Into 2013, Resolutions

As it nears the new year of 2013, I've been thinking about what my resolutions should be. Not only for my personal life, but how I should apply it to my favorite hobby.

My sincere resolutions for 2013 are the following:

-become a more active and supportive member to my current clubs- IPABRA, MHFC, and IMEHA, namely. This means more judging, more financial aid, and donating the custom saddle pads I make as small rewards for photo shows.

-revive my Grand Champions club, if only to give avid collectors a place to post photos.

-stand up for the ideals of the hobby at its heart. Resist the people who are only in it for the fix-and-flip, or greed, or winning.

-buy the Morgan Stones I want. We all deserve to treat ourselves every once in awhile.

-treat my friends.

-do what I can to market my websites and draw in more clients.

-write in the blog at least once a week.

Thank you all for following my blog. Even if we've never talked, I appreciate all of my readers, because it is a silent support of my ideas, and validates my want to write it all down and share it.

A Look Back at 2012

First off, I am happy to report that my horses and I survived the 2012 apocalypse and are looking forward to the rest of our apocalypse-free lives!

Earlier this year, we took up the daunting task of moving *all* horses of Golden Hart Estates from wonderful windy Wyoming to the arid desert heat of Arizona. Hello, Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show!

We continually expanded our herd with many new purchases, and reached the astounding achievement of having 1000 model horses! We are heartily looking forward to the next 1000 :3

After the layoff of our prime income-holder, we took up the needle and thread and tried our hand at making saddle pads for Classic sizes.

Golden Hart Estates also undertook an important venture into make-ism, and created Silver Rose Park, a website for only the best we have to offer. We hope that this website will appeal to some of the older generations in the hobby that prefer pedigree assignment solely from Breyer, Stone, or resin-quality bodies.

We reached our goal of obtaining all four Weather Girls, and Alborozo to boot! We have some pretty high goals for next year, so expect big things from our stable.

What did you, my readers, do this year? Did you accomplish everything you hoped to?

Thanksgiving

Golden Hart Estates celebrates the meaning of Thanksgiving as a time to reflect and appreciate everything we've been given.

Our list of what we're thankful for:

The horses- we would be nothing without the love and passion for these graceful creatures.

The funds to support our hobby and keep bringing the new models in.

The support of the love of our life and family- to remind us we're not weird, and to buy us models when we're broke.

The friends! We've made such great friends because of this hobby.

The education. I know so much more about horses thanks to my collecting and pedigree assignment.

Eclipse- that horse that was everything I ever wanted, my dream horse.

The writers, whose books I read as a child that instilled the deep love I share for these animals.

Mini Explosion

For those that haven't heard, I came back into my stable with a bang. A fairly large one, even.

Because the nearby Antique store had way too many, I decided to take a few off their hands.

My stable population always seems to multiply when I've been away >.>

A new marketing move

Lately at my job, the engineering has been slow so I was being productive by improving the marketing techniques of our office. That got me to thinking about my own stable, and what I could do to improve traffic to it.

I've come up with an idea that is part solution, part social experiment. It will take me a while to get it underway, but once there is something there, I will share it with everyone.

Back to....normal?

For those few loyal followers I may still have, you may have noticed my absence lately, and really, this whole year. Its been an exciting one. First, I moved down to Phoenix, AZ from Laramie, Wyoming. And then I landed my first job with a structural engineering company. And then, just this past month, I purchased my first house. Over Labor Day weekend, me, my boyfriend, and my dad flew back to Laramie, rented two huge Uhauls (the biggest they come in), and a car trailer, and moved not only my stuff but my parents' stuff down to my new house. My mom was totally clueless so it was a nice surprise for her :)

Tuesday we got internet back, but it was installed downstairs, where my desktop was upstairs, so it wasn't until today when it got reinstalled upstairs, that I was able to hook my computer up.

So, ya, I am "officially" back!

