Breyer Horses

Playing “Horse Show”

Playing Horse Show with their Breyer Horses became great fun for little girls. They would give them names and maybe add saddles and tack. And invite friends over to play “horse show”.

Maybe this is how showing of Model Horses came about. But it certainly isn’t just for little girls any more. This is very serious, I go as far as to say as serious as real live horse showing.

And there are as many classes (if not more) than there are at a real live horse show.

Each show has it own set of classes. But there are generally two main divisions, that being ‘Original Finish’ (OF) and ‘Custom Model’ (CM).

The OF being horses that are straight from the maker and CM being customised in some way.

Then for each of these divisions there are Halter classes and Performance classes.

Halter classes are separated into gender, breed and colour just as they would be at a real live horse show.

And Performance classes can include any number of disciplines including (but certainly not limited to):-

• dressage
• show jumping
• showmanship
• cutting
• reigning
• trail
• western pleasure

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• liberty
• games
• harness
• racing
• arabian costume
• native american costume
• other costume

Generally the rules of judging are the same as it would be for live horses. In deed the live horse association rule books are used.

There are two main types of shows –Photo Shows and Live Shows.

Photo Shows

Photo Shows as the name suggests is where you take a photo of your horse and send it in to the competition.

Much time and effort is spent to ensure a good quality photo. It seems to be quite an art in it’s self.

The photo must look as realistic as possible with the horse taking up most of the frame. Oh Joy Farms has some great hints on setting up photo scenes and some of the best model horse photos I have seen.

Live Shows

Live Shows - are well, you guessed it ‘live’. Held generally in a hall filled with rows of tables. I explained it to my husband ‘like a flower show’.

For halter classes all the horses are stood together and for performance the competitor gets to set a scene using appropriate props and accessories.

Standing at Stud

Standing at Stud, now I must admit when I first read about this, I was a bit concerned. But they do actually ‘breed’ model horses. Please read on, I promise there is nothing perverse here.

In the model horse world breeding is referred to ‘Pedigree Assignment’.

Collectors give their horses names, breeds and ages; and some take it a step further and assign a pedigree.

It works something like this.

You decide what breed and age your horse is and then find a Stallion and Mare to be it’s parents.

The parents must be the same breed. And the colour of your resultant foal must be realistic. It is all very realistic, the parents must be 4 years older than the foal. And the Mare can only have one foal per year.

Some model horses have pedigrees that can be traced back several generations. And of course you pay more for the pedigree if it has come from a Champion.

More about Breyer

The History of the Breyer Horse will tell you how it all started. And also find out about how they are made and about customising. The How of Collecting Breyer Horse Modelss, will get you started.