Featured Breyerfest - 2000

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Breyerfest! I made it back home to NZ, so that means it's time to...keep talking about other Breyerfests! This week we're covering Breyerfest 2000. Here are some notable events from the year 2000:

• The Y2K bug was mostly a non-issue
• Peanuts publishes its last comic, and creator Charles Schultz dies the next day
• Lucien Laurin, trainer of Secretariat, dies at 88
• The 2000 Olympics take place in Sydney, Australia

And Breyerfest 2000 was the first Breyerfest of the new millennium! Depending on how you define the beginning of the millennium, of course (some people count it as 2001). 
Dates: July 28-30, 2000
Celebration Horse: Leahs Fancy Chick
Number of Celebration Models produced: 4,400
Attendance: "almost 4,000"
Here's the first 2000 page from the commemorative program:

The real Leahs Fancy Chick was a successful roping horse, and her new filly accompanied her to the event (Breyer held a naming contest for the filly and the winning name was Leahs Fancy Breyer). I wasn't able to find much updated information on her. If allbreedpedigree is to believed, she had three offspring (Leahs Fancy Breyer, Like a Fancy Diamond and Gucci Gunner). Like a Fancy Diamond has several offspring listed on allbreedpedigree, as does Gucci Gunner. 
Special runs in 2000 were plentiful, including Buford, the Walking Hereford Bull; Mardi Gras, the Lonesome Glory; Patches, the Kitten; Sarsaparilla, the Semi-Rearing Mustang; and the ever-present keychains, this time in a set featuring the G2 Cantering Warmblood, G2 Rearing Arabian, G2 Appaloosa and the G2 Saddlebred. Prize models were introduced to Breyerfest Live, with glossy Zippo Pine Bar models along with the palomino Saddlebreds on the clock and the glossy dapple gray Saddlebreds, also on the clock. This was the first year that the show wasn't held on the floor of the Covered Arena! Huzzah. The year 2000 also ushered in the Sunday Raffle and the Silent Auction. Here's the first page of the Breyerfest 2000 recap from JAH:

Sounds like the weather in 2000 was similar to the weather we had this year! 

It appears that 2000 was also the first year that Pal o' Mine made his debut. I try to keep my distance from him (he creeps me out a little bit). I did see him this year and well...I feel like that costume needs a refresh, or replacement.

That's it for the JAH recap. Let's take a look at some of these auction models! More can be found here.

This one is a little understated, but still pretty cool - he's the Friesian in glossy metallic cobalt blue with black shading. Very pretty color! 

I wish we had some better photos of this Sham, because his color is beautiful as well. I wonder where he is now? 

Here's the crazy Fruit Stripe zebra, who has been a subject of this blog before, back when I was doing the Featured Model posts. Be still my heart! I would love to own this one and add it to my zebra collection. Maybe someday? 

Lastly for this blog, we have this "wild lacy dapple charcoal" by Tom Bainbridge. What a crazy color! I know I say this a lot, but I wonder where this one is now? Anyone have some better photos? 

And that's it for this week! Check back next week for Breyerfest 2001!