I hope to have a lot more time now that all the craziness is over *cross my fingers* to get back into the swing of things. I've really missed my horses, my online friends, and gaming!

Buy of the Month

Now we all know I'm an avid GC collector, and possibly the biggest one you'll ever meet (only two others I know of could have rivaled my collection). So when I found not one, not two, but THREE rare NIB sets on ebay, I had to have them.

And get them I did. Nice and easy, one bid and it was done. Usually I have to fight tooth and nail for them. But today was a lucky day.

What exactly has me all up in a tizzy?

Well, this for starters:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160833717027?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

And this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160833703596?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

And THEM:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160833706748?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

I almost had that last set earlier this year, but the buyer had a breakdown about selling off the collection and backed out. Understandable. I can't even imagine the emotions that go with that. But I lost out on another prized GC grail. And yet, it all worked out for me. I would've paid $60 for the first set. Got this one for $13 ^.^

All three are extremely rare in the US, mostly because they were never released here. The only US owners of them originally purchased them overseas. As you can imagine, that makes the local stock minimal, and extremely expensive (aka $60 a set).

The top two sets are the only FNN (read: Feed 'n Nuzzle) sets released with an action stallion instead of an FNN stallion. I've only seen photos of them once in awhile. To have them new in box? *shudders in delight*

My quest to track down the rare UK sets (even though they are referred to as UK sets, they were released in several countries in Europe, including Germany, from where I purchased mine) is slowly drawing to a close. I have a few to find here and there, but there are only a few sets I worry about ever finding.

1000 Horses!

That's right! Golden Hart Estates is now 1000 horses strong. This number includes ALL horse identities on my website, BSOs, pedigreed horses, and pictured horses lacking pedigrees. Essentially, it is a count of all the named horses I own. This number does not include the orphans that are sitting in my computer waiting for names and identities, and I'm not even going to venture to guess how many there are.

More than half of that number are Grand Champions, the brand of my youth. I had a herd of maybe 30 of them when I was young, but once I grew up and graduated high school, I could purchase them myself and my herd expanded. My desire to own all of the GCs released has driven many purchases, including importing them from Germany, the UK, and Australia!

My very first horse on the website was Ealoshar, my black Stone Egyptian Arabian. He was at the very top of the list at the side of my site for a long time, before I eventually moved the Crabbet Arabians ahead of the Egyptians for alphabetical reasons.

The 1000th one was Scottsdale Blue, the Breyer Arabian resin I picked up at the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show and named for the event. She is on the site as a Polish Arabian mare.

Scottsdale Blue

Considering Arabians are my favorite breed, it is surely fitting that it would start and "end" with them. However, I have many more orphans to ID, and many more models to buy!

It's been a long, exciting and sometimes frustrating trip, but I'm glad we made it to such a huge landmark, and I'm looking forward to the next 1000!

Birthday Presents

June 13th was my birthday. And that means presents! Luckily my boyfriend is very supportive of my hobby, and he knows when it comes time to buy me anything, its not jewelry, or clothes, or chocolate or flowers--it's horses! :D

This time since we've just recently moved and still trying to find jobs, we didn't spend too much, but I'm hoping this Christmas will be awesome.

The Dollhouse I frequent had several that I wanted about equally--the Trad WarHorse, the classic version, Sato, the gray Irish Draught, Samira, and the classic mare/foal sets. So I made Shawn pick, and he chose the flashiest one there--Sato! Then there were two versions. A light one, which looked typical to the photos I'd seen online, and then a much chocolately, darker one. Can you guess which ones I brought home? :D

Also picked up the Appy mare/foal set since I've been on a part-Arab kick lately, and they'll make great AraAppaloosas.

Lastly, but not least, I snagged the other Stablemate set. Pretty sure this one is called Show Stoppers. That bay foal is too cute!

Red roan--not sure which breed to make her.

Both of the adults are mares. Not sure how you get so many foals running around without a stallion, tho!

