Featured Model - 11/26/2016, El Caballo Peruano de Paso

Hello and welcome to another installment of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model from my collection, give some stats on it and provide commentary. I hope we've all recovered sufficiently from Thanksgiving! This week's lucky model is...El Caballo Peruano de Paso (The Horse from the Land of the Incas)! Or, as I call him, Champagne Ride (because who can remember that mouthful?).

 

This handsome guy was a limited edition set (item number 1223) released in 2004; he was a run of 1500 on the Peruvian Paso mold sculpted by Linda York. He came in a fancy window box and included a traditional Peruvian saddle, bridle, and rider (with the requisite tray of champagne glasses). The COA for this set came tightly rolled up and tied with a ribbon - when I got mine out of the box, I thought it would never lie flat. Even now, it's pressed between the pages of a book, hopefully flattening out.

The only real issue I had with this set was that I didn't realize the bit for the bridle was actually in the horse's mouth - they put a hole in his mouth for the bit to go in! I had to use a nail clipper to clip the bit in half so I could take it out. I had been hoping to keep all the tack intact, so that really irked me - especially since it's a situation with no good resolution. Either you damage the tack getting it off the horse, or you leave it on and risk the tack itself damaging the model, either from dye leaching onto it or "shadows" from the paint fading around it. No thanks!

This is another one of those molds I'm somewhat conflicted about. Most of the issue is wondering which side is his "show" side, and which is his "off" side. It seems like his luxurious mane (right)side should be the show side, but he's looking slightly to the left, which would put the show side on his left side. Argh! He does look good in palomino, though. I wouldn't mind seeing him in a palomino like Breyer has been doing lately with dark shading on the points.

I think this is one of Breyer's more underrated molds. He has his own particular charm, and he's been issued in so many great auction model colors! I drooled over the blue roan tobiano from 2011, the red bay overo from 2010, and of course would kill to own the silver filigree one from 2003 (Curse you, Breyer!). And the silver bay Breyerfest prize is to die for. On the more attainable front, RCH Ventarrones was a great color, too - especially in gloss! Droolworthy for sure. Let's hope this mold gets another release soon! He deserves it.