Collection Contemplation

I am feeling a little blue about the live show universe at the moment, for a couple reasons that I can't discuss right now.  I am planning a trip to BOYCC and that now appears to be in jeopardy for reasons I am less than thrilled with, and in general, the attitude out there has just not been great.  So, I thought that maybe its time for a post that goes back to why I love this hobby so much I am willing to get involved with it at its ickiest national levels.

I have a large OF Breyer collection.  It is not, despite my husband's belief, the largest group of OF Breyers ever.  I doubt its even top 50 in the northeast.  Its not chock full of old goodies, but I do have every horse from my childhood collection, and happily for them, I took to thinking of them as a collection in my early teens, so many are in nice shape.  In the early 80's I was already starting to try and organize them in notebooks or on index cards, tracking both their Collectible Object Qualities and their Horse In My Imagination ones.  I was still under 100 horses at this point, even counting the non Breyer models that I had (have).

Back in those days, I lived in north Jersey and buying horses involved a trip to the Rockaway Mall.  There were 2 toy stores in the mall, KayBee Toys, who  kept an example of each horse in stock unboxed on a shelf so you could pick them up and look them over before selecting a new in box horse.  They would sell the shelf example if that was the last one they had (how I got my #62 Saddlebred Weanling, the first horse I purchased knowing it was already discontinued.)  There was also Michael's Things For Fun, a more sedate toy store than KayBee.  They had a quarter of an aisle dedicated to Breyers, tan and brown picture boxes facing forward, and a good selection to pick over.  There was also a Child World close by, and this was my Breyer Horse Nirvana--in my memory, there was a WALL of Breyers, floor to ceiling!  Every model ever!  I feel like I spent hours standing in front of that wall trying to decide between horses.  The one battle I recall was agonizing over a Bay Shetland Pony and a Honey Sorrel Shire...and I still do not have a single Shire in my collection!!

On the day I am thinking about now though, I was unable to convince my mother that I needed a trip to Child World, and KayBee was picked over, so I was in Michael's pondering what to get, and on this fine fall afternoon circa 1983, I decided to lay my hard earned five bucks on a dapple grey Proud Arabian Stallion.  It took a long time for me to arrive on this choice, and selected the sealed box carefully.  I was not allowed to open my horses until I got in the car, and I remember sitting in the front seat of our grey Cordova, breaking open the plastic sealing the box and taking the lid off....and seeing a horse that did not look like the tall grey horse on the picture box.

WHAT!

I was SERIOUSLY taken aback by what was before my eyes.  This horse had a black mane, tail and legs.  The picture on the box DID NOT.  What sort of nonsense was this.  I was disappointed for a while, but eventually this horse, who ended up with the name Roger Moore (there was a serious James Bond thing going on at home, and the horses got some unfortunate names via osmosis) became a favorite.

When I began to meet with other hobbyists, I learned that my PAS was something unusual.  I took him to my first real live show ever in 1991, and a complete stranger walked up to me as I unboxed my show horses and offered me a hundred dollars for him.  Which, at the time, was an insane sum to me for a plastic horse. I said no. Several times.  Stranger told me to let her know if I changed my mind.  Still haven't.

I still take him out time to time--he's got very nice haloed/peacock spots that do not show up in that photo.  And as wonked out as he is anatomically (he really looks more like a giraffe than a horse)  he still holds a place in my heart, and he is still "herd leader" in my imagination.