This one will become a TWH. I don't have many of them!

Probably be a colt of the roan mare above.

My fav. of the bunch! He's asking for TB but I'm not sure....I'll find something good for him :)

Suggestions? (And not Paint! :P)

Well there ya have it! My sister also bought me the Year of the Dragon Breyer Esprit, which is currently in my cubicle at work.

More updates next weekend, because hopefully my international packages will arrive this week!

How's The Weather?

Living in Wyoming, the chances of finding even one of the Treasure Hunts was slim. I found two of the draft season THs the year before, but little did I know that I wouldn't see a lick of the Weather Girls in person until almost a year later.

That time was yesterday. A big box arrived after an anxious week-long wait.

I wasn't going to be greedy. I wanted the main three, and the special Rainbow could wait til later, or never. I'm glad I found this lot, because when I pulled her out, I realized just how entranced I was by her.

She's going to be my special project. A 99% Arabian blood AraApaloosa x Pintabian cross. I have the Pintabians to do it. Now I just need to breed a high percentage AraAppaloosa. Not sure what I want to name her, but I'd like to make it a play on lucky number four, charmed four, and/or rainbow, her original name.

The next was a major disappointment.

Not only did it damage my most favorite of the four, but its on her good side, and she's super tipsy and can't stand on her own on a flat surface.

I don't know HOW the flat side of a box does so much damage.

 She's not live show quality, that's for sure. And she's not even photo show quality from this side.

But at least with a little touch up she can look minty fresh for my stable pages! (Kudos to Samantha Kroese for the magic photoshopping!).



I was pleasantly surprised how much I adore the palomino. Her color is sooooo much better in person than Breyer made it seem in their photos. She is practically my new favorite. She will likely become a 15/16 Arabian blood palomino Quarab.

On the other hand, my camera loved Partly Cloudy. It would focus on her in a heartbeat, while the others took a noticeable second. She has some gorgeous dappling. She is going to become a member of my Pintabian herd!

My third big goal for my stable this year: get the Weather Girls. Check.

Looking Forward to June!

Lots of good horsey things this month.

The Belmont Stakes. Will we have a Triple Crown winner, finally? One of my biggest wishes is to see a Triple Crown winner run in my lifetime.

My birthday. I already know my sister bought me a horse or two. One has been sitting, wrapped, in my bedroom for a month. I've been ultra-good and not even touched it. Go me!

Incoming horses. Sometime this next week, my four Weather Girls will arrive. For those of you who frequent my stable website, you know that owning the three girls was on my top goals for the year. Well now, not only did I achieve my goal, I got all FOUR of them, not just the main three! I was also bad and splurged on eBay to get the Akhal-Teke model I've had a bso for forever. I'm super excited for him, too.

Now, I'm not planning to make ANY more horse purchases this month unless it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance. No more hunting through eBay. I MUST save money to get a place!

May Overview

It's the end of May, and boy have we had lots of foals! Our collection exploded in number this month. If I had to guess, it would be around 20 new horses!





Several of them are now showing with MHFC and IMEHA, so we wish them lots of luck and maybe a few championships!

We've also decided to send one of our Shetland (unicorn) mares to our friend's stable to spend the rest of her days. She will be missed, but we have retained her daughter to carry on her bloodlines.

This past week we also made arrangements to purchase five Arabian/part-Arabian mares, and one foal. They should arrive by truck sometime next week.

One Goal Down

One of my personal goals for my stable was to get the weather girls. I considered this a fairly difficult goal because I've never seen them for sale in person, only online. And the black/gray one was the hardest to get of all of them. Her popularity was in proportion to the lack of markings on her, it seemed haha.

Well, today we woke up to the awesome news that we won the bid on a lot of all four of them, with the fourth being the matte Pintaloosa TH, not the glossy or decorator. (I have never been a decorator person). The only decorator I've ever wanted was the year of the dragon Esprit, which i think is forthcoming from my sister for my birthday ;) They're shipping from Indiana, so I hope to see them by the end of next week.

