The Western Horse’s Cousin

Another quiet and mostly offline weekend here, working on quilts; I finished one, and prepped a couple of others. I wasn’t so optimistic about it pre-BreyerFest, but now I think I just might make my goal of completing 20 quilts this year!

Also worth noting: the passing of fantasy writer Barry Hughart. Due to a dispute with his publisher, his output was limited to only three novels, but it is well worth the effort to seek them out. There is nothing specifically horsey about them, but I know a large chunk of hobbyists are SF/Fantasy aficionados and might appreciate the recommendation.

My only find worth mentioning this week was a Western Horse knockoff. I was momentarily excited when I entered the Salvation Army a couple days ago and saw his legs sticking out of one of the toy bins; with my other craft projects moving along at a decent pace, perhaps now is the time to stash away a body box quality Western Horse for that Christmas-themed custom that’s been on my to-do list forever?

Alas no, not yet.

That’s fine; I still had some fun cleaning him up. He was one of those models who obviously spent a lot of time in storage under less-than-ideal conditions. He wasn’t sticky, but he was definitely not pleasant to the touch. (He might not look all that great now, but you should have seen what I started with!)

And he still has his original reins and saddle after all these years, so I suppose that counts for something. That doesn’t even happen with actual Breyer Western Horses as much as we’d like.

Lots of hobbyists collect knockoffs, but other than the notorious “Diamond P” ones, I don’t actively seek them out. When I do find them, keeping them is a matter of deciding whether they are (a) historically significant in some way, or (b) are so hysterically incompetent that they make me smile. 

(You know the ones!)

Although I do consider this particular knockoff historically significant, I already have him – and one just like him, in black – so he’ll be heading to the sales list shortly.

The early history of the Western Horse and his cousins is convoluted and interesting, and I like having them around to remind me that there’s still so much to sort out about early model horse history.