We have a 2023 Celebration Horse!

 Greetings, readers! Exciting news today - the 2023 Breyerfest Celebration Horse (and Model) have been announced! Say hello to Bravour 54! 

From the blog:

The Celebration Horse for 2023’s BreyerFest celebration of Driving Forward is a true leader and the perfect combination of beauty and intelligence, with just enough fiery temperament to make him a standout driving horse!

The triathlon of the driving world, Combined Driving tests the control, agility, obedience, and endurance of horses and drivers over three phases of competition – Dressage, Marathon, and Cones. International driver Misdee Wrigley Miller ended up finding the perfect addition to her four-in-hand team in KWPN gelding Bravour 54.

 

He's definitely a looker! When it comes to the choice of mold, though...well, all I'm really going to say is there are going to be a LOT of people reselling them next year. But the owners are happy with it, and that's all that really matters, right? I wouldn't have picked the Trakehner myself (my choice probably would be Troubadour, though he isn't quite the best match for the horse), but them's the breaks, I guess. I hope we get to see more Breyerfest stuff soon! 

Featured Model - 9/17/2022, Life Guards of the Queen's Household Cavalry

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model I don't own but may have an interesting story behind it, give some stats on and and provide commentary about it. With respect to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II (RIP), this week's model is...the Life Guards of the Queen's Household Cavalry! 

This model and tack set was item #3368, released on the Trakehner mold sculpted by Chris Hess. He was a limited edition of 5,000 produced in 2003. 

I've seen it said that QEII was a Breyer collector, and one of her horses was produced as a Breyer at least once before (Burmese), so it's probably safe to assume she had at least one of these in her collection. Maybe more than one! Who knows. I don't have one myself, though I did want one around the time they first came out. Okay, it would still be cool to have one just for the tack set, but I'm not a Trakehner collector. It looks like they put quite a bit of effort and attention to detail into this set (but then, they usually do). I kinda like the posed Breyer riders marching in the background on the box, too. I suppose the prices on these will go up now that the Queen has passed on, though. Oh well. 

As for the Trakehner, he recently had a warehouse find release, which is good, because he hasn't had all that many releases in general - his most recent release before that was Thorn for Breyerfest 2020. It's hard to say where we'll see him next, although I suspect he may make a micro run appearance at the Ponies & Palm Trees event in November. I guess we'll have to wait and see! 

The mystery is solved!

Hooray, we didn't have to wait all weekend for the new reveal! Behold:



...Definitely not what I was expecting, or hoping for. This guy is an easy pass for me. Uh, I could be wrong, but I foresee a lot of leftovers of this one, similar to all the leftover Peppers from last year. Not really sure what they were thinking with this one. But I digress. From the blog:

Named for thorn, the third in the sacred tree trilogy related to fairy lore, this plant has been long-considered sacred.  Combined with oak and ash, the thorn in folklore is said to ward off fairy mischief, but the hawthorn plant itself is regarded for its antioxidant medicinal properties – even today!

Ah, I wondered if we were getting the third member of the "tree trilogy." They solved the already-used-name problem by just lopping off the "Haw" and calling him Thorn. I guess that works!

 

Two Appaloosas and a dapple gray? I feel like one of them should have been a pinto if they really wanted to pay tribute to the trifecta. Oh well.

Although this is the eighth Breyerfest special run, we haven't seen a decorator yet...and the blog doesn't say this is the last special run, either. Could we be getting nine this year? That way they wouldn't have to jack up the run numbers so much. I guess we'll find out eventually...

Live Auction Lot 21 - Chump Change

Live Auction Lot 21 is now on the website, after yesterday's Lot 20, one of the Breyerfest Live prizes we'd already seen (ha! I was right). Lot 21 is on what I like to call a "chump change" mold, the Trakehner:

I call it "chump change" because the mold isn't in high demand, so I doubt it'll sell for much over $1000, if it even brings that much. The paint job is nice, though. The website describes it as a "Flaxen Dapple Liver Chestnut." That's a color I wouldn't mind seeing on a lot of other molds - and are his mane and tail pearly? Yum. The color looks vaguely like Brishen's, but executed better. Interestingly, the model has the updated tail they put on the Trakehner a while back, which looks way better than the original blah-looking tail; I wish they'd updated his mane while they were at it, though. I'm slightly irritated that they decided to photograph the horse's off side here, but they probably wanted to show off the mane.

Can't wait to see what they show us tomorrow! We only have one week left until Breyerfest is upon us!