The pinto will become a Pintabian, to grow my available bloodlines in that breed. The black will be pure, and the palomino may become either Quarab or NSH, haven't decided yet (she's the one i was the least excited about). I hope they all stand correctly!

So there we go. One major goal down, and its not even halfway through the year.

I have a feeling getting 100 pedigree requests, when I haven't even reached 20 yet, is going to be the hard one!

Model Highlight: The Albino

This ol' white stallion has been popping up a lot lately, so I figured I would write about him.

The Albino, gray Mustang stallion

First of all, for those who have read the Flicka series, his name should sound familiar. He was the troublesome Mustang herd stallion who stole the rancher's mare and impregnated her, producing Rocket. Rocket, in turn, was bred to the ranch stallion, Banner, producing the famous Flicka.

When I first got into pedigree assignment, I liked having horses connected somehow to the fictional horses I loved and grew up with. (Which is why I have at least one horse named Shetan ;) ) Luckily, instead of making them descendants of these fictional horses--which would really bug me now!-- I just named them similar.

And so SFC The Albino stole my straight Egyptian Arabian mare, SFC Gypsy, (at least he has taste?) and produced SFC Rocket. SFC Rocket was bred to my Quarter Horse stallion SFC Banner to produce SFC Flicka.

That whole mess left me with a half Arab/half Mustang mare, and a 1/4 Arab 1/2 QH 1/4 Mustang mare. Yikes.

Well, in showing SFC Gypsy in a dam with produce class, it came up that an Arabian had produced a Mustang foal. Judges were like, whaa? So to fix that, we changed SFC Rocket to be a "partbred Arab" instead of a Mustang, in lieu of having to explain the whole tale.

I don't even have a better picture of him than that. Poor guy.

Mustangs

Mustangs have their own issues in regards to pedigreeing (PA). Most of the time, real Mustang horses and their pedigrees are rare to come by, especially when searching for older stock. That results in many PAers using the same bloodlines, either by using the same real horse parents or by breeding from the same model farm (there are only a few that carry stock from the 70's and 80s). The other option is to create a whole herd of BSOs (bloodstock only, i.e. imaginary horses with no body, only a pedigree) to back one single model body. The more generations you want to fill, the more horses you have to make up. The last, and my least favorite option, is to assign the horse a vague "rangebred", meaning there is no pedigree backing it.

A post on one of the forums, ABMHA, asking for Mustang parents made me realize not a single one of mine was pedigreed. I *had* been content to leave my '70s horses with "rangebred" in the parent slots, but I became curious as to what I could find for them.

Sierra Vista

When it comes to older stock, there are three farms that immediately come into my mind: Caballos Del Mar, Double Hart Ranch, and VnV Stables. (If you carry a lot of old stock and you're not in that list, leave me a comment so I can remember to check out yours! For me, old stock refers to horses born in the 80's or earlier) Well, I knew my friend Samantha over at VnV hadn't been feeling well lately so I didn't go to hers right away because I didn't want to bother her with a request atm.

Del Mar had a buckskin old enough, Take The Fifth, who had sired the rest of their older stallion stock, so if I wanted to keep my bloodlines as unrelated as possible, I would only be able to breed one horse from there. I was able to narrow it down to my gray, The Albino, thanks to her older gray mare, Norinal. As soon as she replies, that is! ;)

Red Rock

However, that still leaves my 70s pair, Red Rock and Sierra Vista without parents. Red Rock could've been bred from Del Mar stock, but I wanted to take advantage of the gray available for The Albino. Even if I go ahead and use another stallion, he will still be partly related to The Albino through Take The Fifth.

