Wish Granted

Well, my wishes paid off. I guess I owe my sister a lot. She entered the warhorse contest for me and won one. I didn't want to post on the main forums because I know a lot of people were disappointed they didn't get an email, and I didn't want to seem as if I was rubbing it in. So I'll post here, away from all the spotlight, where my closer online friends and faithful readers can share in my joy, as they wish.

He doesn't ship for a whole month, so there's no rush to choose a breed and pedigree him. I kind of want to see him in person first so I can let him speak to me. Since he was so vocal, just seeing a photo of him online, I'm sure he will be very, very loud in person.

I feel extremely lucky to claim one, as I know how limited they are, but he will be my first super limited edition model, and I doubt I'll be able to get another one for a very long time. (At least until I'm rich and can afford to bid in Breyerfest ;) ;) *cough* give me twenty years *cough*) I can also proudly say he will have a forever home here, and will not be going anywhere :)

I wish everyone the best for the year to come, and here's to more new ponies for everyone!

Creating Professional Certificates

How to Create Professional Breeding Certificates

There are many different things you should keep in mind while creating breeding certificates. I wanted to write an article to address as many of them as I could thing of, mainly because I realized I had the experience, knowledge, and good will to help and give advice to those people who either don’t know how, or who may realize their certificates don’t follow many of these guidelines.

Remember, as a model horse stable owner, you have the right to provide whatever type of certificate you desire, but if you wish to have repeat customers, you need to provide the type of service they expect. Part of this service is a reliable, presentable, and correct breeding certificate.

Format

Since I don’t have any experience with Macs, I’ll be discussing programs available on PCs. The best program to choose is the one you feel most comfortable with. There is no point having high expectations for your certificate but struggling for hours with a program you don’t understand.

Probably the most popular program is Microsoft Word. All of the new versions have a table option, which provides a very efficient and clean way to present the pedigree. Using the different types of font can result in a very nice, professional look. Tips: Use bold for headings, italics for special information, such as your email address, and normal text for the basic information.

Excel is an even more straightforward program for creating tables. You can use the line tool to underline the text in your pedigree and the merge cell option to put lines of text, such as descriptions, in.

Information

This is the most information that should be present somewhere on the page.

• The foal’s entire pedigree, anywhere from 4-6 generations complete
• The foal’s basic information
• Basic information on both parents (i.e. birth date, color, breed, gender, etc)
• Your contact information
• The name of your stable/ your logo

This information can be presented one of two ways, typically. You can fit it all onto one page, usually with the basic information at the top and the pedigree on the bottom, or as two separate pages, with the pedigree on one and the basic information on the other.

The Professionalism

Now, anyone can do the above things and still create a, shall we say it, crappy product. The professionalism comes through in the details. Follow these rules and I hope you can see the difference!

• If there are any “unknowns” in the pedigree, you better make sure you have extensively researched as much as you are able to make sure you can’t find the names that fit into that space. I received a certificate that had a real horse with a very distinct name with parents as unknown. One plug into allbreed and I was able to find the parents. That’s just lazy.
• Don’t assume allbreed is the dictionary. It is rife with misspellings, wrong parents, wrong dates, colors, etc. If it is a rare breed or not a popular horse, do research through real horse stable sites to double check information or find missing information. Make SURE your dates, colors, and parents are correct before you send it to a customer that may double check (and when the customer retypes the pedigree, normally they do check).
• Use spell check, check your grammar, read it over thrice, and check the print preview of the final product before you send it.
• Make sure your pedigree aligns within itself and there are no lines that drop down a second line, as this creates confusion. With all the tools available in word processing programs, there is no excuse to have a sloppy pedigree.

I hope this helps improve many of the pedigree certificates that get sent out!

A Long Wait

There's some horses that come into Golden Hart Estates that immediately get names, breeds, and a pedigree. And then there are others who have to wait weeks, months, or even years to be acknowledged. This guy is one of them.

He came into my life two Christmases ago, and has never gotten an identity. I hesitated to make him a mustang, because they are so hard to pedigree with real parents, or even with a full pedigree among model mustangs. Besides, mustangs are kind of the fall-back for any stocky horse that doesn't immediately scream Quarter Horse, or have any obvious markings to claim Appaloosa or Paint.

So he fell by the wayside and became *almost* forgotten.

Until today.

Before my quest over break, I would often visit "random" pages to see if I could match up any identities with bodies. But I found that I kept visiting the same random pages, and had a hard time finding the ones I was missing. Until I started going by alphabetical breed order a la my Excel worksheet. And tonight I got to Australian Stock Horse.

And Mr. Horse above, was the perfect choice for the identity of Thunderous Majesty. Quite a name for a horse that had once fallen by the wayside. It is a fitting end to a long wait.

Chasing Dreams

It is very rare that I see a model horse that I absolutely *have* to have. There are plenty I want, and want very bad, don't get me wrong, but now that I'm grown, that certain sparkle that surrounds models has grown limited to just a few.

And like a fool, I've fallen in love with War Horse. I don't have any certain feeling toward the mold itself, but the color, oh the color, is my absolute favorite shade of bay. I want him, desire him, and it'll crush my heart a little bit when I don't get him.

Because the bad news is, my family is horrible for luck when it comes to drawings. We've never won anything. I, personally, have never won anything, either.

However, my mind is healthy enough to deal with such losses, because my belief that everything happens for a reason consoles me that the people that got them needed them more. Which is a lie, for the most part. Some of the people that get them will not care for the model except for its monetary value, and turn around and sell it. Others will add it to a museum of dusty horses that never get one on one time, and still others will try to show it, and if it doesn't do well, toss it aside and replace it with the next new thing.

