in BF raffle attempts. C'est la vie!
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| The raffle crowd gathers |
After the raffle, we booked it back to the CHIN and miraculously found a parking spot. Sarah and I decided to walk across the parking lot to the Marriott to see if anything was still going on at Equilocity.
Not surprisingly, very few sales models were still available. Stone collectors don't mess around!
A number of best offer models that are auctioned online on a weekly basis were on display. They were absolutely superb! We loved this trio of zebras best. (I'm sensing a theme here.)
We could only afford to window shop, so we headed back to the CHIN for more of same.
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| A nice array of vintage Breyers |
We ended the evening in the BHR suite helping our mom bid on a really cool black roan test run Proud Arabian Mare that she hoped to buy from the collection of Simone Smiljanic. Simone was a close friend of Marney Walerius, and the test run likely came into Simone's collection via Marney. I plan to write posts about both women soon, but for those who did not know them, they were two of the best known founders of the model horse hobby in the late 1960s. Marney did a lot of consulting work for Breyer at their Chicago factory and had access to many tests runs, variations, and cull models, a number of which she sold on to other collectors.
The color on this PAM is a neat take off of the splattery red roan color Breyer produced in the 1960s and 1970s. There is a supposed black roan Running Mare like this pictured on Identify Your Breyer, and for years, I thought it was just a photoshopped image that someone submitted to the site. Now I have to wonder if it's actually real and if there are other tests in this unique color kicking around.
We bid what we were able to on the PAM, but we were quite thoroughly surpassed by other bidders, and the PAM did not join our herd. She was very fun to see in person though, and she has a wonderful new home with a fellow vintage fan.
The theme for BreyerFest next year is Cheers to 75 Years of Breyer models. I hope there will be some fun vintage homages amongst the special runs! (Fingers crossed for Western Horses, Proud Arab Mares, or In Between Mares in the original decorator colors---let's manifest this, hahaha!)
I've never won a Breyer Raffle either, despite trying for decades. Can't say 35 tries because I don't enter if I don't want the horse, but I'm with you there! Yes Sir, it isn't BreyerFest without the Rowes! My goodness, I'd never heard of a Black Roan til now. And I've been collecting Breyers since 1964. I had no idea that Running Mare was there, either, despite constantly visiting IDYB. Too dang good for a PhotoShop image, methinks. Big sigh. The world is large.
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