And Sierra Vista, what a problem child. I pedigreed her as tovero, due mostly to the color on her ears and not the rest of her face. Is tovero very popular in the model horse crowd? Uh, no, not at least in comparison to the vast numbers of tobianos. Tobiano drafters, tobiano stock horses, tobiano ponies, tobiano part-Arabians. Yeesh. I could maybe get her by crossing a tobiano and overo, but even old overos are hard to find.

Final question to myself. Do I stick with rangebred? Do I go through hours of frustrating research to find real old Mustangs? (I'll pass) Or maybe just...make them younger? (Is that equivalent to giving up?) I could make up a three generation pedigree to at least provide new blood to other PAers, given my stable ever gets big enough to warrant such a need. I think I convinced myself into it. Hopefully it's worth it ;)

January Champions

A little behind on posting these, but I blame moving. I have just recently been catching up on all the massive amounts of modeling things that need to be done!

Warrior Hart--MHFC Draft Breed Reserve Champion

Shuriken--another 2nd out of a whopping field of 78 in Young Stallions (MHFC)
                  3rd in Arabian out of 81 (MHFC)

Rolex-- crowned Bird Champion in MHFC

Squirt-- Sport/Toy/Terrier Adult Champion

Scout--Herding/Hound/Working Puppy Reserve Champion

Congrats to our monthly champions!

Phoenix Love

Happy days in the sun!

The eagle has landed. The long-awaited Joey's box came in today! I was out, but I had a surprise on my bed once I returned.

 And he is just as gorgeous in person as he seemed online! I am so happy I was able to get one! The only super limited edition horse in my entire collection.

 In just as exciting news, while we were out we stopped at Bookman's, a used book store, and I found a few Breyers for sale, as well. Apparently they haven't carried miscellaneous items for long, so I had to make sure to snatch these up! They've been on my wanted list for quite a while. Hidalgo is there, as well, but he will have to wait until another time. Hopefully he is still there :) On the downside, Bookman's happened to know what they were worth and charged a good penny for them. About what I'd pay online, but without the cost of shipping.

The little one is telling me to name it Summerageous. I don't know about these voices in my head O.o

Warmbloods

...are a mess. Everyone knows that. It's so hard to keep them straight. Who goes where, who is really a what. Nowadays, the same stallion can be registerable with 7 different registries!

Just wanted to share something that made me pause while I was wading through Trakehners, Belgium Warmbloods, Hanoverians, etc.

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/anemone45

*giggles*

I found her in the pedigree of For Compliment. http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/for+compliment . He's such a nice-looking boy, never would've thought he had one of them in his background!

Names

Usually the hardest part for me with dealing with new models is choosing their names. Yesterday, however, they were extremely vocal as to what they wanted to be called. I decided to share with you some of the revelations. (Keep in mind, some of these horses have gone nameless for months, maybe even a year).

This guy is super gorgeous, but I was too busy with finals and graduating around the time I got the set that he went unnamed, along with the rest of his group. But last night, he told me he would fit perfectly the BSO ID I had, Sunny's Chance. 

 This guy desperately wanted to show, so I had to come up with a name. Drummer Boy popped into my head. It's cute, but I think I have a BSO of a Gypsy Vanner by that name, so it might end up getting changed.

This lady is one of only two Haflinger mares at Golden Hart Estates. The other is named Mami's Sweetheart, so I was already considering making one the foal of the other. And then that triggered the lyrics of the song by Fannypack that featured on the Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift: Hey Mami. My favorite part goes: Hey Mami, you sexy. Hey Mami, you beautiful. It's a really upbeat song, and I found it on my iTunes last night. So she decided she wanted the name, Hey Mami.

This guy. This month I had to travel out of state for my funeral of my boyfriend's brother. It was a tragic death, resulting from a freak snowmobile accident, and he leaves behind a pregnant widow. Something about this photo, maybe the way the mane is flowing back, or the way the stallion looks like he's enjoying the snow, made me think of my "brother-in-law". He abruptly told me his name was Joe's Tribute. I even tried to convince myself Tribute to Joe would be better since it didn't deal with the apostrophe that TBs aren't allowed to have in their name, but the horse wouldn't have it. He told me he wasn't racing, and would never be registered with the Jockey Club, and the members at the photo show clubs wouldn't mind the apostrophe. So it stayed.