And I already know, and am quite happy with, the Christmas presents that are under the tree. My boyfriend is very supportive of my hobby, but he has no clue when it comes down to buying models, which ones I have or don't have, or don't even want. So this year he let me take some money and buy myself a few. I bought Isadora Cruce from the tack shop, and a few of the Stablemates I was missing (I'm on a ridiculous quest to collect them all *shakes fist at Pokemon*). And then, when we went to Murdochs later that evening, we saw they had a sale on all Breyer products for 20% off, so he hooked me up with the mid-states release and Kong.

And yet, Christmas morning, I will still be yearning for good news. Oh Santa, if you are out there, I have been so good this year!

The big 900!

I created an Excel file to list all my horses in a row. The rows are Name, Breed, YOB, FFC, LFC, Gender, Color, Brand, Size. It is really neat and handy because I can reorder the data according to Breed, or year of birth, or whichever I please.

That was how I found really quickly which horses were ending their breeding life this year, and which ones were starting in 2012.

I can also reorder by Breed, then Gender, then YOB, so I see all the breeds in alphabetical order, and within the breed I see mares first, and then oldest mare to youngest.

But the exciting news is that tonight, while adding in some of my orphans, I reached 900! Whoo hoo! It's inaccurate as to how many actual models I have, because I have a bunch of orphan models still, and some of the identities in my list are BSOs, and some models have multiple BSOs when an old one retires and the younger version of it takes over. But it's exciting to know I'm that close to 1000!

The horse that made it to 900 was Debutante, a chestnut tobiano American Saddlebred mare, on the Breyer ASB Little Bit mold. I matched her up to a name on a GC bio card, as parent to the GC Mini High Jinx, who I don't yet have.

 SFC Debutante

Named Crossbreeds (Serious)

In light of the more humorous post that came before this, I wanted to have a reference somewhere of all the named crossbreeds. I haven't, yet, found a comprehensive and reliable list online, but if anyone knows of one, please link it for me!!

Anglo-Arab(ian)= Arabian x Thoroughbred
Appendix Quarter Horse= Quarter Horse x Thoroughbred
Araloosa/Arapaloosa= Arabian x Appaloosa
Azteca= Andalusian x Quarter Horse/Criollo/Paint
Georgian Grande= American Saddlebred x Draft/Friesian
Irish Hunter= Irish Draught x Thoroughbred
Morab= Arabian x Morgan
Moriesian= Morgan x Friesian
National Show Horse= Arabian x American Saddlebred
Nez Perce= Appaloosa x Akhal Teke
Pintabian=Arabian x Paint, but only with 99% or greater Arabian blood
Quarab= Arabian x Quarter Horse
Tennuvian= Tennessee Walking Horse x Peruvian Horse
Walkaloosa= Appaloosa x gaited horse
Warlander= Andalusian x Friesian

Sporthorse typically implies the breed was crossed with a Thoroughbred or other sporting breed.

Named Crossbreeds (Funny)

In my quest to ID and pedigree all my orphans, I often play with the idea of choosing a named crossbreed to account for a model's strange color or models that just plain confuse me, such as the Breyer G4 Driving horse.

And last night, while browsing through unknown model horse stables (which typically suggests those owned by junior high or younger collectors), I found one that had a list of crossbreeds, and what to breed to get them. There was the Quarab, and the Morab, which were all fine and dandy, but then there were these:

Shetland Pony= Arabian x Miniature Horse
Hanoverian= Arabian x Clydesdale
Lipizzaner= Arabian x Lusitano
Spanish Barb= Arabian x Mustang
Morgan= Quarter Horse x Tennessee Walking Horse
Lusitano= Andalusian x Akhal Teke
Falabella= Andalusian x Miniature Horse

O.o

There were several others just as outlandish, but I didn't share the entire list on the forums in case the owner of the site read it and was offended/embarrassed. But how can I just let blatant misunderstanding be published for other young horse lovers to read? *sigh* I mostly wanted to share to let my friends giggle about it, but I didn't want to target anyone, especially a young, vulnerable girl. So, if she is, in fact, reading this, you can message me privately and I will help you out.

PS: According to the equations up there, a Lipizzaner would then be an Arabian-Andalusian-Akhal Teke mix. I don't know exactly what that would look like, but a Lipizzaner would not be it! Hehe

That is not for chewing...

My mother was craving a flea market run, so we went to our city's only flea market. By now I know all the regular horsey sellers, but today I found horses in two unexpected spots. One seller had their vintage horses priced at $20 and above, too high for my budget, and not in any of the molds I collect (yet...).

The other seller had one horse, who was flopped over on his side, and I only caught a glance of his feet. I picked him up, looked him over, and realized I didn't have any idea about his history. But, for only three dollars I snatched him up.

He's not even close to being mint. He's got rubs, some black marks that I haven't yet tried to wash off, but the worst damage is to his ears and the top of his head.  The ear closest to us in the photo is still pretty much there, but the opposite side is severely mangled. Basically, it looks like a dog got ahold of him for a minute or two.That dog needed some discipline!

I don't know much about woodgrain, just that they're sometimes hard to find. I would've rescued him for $3 no matter what color he was. But he is the first woodgrain I've owned, and I'm happy to add him to my collection!

Grays Carrying Cream

So you buy a model horse lot or set, and one of them is a boring gray Quarter Horse. How do you spice him up? Make him a gray perlino!

But how do you know what a gray is carrying? If it is a homozygous gray, you may never know without a genetics test, because all of their foals will be gray and hide their true color. If it is heterozygous gray, bred to a base color, and produces a cream, that is a pretty good clue it's a dilute under the gray! Another hint is if it's a gray, bred to a dilute, and produces a double dilute.

