Featured JAH - 12/2/2023, May/June 1996

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured JAH! This week's issue is May/June 1996 - let's get reading! 

As you might be able to tell by the condition of the cover, this issue holds the distinction of being the first issue I received as a young subscriber in 1996. I was 10 years old and had sent in my subscription card some 4-6 weeks earlier (possibly longer  - I seem to recall an apology being published in one of these issues about taking a long time to fulfill new subscriptions), waited eagerly for a few days, then kinda just gave up on ever receiving it. Lo and behold, a few weeks later this issue arrived at our house! I eagerly got to reading and may have also done some customizing work on the front cover, which is a piece of fan art from a Breyer jr. art contest. On the back cover, the handsome Snowbound model takes a jump. Due to his appearance in this magazine, I desperately wanted my own Snowbound and finally got one as an adult, only to sell him later when I got rid of all my Jumping Horses. 

On page 2-3 we have the Editor's Desk and the World of Breyer news column, including a piece about the Snowbound model. According to the magazine, the Snowbound model was "limited" to 14,000 pieces - which seems gargantuan compared to the special runs we have now, or even back then. I suppose they figured a lot of Olympics fans would want him. 

On page 4-5 we have some more news blurbs and a Breyerfest update, including a photo of the new Brown Sunshine model. 

After skipping a How-To article and most of an article about the show jumping at the 1996 Olympics, on page 12-13 we have some nice illustrations of a canter pirouette by Carol L. Howard and an article about Breyer portrait horse Bo Diddley. 

On page 14-15 we have the final step in the process of producing the porcelain American Saddlebred Parade Horse. I guess we don't get to see the painting process, which is a bit sad. 

On page 16 there's an article about J.B. Andrew, another Breyer portrait horse (oops - there's a typo in the article), and on the opposite page we have a Blast From the Past about the Breyer Race Horse and a Just About...Breyer Animals featuring the Walking Black Angus Bull. 

On page 22 was the rest of an article judging various dressage performance setups, and on page 23 is a Breyerology article about various types of brands on model horses. 

On page 24 is the conclusion of the brand article, as well as a Who Am I? featuring what looks like a bay Legionario. The first page of Horse Trader is cropped out. 

Lastly for this issue, the Vintage Point article focused on the Phar Lap mold, which had already had quite a few releases by this point, considering it had only been in use for 11 years. Native Diver, the black Phar Lap portrait of the real horse, was a prominent member of my carpet herd around this time and was played with enough that he ended up one of the few models I had that broke a leg - multiple times, because superglue just didn't hold up very well. The bane of my existence! 

That's all I have for this issue - tune in next week for July/Aug 1996!