And here is Tucson. He was already named, but he came with Sedona, a mustang, and was supposed to be her foal. However, he looks too much like the classic QH mare with the awesome metallic bright bay coat, so he became hers, but kept his name. Well, last night he told me his name shoulda been Calamitous with his new mama. Oh well, I guess I have a name already picked out for her next foal!

First 2012 Buys

I figured I would be in a model horse drought for the first several months of the year, since I'll be moving in two weeks to job hunt down in the Phoenix metropolitan area. However, I was down in FoCo yesterday with some extra cash and managed to snag a few of the new 2012 classics. I couldn't resist, especially the Arab, the Paint, and the foals! I've wanted the new foal mold badly. Not sure how I feel about the Haflinger, but there's been so much hype about the mold I caved. (Besides, I collect every mold and version I can get my hands on, ha!).

December Champions

I tend to show only a select few of my horses, since being in school had severely limited my personal time and all my hobby time lately has been updating personal pages. So I didn't get champions as often as some other showers, but I'd like to remind myself how well they do each month. I totally borrowed this idea from my buddy Samantha, because I thought it was such a positive way to look at showing, which can sometimes be very burdensome *warily eyes the massive amount of year-end points I still have to wade through*

I only have two models showing in MHFC's Breyer Old Mold Division, since many of my Traditional models are newer (I am a young'un, compated to many in the hobby ;) ), however my Arabian stallion, Shuriken, did great this month. He didn't receive a championship, but he placed 2nd in the Young Stallion class, out of 80 entries. He also placed 3rd in the Arabian class, out of a total 81 entries. I am very proud of his success!

Nevada, my Peruvian Paso, also showed well in Young Stallion in the OF Breyer Mini class, getting 3rd out of 68 entries.

My horses did better in the OF Breyer Classic Division. My lovely stallion Poetic was first in Senior Stallion and received the Senior Horse Reserve Champion.

And then, my Quarter Horse stallion Caliban, named after my boyfriend's favorite band, was first in Chestnut, and brought home the Solid Color Reserve Champion.

However, Golden Hart Estate's all-star lately has been SFC City Of Lights. He has consistently showed well in both MHFC and ABMHA, surprising me even more due to my dislike of the photo I gave him.


[We moved this summer, and our new place has absolutely no good places for taking pictures. The house before had that vibrant bush which I was able to use as a background at kneeling level. The new place was a challenge. I won't give away all my secrets, but let's just say that a chain link fence behind me meant I could only take chain-link-shadowless photos about one hour out of the day.]

City Of Lights shows in the Other Makes Division 1 for MHFC. He claimed Young Horse Traditional/Classic Champion, Overall Gender Traditional/Classic Champion, Draft Breed Traditional/Classic Champion, Overall Breed Traditional/Classic Champion, and Overall Grand Champion. I can't express how excited I was that he pulled off such a clean sweep over tough competition!

My favorite model who has done really well is Sir Triston. It just tickles me pink that one of my beloved Grand Champions can stand up to tough competition.

This month, he won Draft Breed Champion against other gorgeous Grand Champion drafts. I'm not sure if it's the cleaned-up mane, or the ribbons, but I hope he continues to charm the judges!

He's not a horse, but I'd like to introduce you to Rhovan. He is by far Golden Hart Estates most winningest animal.

This month, as many months before, he received Cat Champion. I would like to note that this is probably my most impressive photo. The lighting is even, his coloring bright, and a great depth of field, with his head and eyes in clear, sharp focus. I wish all of my photos could turn out this nice!

Rodent/Small Animal Reserve Champion goes to....Smurfette!

That's it for December's showers. Now back to points!