Good old Yahoo search with the terms "gray carrying cream Quarter Horse" unearthed a few possibilities, all too young for the year I need for my stallion (1991).

Strait Silver Badge is a 1998 gray, bred to a palomino, that produced a cremello. His gray-carrying sire produced only grays and bays, according to allbreed, so there is no real suggestion he also carried the cream gene. His dam was a palomino, so was most likely the one to pass on the cream.

The next one I found was an ad for a 2002 gray stallion who produced a palomino filly out of a chestnut mare. http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-209155. Way too young for my purposes, but I'm just warming up my search.

I came across a mare with a whole smorgasbord of colors, Blue Boon Bar. http://www.horseville.com/php/view.php?id=281921 . Her ad says she was tested and results were EeaaCrcrRrGg. That means she has gray, cream, and roan going on! But since she is only heterozygous gray, she has the possibility of producing cream+roan foals without the gray cover. But, her cream came from the sire's side, opposite the gray.

Then I found Demand the Cash, a gray with a buckskin base color: http://mthorsesoregon.tripod.com/id14.html. He is 2003, again too young, but then his dam caught my attention. Cinda Sierra is a gray 1980 mare with a gray sire and a blue roan mare. But Demand the Cash's sire is brown, so the mare *had* to contribute the cream. Her gray sire, Sierra Scoot, was by a buck sire out of a gray mare, proving the cream is possible in the line. But does Cinda Sierra carry roan, as well, contributed from her mother? I guess I'll never know, because allbreed shows only two foals, and the second doesn't have a color listed, and roan is present in the sire line, so there would be no way to know where the roan came from if it popped up further down the line (i.e. in her foal's progeny).

Now, just need to throw in a cream-colored sire, and I'm good to go! Heck, I could even find a cream/roan one if I feel so inclined. ;)

Frederiksborgs

Today I had some extra time, and Wyoming decided to cooperate and provide sunny (albeit windy) weather, so I was able to get photos of my JCP 2011 Stablemates. The G4 dressage stallion, upon one look at him, told me quite bluntly that he was a Frederiksborg.

Fine, I replied. But do they come in palomino? And, just as importantly, can I find two living parents for you?

My initial search found me at a forum page discussing the conformation of the breed: http://fhotd64476.yuku.com/topic/62299/6yo-Frederiksborg

But more importantly, I found Sargo Vejleby.

The owner of the forum I saw him on did not take all of the photos shown on there. So, I decided to see where she got it from (If you don't know about this, pay very close attention, it is well worth knowing!) When you come across a picture like that, right click on it. Like me, you probably only use two of the functions provided in the long list and ignore the rest (copy or save as). But take another look. Near the bottom should be a command that says "View Image Info". This takes you to a lovely screen that shows you the image, as well as the source website.

It is this way that I found the large breed website: http://www.fhf.dk. Hello Google Translator! For those of you who don't know this already, either, but http://translate.google.com can translate whole webpages into your preferred language. (Clicking on the "Britian" language button doesn't always work, as in this case, where it takes you to a website in English, but lacking all the important stallion information).

After browsing through their gorgeous collection of stallions, success! I find exactly what I'm looking for!
http://www.fhf.dk/frh-vis-hingst.php?hingst=frh720-nigeria

Now, one of my GC's had BSO parents, and the sire's name was Hot Shot. The name fit him perfect, so I didn't change it. However, I decided to make the date of birth of my male GC's four years minus the year they came out (so they'd be a breeding adult by the time they were made). That means the earliest Hot Shot could be born is 1988. Nigeria was born 1986. So I have two choices. Use Nigeria's parents as parents to Hot Shot and assume both parents were still alive 2 years later (unless I can find death years for both parents or record of a foal born after 1988), or bump Hot Shot's birth year to 1990 to use Nigeria as his sire.

For anyone interested, here is a bay: http://www.fhf.dk/frh-vis-hingst.php?hingst=frh766-palnatoke-vejvad
And a gorgeous buckskin: http://www.fhf.dk/frh-vis-hingst.php?hingst=frh748-salisbury-vejleby
As well as a younger palomino: http://www.fhf.dk/frh-vis-hingst.php?hingst=frh763-sargo-vejleby(the one mentioned above)

The oldest stallion on the list was born 1979: http://www.fhf.dk/frh-vis-hingst.php?hingst=frh705-sebastian-skovagerhoej , for those of you into making old BSO's.

Just a note: if you put any of the names in allbreed, many of the horses are listed as Danish Warmbloods, Hanoverians, Trakehners, etc. As far as I read, Frederiksborg horses were used to start many of these breeds, so they were possibly dual-registered? If someone more knowledgeable reads this, I would love to learn the specifics. Warmbloods still confuse the heck out of me!

Gypsy Uh Ohs!

This is a most roundabout story, but it deserves to be on here!

So my new Gypsy Cob boy, City Of Lights, placed 1st in Gelding and grabbed Grand Champion of show in his first ABMHA fortnightly show.

So I was checking out my Gypsy Cob page to see if I could find a good pedigree for him among my horses, when I realized none of my Gypsy horses had their personal pages done. So I started making one for Rex, my oldest stallion. As I started putting his pedigree into the generator, I realized his dam was younger than he was. Oops!

So I've been on the hunt for a new dam on the same site as I found his old one, vannercentral.com. So far, no luck.

But then I came across the most beautiful group of horses owned by one place that I have ever seen, here: http://www.vannercentral.com/Cielo%20Celeste%20Farm.htm. I can't even begin to tell you which one is my favorite. Look at that coloring on the silver! Look at how long that tail is! (Can't even imagine how hard that is to keep clean--and then I thought his dam's name even more humorous, hehe) Look at that dappling on the Duke! *swoon* Okay, I lied, I'm pretty sure he's my favorite. And Sir Collins! I think I found the sire to my Creamsicle!

I don't usually see horses I'd like to own, but if I ever find me a horse in Duke's color, he's mine!

Oh, and for anyone who's curious, here's an uncommon gray one! http://www.vannercentral.com/Tomboy.htm

Creata Winners Choice

There is a little known model horse brand called Winners Choice (WC), made by Creata, that I have had the good luck to know for many years. They are a collection of micro mini sized horses that preceded the Breyer Mini Whinnies.

Candace Liddy was commissioned to sculpt the molds. Three series were produced: one each beginning in 1996. In mid-1998, the companies behind the horses had a disagreement and the models were discontinued.
Luckily, in 2004, Breyer bought the rights and molds to all the Creata horses, and the horses were once again produced in 2005 under the safety of big Breyer's name.

I don't believe the first Breyer Mini Whinnies (MW) were of the same quality as the first Creata ones. Big splotches of black paint mark the eyes and areas around it, as shown by this mare.

 This probably lowered many collector's expectations of the micro mini-sized horses. But it is hard to argue with the gorgeous detail and the cuteness of the WC foal.

However, the more recent releases of MW have had a large increase in quality, and I am excited to add them all to my collection.

Meanwhile, Creata horses are becoming increasingly harder to find as the years progress since their manufacture. I was lucky enough to own the entire first set, Series 1, from my childhood, and recently came into possession of many of Series 2. Series 3 was only produced for a short time, so I have doubts I will ever be able to obtain them. At the end of their lifetime, some of the horses were sold to a company that put them into soap!

During my searches, I've come across two great reference sites for these models. There used to be a third, but I think that one got swallowed up into the great Geocities apocalypse. They can be seen here:

http://www.angelfire.com/miniwhinnies/WCSeries0.html

http://creatamicrominis.webs.com/index.htm

I hope you enjoyed this introduction to a long-lost brand!

If Horses Were Vehicles

I was bored today, and let my mind wander. For some reason, it started to compare horse breeds and vehicles. This is what I came up with.

Drafts would obviously be diesel trucks. They have lots of low-end power, and are good for hauling stuff. Plus if you sit in/on one, you're lots higher than everyone else.

Quarter Horses are like muscle cars. They're quick off the starting line and have a really wide back end.

Paints are hippy cars. Sometimes you can't tell what the main color is under all the markings.

Ponies are like scooters.They're not really useful, but they're fun to have and they can fit almost anywhere!

Arabians are exotic cars. They look flashy, but if you don't know how to handle them, you'll probably end up hurt. Also, everyone secretly wants one ;)

Thoroughbreds are the racecars. They're really fast and people pay to watch them go in circles.

Lipizzaners are like stunt cars. They do things you could never imagine a horse/vehicle could do.

More to come if I think of them!

The Hardest Thing...

About getting new horses is naming them.

At least for me, although I doubt I'm the only one who runs into this problem.

There is it, sitting all nice and new in front of you. The color is (mostly) obvious, the gender is *turn it over* blatantly obvious...and the breed type can at least be determined with a general glance over.

But that leaves a name. If you're lucky, you have a BSO that this body fits perfectly. If you're smart, you create BSOs and then buy bodies to match them. I am neither lucky or smart.

My newest acquisitions have given me similar issues.

 

This one came easily. He's such a powerful, strong looking stud. I've recently started watching Naruto, an anime-cartoon, and the episode before I got online featured a Shuriken, a weapon that looks like a group of sharp windmill blades. So I named him Shuriken.

  

His mare was a bit harder. But when I looked at this picture, she just seemed so feminine and royal, she reminded me of a queen. The part of The Lion King where Scar calls Simba's mom up to the ledge, by yelling "Sarabiiii!!" popped into my head. So I shortened it and called her Naabi, a mix of Sarabi and Nala.

  

 This girl's colors were so bright, she made me think Hot Tamale, which wasn't very original. And next came to mind- I like it hot. Another pretty cliche name. So I decided to twist it a bit and came up with I Like It Spicy.

These two haven't been named yet, but I will share their "Ah-hah!" moments here once I decide!

Gold mine!

I decided to go flea market/ antique store shopping with my mom in the next city over today.

Turns out to be one of the best finds of my life. In our last stop, I came across this...

Too bad I'm not loaded, or I would've cleaned her out. As it is, I obtained the dark bay Proud Arabian Family on the bottom left shelf. I really want the Clydesdale mare/foal in the front, so next time I have money, I'm grabbing them. The two Shams will be next :P

I've dreamy about finding a motherlode such as this! (Except in my dreams, the horses are like, $1.00 a piece, lmao)

Note to Self...

Those model horse sites that have the extensive info, pictures, and beautiful layouts for each horse usually have only a small, quality collection. When I decide to have a similar goal of a personal page for each horse, I should remind myself just how many horses I have, and question whether I have the time, motivation and desire to complete the task.

It is now going on two years since I started this enormous venture.

Also, I should also keep in mind just how many horses I normally add to the collection throughout the year.

Thanks,
Your Self

Website Makeover

So I once again delved into the maze of CSS of Weebly (thank you Weebly, btw, for making that an option) and did a complete makeover on my website, stableforchampions.weebly.com.

I altered just about everything: background color, text, drop down menu colors, and the main banner. I kept the layout the same because I like it.

My main concern is the black background. Does it give a more professional edge or does it create a void in space? I was hoping to have both a professional look and focus the attention to center.

So if you have the time, please check it out, and leave comments here :)

Rescuing Horses

I love that feeling of finding a beat-up, lost horse at a flea-market and knowing I can give it a new life. No matter how "fun" its life before was, it cannot escape the fact it is now unwanted and for sale.

I came across a whole box of Breyers, mostly Classics and a few baggies of Stablemates, about three in a bag. My budget allowed me to rescue four of them, so I chose two stock horses, a calf, and a Stablemate bag with a TB, ASB and foal in it.


I spent many minutes, probably over an hour, using soap, water, and my fingernail, to carefully scrape off most of the marks. Luckily, they cleaned up very good, and I was happy with my find. They'll soon be found pedigrees and put into the stables with the rest of the horses.

Once I find tack (everything is packed up since the move), buckskin up there and the calf will try their hand at western performance cattle entries.


The Stablemates don't have their pics yet, but I'll show them off soon!

Boarding

I put this service up on my site, expecting to maybe host a friend's horse for a week or so, but not really thinking it would appeal to strangers.

Boy, was I wrong, and pleasantly surprised, when my service was able to help someone out!

Due to stipulations of the All Breeds Racing Board that racing models must have bodies and show photos as proof, a customer approached me about boarding her racers at my stable since she didn't have a website of her own.

A few minutes of my time, and viola, her horses were boarded and ready to race!

Find of the Year

So I was in Fort Collins, looking for a Savers so my mom could check out their books, and we went just a little too far down the road. I turned into a shopping block, and noticed a Tuesday Morning sign. I immediately got excited--some of the girls on the Grand Champion sites have said that the store sometimes sells old Grand Champions, including foals. We stopped and went in.

My mom went to start at one end so she could look over the whole store; I went straight for the toy section. Sadly, only one GC, one I already had, but then I saw this:

There were two of them. And it was on my top ten most wanted list. But they usually sell for $100+, so I knew it'd be awhile before I could get one. And then I saw the price- $49.99!! I showed my mom, called my boyfriend, and pretty much established that I really needed this horse when he got paid. But my mom, being as awesome as she is, told me to grab it. So I picked the one I liked best (they were both in great condition) and now it's mine! Yay!

My horse-buying drought was well worth it to come out with a jewel like this. It's nothing rare or super-special, but it makes me happy to have it.

Any of my readers, please feel free to share the story of your best find in the comments section. I'd love to hear them!

The Impossibility of Making Money

I'm not a crafty person. I have yet to complete a customized horse. I do have a bay Stablemate Arabian that's halfway there. Is it going to be sell-worthy? Who knows. I don't do tack. I can't make saddles, or acceptable bridles, and my halters are photo show quality at best.

So, my only option is to try and sell my extra horses. I have a few harder to find Grand Champions that I could sell. However, getting what I know they're worth is going to be an issue. So far I've put one on ebay, and not much interest. I need the money, and I don't want to get ripped off by someone looking for a deal. I've paid my fair share of high prices for rare horses, and I think it's my turn to be on the receiving end of some of those paydays.

Maybe I should finish that Stablemate and see if I could become an amateur artist. :P

Chestnut Clydesdales Part II

I also came across references to a Bradbury Cigar. I found a site here that mentioned he was an October Moon Acres horse. A search for that site list yielded nothing.

It seems chestnut is also passed down through a model horse called The Queen, by Scotland Time. The Queen *seems* to have been owned by DragonStar Stables. Searching that name doesn't yield much except a lot of link saying "bred by DragonStar Stables". I finally found an archived Model Horse blab forum that said Aspen Hill Arabians and DragonStar Stables drafts were owned by the same person, and the rest of the horses are under Zodiac Farms. This site is here, with the explanation that due to a site with a similar name (probably Dragonstar Farms), the draft and ponies were split into two groups, so that now the drafts fall under the name Brandybuck Hollows Drafts. However, none of the older horses, such as The Queen or Scotland Time, can be found on that list, although there is a younger mare, Destiny Queen (also chestnut) whose dam is The Queen.

So, if a horse is no longer on someone's list, do you think they'd accept breeding requests from it? Is it rude to even ask?

Scotland Time seems to have been bred by October Moon Acres, a dead end, as I mentioned before.

What luck! A search for Scotland Time yielding a page from WMHS here. There is Heretic, who I saw in a pedigree earlier. He's a bay. Not helpful.

However, I have now settled on using two DragonStar horses to finish off my chestnut clydesdales.

What a crazy day!

Chestnut Clydesdales

What a pain. I've been searching through what seems like millions of sites, searching for chestnut Clydesdales and the source of the chestnut.

Here is the problem: to be chestnut, a horse must lack the E gene. This means that both parents must be heterozygous on that allele in order to contribute the appropriate genotype, ee__. The only way to tell if a parent horse is heterozygous or not without genetic testing, is if they produced a chestnut foal. But finding chestnut foals is tough, because a lot of Clydesdale breeders breed for bay and black foals, and don't tend to breed on the chestnut foal, let alone display it proudly on their website.

So then you're left with guessing if a parent is heterozygous. Either the bay or black horse could be a homozygous black, with EE. Even if they are heterozygous, there is still a 50% probability they won't pass on the e allele. The chance of "correctly" choosing which two parents could produce a chestnut (without having a live chestnut horse for evidence) is really difficult.

Most of the model horse chestnut Clydesdales trace to an elusive "Zodiac Lady" bred sometime in the early 80s, possibly 70s, or maybe even late 60s. She was sired by a "Paddock Gemini", another horse I couldn't track down.

Paddock Gemini also shows up in the second pedigree here, an ancestor to Heretic, owned by Wildwing Model Horse Stables. This is a dead end, because the site was closed down.

Then I came across a reference to Lochleven Clydesdales owned by Lori Williams on the Indigo Creek Stables website. A google search turns up nothing on a website or reference photos for Lochleven Clydesdales. She has a chestnut horse bred from two Lochleven Clydes, Lochleven Idle Charm [Doura Major (r) -x- Royal Candy Floss (r)] and Lochleven Nobleman's Desire ZI [Gowanlea Ambition (r) -x- Premier's Nobleman Perfection (r)]. I could find no color mention on Doura Major or Royal Candy Floss. I could find absolutely nothing on Gowanlea Ambition or Premier's Nobleman Perfection. Another dead end.

Her other horse, a mare, is full sister to a real sorrel Clydesdale mare seen here (very bottom). The pedigree of the mare's dam is here. There is no information listed for the horse, but far back in the pedigree, Bardrill Vintage is shown as a chestnut roan. The only yahoo search that comes up for Bardrill Vintage is my own site LOL. As I've already used him for one of my mares, I'll have to keep looking for fresh bloodlines.

Here is where it gets even more confusing. West Edge Commander has a foal called Red Barney's Amazin Grace here. This horse LOOKS sorrel, but it's hard to tell how young the horse is in the photo, as well. Many, many Clydesdale babies start out with a light coat and mane/tail, and then darken with age. Sometimes the darkness comes in at first with gray streaks that are hard to see in a young horse.

Now, West Edge Commander's progeny page in allbreed here shows he has *three* chestnut foals. Two of them "Miss Liberty" are the same horse with the name spelled different. As you can see here, Miss Liberty is clearly a bay, although she looked chestnut as a baby.

His other foal, Desert Rose can be seen here. They have her listed as a bay roan. I'm not sure if they tested her genetically or not. But I see two conflicting things that prevent me from making a personal decision. One: Her right hindleg doesn't have white around the knee, and the knee does not look black. This would suggest a chestnut. However, her mane looks awfully "dirty", with aforementioned gray streaks coming in.

Is West Edge Commander heterozygous? Maybe. But his pedigree doesn't lend any help to determining if he had any chestnut or chestnut-producing ancestors.

OT: Loss

An off-topic post, but I had to.

We lost our cat Zena last night. She had been losing weight for the past month, and recently she had been hacking like she needed to puke a hairball, but nothing would come up. She wasn't looking too good in general.

Well, last night I got a distressed call from my mom saying I needed to come say my goodbye. I pretty much sped over there, but even then, I was too late. She was gone before I got there.

If you've ever seen a beloved animal still with death, you know that heart-wrenching feeling that slams into you like a train, knowing they're gone forever.

Zena was with us for about five years. She had been my (at the time) boyfriend's cat, and was with us while he lived with us temporarily. When his parents moved to a different city, he decided to go with them for better job opportunities. He was going to take his dog, a pitbull puppy, but leave Zena at the pound. I said F that, I'll take her. I couldn't believe he would just abandon her like that.

My parents took her in and let her live with them, and she became part of the family. We know she had a rough past--she was fixed, and the vets found out she was pregnant, but did the operation anyway. She lost her kittens. When she lived with my ex-bf's, she was a strictly outdoor cat and you could tell it had been rough on her. She was a grumpy cat, but I never blamed her for it.

My parents opened the front door on a sunny day to see if she wanted to go out onto the porch to get some sun. She never showed the slightest interest. That's how much she appreciated being inside and part of a family.

She had two extra toes on her front feet. She got along really well with my dad (who doesn't like cats in general). She absolutely adored me and my mom.

We loved her more than anyone else on this planet, and she will be sorely missed.

Cleaning Day!

So my newest Breyer additions have been congregating and multiplying in my closet, which is where the Christmas tree and decorations usually go. These were crowded into a corner of the living room, creating a not-so-pleasant sight. So, today we went and bought yet another (this makes #4!) set of shelves. The boyfriend assembled the shelves, and I cleared out all the Breyers from the closet and moved some that were harassing my Grand Champions. The Christmas decorations went back into the closet and viola! A much neater living room, much neater closet, and much safer home for the Breyers! (Some Schleichs sneaked in too....)

New Background

I finally got around to setting up my new background. I found this poster half off at a craft store, and it seemed perfect for my bigger traditional Breyer models. Here is my Barbaro, modeling the new backdrop. He sure is long!

The bottom still needs to be cropped off, but it is a huge area, and I'm happy with it.

I did spend part of the day finding those dang gray rocks!

Also, these are the first photos I've ever taken indoors that actually turned out alright. They still have a little of a tint to them, but I'm impressed with the overall turn-out. Hopefully this means more great photos in the future! It also means I'll be getting updated photos of all my Trads here soon!

Temptation and Good Karma

Today I was in my local flea market. They have a Hartland grazing mare and suckling foal for $15. I was very tempted to get them. They also have a pinto "Merrylegs" Breyer for $18, in fairly good condition. And a really beat up Paddock Pal for $15, definitely not worth it, but I felt so bad for him I really wanted to bring him home. I'm thinking those Hartlands will come home with me eventually, but I just don't have the money for them now.

*sigh*

However, I did my very good deed for the month, if not the whole year. I bought a stranded guy some gas. Now, I know what automatically jumps into everyone's mind--scammer. Well, he didn't ask for money, he asked for gas. And he was polite enough to wait to come up to my car (I was sitting in front of Wendy's, which is attached to a gas station, while my boyfriend was inside getting lunch) until my boyfriend came back. He explained about how his van had broke outside of Salt Lake and he'd had to pay his extra money to get it fixed. His goal was Cheyenne. I don't really have any extra money, but I had some saved in case of an emergency. I figured I could spare enough to get him to Cheyenne.

Trust me, the entire time I was thinking, if he's trying to scam me, what is he getting out of it? A half tank of gas? How is that going to hurt anybody? I figured, eh, what's the big deal? I at least got some major good karma out of it (and yes, I totally 100% believe in karma).

So, along with the snakes I posted about in facebook, and helping out a stranded dude, and hunting for gray rocks, I had a very entertaining day!

(In case anyone is wondering how this ties into model horses, you better believe I'm hoping that good karma=TH Arabians!)

And Just When I Thought....

....I might ever get the hang of it!

While searching for Babson horses of the Kuhaylan Jellabi strain, I ran across two articles,
http://egyptianarabian.blogspot.com/2009/10/kuhaylan-jellabi-versus-saqlawi-jedran.html
and
http://daughterofthewind.org/the-myth-of-kuhaylan-jellabi-in-egyptian-arabian-breeding/
(Note: the second article is duplicated on the page, so mind where one ends and the next one starts).

They say that based on genetics research done by a Michael Bowling, there are no Kuhaylan Jellabi asil horses in the Egyptian Arabian breeding. They also mention that although these findings came out over ten years ago, horse breeders still believe the "myth".

So....what am I to believe? And how does that affect my Kuhaylan Jellabi Egyptian Arabian I just bred?

Horse Highlight of the Week

Copper Traveler III

I've had this horse since about 1995 and he was my first herd stallion. He came in a set with three mares, but he was the only one with tack included. I had absolutely no idea what a Plantation Walker was, but he looked muscular. So when I played with him, he became the solid, sturdy fall-back guy. He was a guardian, a defender.

When my new herd stallion, Eclipse, came along, "Copper Traveler" for short (I never did call him just "Copper") became a second lieutenant, if you will. He was the back-up warrior, who was reliable and trustworthy and always did what was right.

Nowadays, I look on him with the gentleness I might look upon an old man who's been in my family for as long as I can remember. He's got rubs and battle scars all over. I feel sorta bad because I never did get his mare and foal until after I stopped playing and became just a collector. He always was the bachelor. I'm surprised, too. After all these years, and all the playing, his mane and tail are still as shiny and silky as ever.

The true meaning of "Treasure Hunt"

I sometimes think the "Hunt" part of that word is eclipsed by the excitement of the "Treasure" part. I can at least say for myself that I usually neglect the fact that it's considered a hunt to be difficult. Although, this brings back fond memories of childhood Easter Egg hunts, which were never very difficult. We always knew we could find eggs under the sofa cushions, in the tv cabinet, and in the organ. The baskets filled with the toys and bigger treats were always hidden in the corners.

Well, I attempted to find the 2011 Treasure Hunts today. That was a massive fail. Not a single Breyer carrier in my small town had even one of the beauties.

*sigh*

I guess I'll just have to wait until summer and try again. It might even require a trip down to Fort Collins or *shudder* Denver. I could always go the easy route and order them online, but....how is that a hunt if they're just given to you? :P

Sad Day

Today was the last day of my Horsemanship class. I'm going to miss Wisdom! I didn't get to ride him today, which would have been nice as a farewell. My friend actually got to ride him, and since she didn't have a partner, she rode both iterations. That would've made my day! She did ask me to come over and help her clean out his back hooves. He was being a pain and kicked out a little bit at her. I walked up to his head, talked to him, and then tried to pick up his foot. He behaved perfectly for me. I'd like to think he likes me, or else I'm pretty good at convincing horses to pick up their feet. Either way, it made me feel good!

I rode April, a quick Quarter horse mare. She was very responsive, and her trot was brisk. I about lost my stirrups when she sped up and took a corner fast--I had to rein her in before I fell off! LOL I was able to post on her for several strides. She had a nice even trot, so it wasn't hard to pick up on the rhythm. I'm getting better!

I am going to try and sign up for the class next semester and take the more advanced class on Saturday mornings, since the Thursday class will interfere with another of my important classes.

One of these days I'm going to get a custom done of Wisdom, as a tribute to the first horse I fell in love with.

I'm thinking about asking my friend Samantha--she does some very good black Stablemate customs ;) However, I'm not sure which mold would suit him best. He's half Arabian, but he doesn't have very strong Arabian traits. He's much more muscular and he doesn't have very much of a dish at all.

Any suggestions?

I'm thinking the G4 driving mare (with boy part added; Wisdom is a gelding), or the Trad. Black Stallion. Those two "feel" more like him.

The Things I Do for Ebay

Last night was a LONG one! Stayed up til one in the morning watching several ebay lots. Seriously, who puts ebay lots on there to end in the middle of the night?! Thankfully I was able to snag a few, including my absolute needed one--Silk 'n Speedy (the 1997 Spanish Barb foal).

Photo credit to Twistertoyz, who sold these lots

I also got:

• the UK Boulonaise mare and foal
• Fitzbrae (Irish Hunter colt)
• the UK buckskin Mustang
• Coronado Blaze (who I will be selling, as I have double)
• the Arabian Parade mare
  

I think that was it. Quite a good haul, if I do say so myself. Definitely worth staying up super late for!

Sadly, I missed out on getting Harmony, the NSH colt. That one is fairly hard to find, but I didn't want to pay more than $30 for him. Also missed Lucky's Chance, one of the harder to find pinto horses. Ah, well, next time.

The crazy lot of the night went to the rearing bay stallion. He sold for $113! That is a lot for a Grand Champion! It makes me sad, because I had the chance to buy one for $50 awhile ago and missed out on the opportunity.

But, I want to end on a good note. It was a great bounty! I will be taking photos once they arrive. Yay!

PIS Babson Arabians

I bred my first Babson Arabian today. Sirr Muhib is out of two Indigo Creek Stables horses. I am still fuzzy on the different strains, but Cindi helped me out a lot. You can see her wonderful horses and S/D list here.

I first came across the acronym PIS on Cindi's website. I had never seen it before, and only after asking after a breeding, did it come to my attention that it meant Pure In Strain. This is in regards to "fixing" a specific type and traits. It often requires some inbreeding to achieve the desired traits, and is therefore frowned upon by some breeders. But when two horses of the same strain are bred, the resulting foal is considered PIS. If not, as in the sire is of a different strain than the dam, the foal's strain is determined by what strain the mother is. This is significant, as it means that the dams pass on the strain, not the sire. In order to keep a strain alive, the mares of that strain must be bred.

From an article I read titled "Evolution of Arabian Strains: Part 1", I learned there are potentially more than 20 strains within the straight Egyptian community. The five most common are
1. Kuhaylan/Kuhayla/Koheilan/Koheila (as you can see, they often have different ways to spell them!)
2. Abbayan/Abbaya/Abbeyan/Abbeya
3. Saqlawi/Saqlawiyah/Sekalwi/Seklawiyah
4. Hadban Enzahi/Hadbah Enzahiyah
5. Dahman/Dahmah/Dehmen/Dehme

The Kuhaylan is often muscular, masculine and wide, even the mares! They are often heavier in bone and bay, with dark eyes. However, they may also come in gray.

The Abbayan is relatively more feminine, fine boned with feminine features. Their back may be longer than normal.

The Saqlawi is known for feminine grace and elegance. They are also comparable to the Kuhaylan in endurance. Extreme beauty, refinement, light in weight, and light in frame. They tend to be lighter in the behind, as well. Crossing them with the Kuhaylan strain is considered the "golden" cross.

The Hadban are handsome and great all-around horses. Bint Samiha, through Venus, has bred forward these characteristics.

Finally, the Dahman was known as the ideal blending of the Saqlawi and Kuhaylan strains. Therefore, they commonly have the elegance of the Saqlawi and strength of the Kuhaylan. Their heads are wide, relatively short, and tend to be more dished.

I usually have a hard time dissecting a model's traits and being able to "see" the specific traits and what strain would fit best. However, the Saqlawi makes me think of the Breyer Khemosabi, and most resins probably resemble the Dahman, with all that extra dish!

Edit: I came across this site: http://www.ranchobulakenyo.com/mares.shtm while looking for pure in strain horses. It lists what strain their mares fall under, which could be a potentially helpful tool.

Another helpful link, explaining strains: http://www.abraxasarabians.com/strain.cfm

Scammers and Photo Thiefs

A hot topic in the forums right now is about scammers and photo stealing. The general consensus is that they are young, pre-teen or at least young teens, and have absolutely no common sense about using what doesn't belong to them. I have a feeling this is going to be a common occurrence. Kids are being given this amazing device--a computer-- and they are suddenly finding the freedom that comes with the internet. Yet at the same time, I don't think their parents have been teaching them about copyright and that not everything on the internet is free. So they find a photo of something they like, and put it up on their website. Facebook seems to be the favorite hunting ground for this.
These cases are usually harmless, and the kids will be scared off by a couple warnings/threats (legal ones, of course, not physical!) about using photos that don't belong to them.

What worries me more are the scammers. High school, college-aged kids who have figured out a sly way to get "free" horses. Illegally borrowing photos from really good customizers, calling them their own work, and convincing others (probably younger girls) to "trade" them. Well, the innocent horse goes through the mail, and the customized horse is never to be found. Why? Because they never owned them in the first place. If the person didn't get caught in a month, say, imagine the damage they would wreak among the young collectors. They could gather quite a bounty of "free" horses in that time.

This irritates me. When I was six, an older friend convinced me that if I copied a book in my own handwriting, I could claim I was the one who wrote it. Well, my mother didn't exactly see the same way, and I learned right then and there that copying things that didn't belong to me was wrong. Who are these parents that raise their children to not know these things?!

Moral check: Taking something that doesn't belong to you, without permission, is stealing. This is wrong!

Am I worried about having my photos stolen and used by little girls wishing they had that horse? No. I grew up with a younger sister, and learned that this is a sign of flattery. It is irritating, yes, but not harmful. Am I worried about the scammers? Myself, I don't buy from anyone I haven't dealt with before. And that first dealing is usually a small one, so if I do get scammed, it's not as bad. And I don't create masterpieces of customized horses, so no worries there.

However, I have several friends in the model horse hobby that I will defend in cases such as this. If you steal their photos, or try to scam someone using said photos, I will not be your favorite person.

Thankfully, most of the women in this hobby have each others back, so I'm not very worried about the thieving.

How This is Going to Work

As this is the first post, it is usually customary to explain what this blog is about, who it's for, and why I'm doing it.

As to what this blog is about, the title says it all. This blog will track my successes, failures, surprises, buys, losses, and discoveries in my model horse collecting hobby.

This blog is for any one of my fellow model horse addicts, especially my friends, who can empathize with my adventures, perhaps learn a thing or two from the lessons I learn along the way, and who enjoy hearing about the life of the collector behind the horses. A stable doesn't run itself, you know!

Why am I doing it? Well, I enjoy writing, I enjoy blogging and sharing my insights and personal experiences, and I absolutely love horses. I've been inspired by some other bloggers and model horse collectors

See here: http://braymere.blogspot.com/
and here: http://modelhorsepedigrees.blogspot.com

Perhaps I can inspire someone else. At the very least, I'll entertain myself!