Muscles

Most of us are familiar with the Clydesdale Stallion, who went from originally being a bit of a blobby beast in 1958 to something a little more buff shortly after.

Hobbyists are less familiar with what happened with the Quarter Horse Gelding, who went in the opposite direction – going from ripped to “dad bod”!

This happened in the very early 1960s, shortly after the introduction of the Buckskin, since the Buckskin version of this mold variation seems to be the rarest of the three early Quarter Horse Geldings.

I sometimes call him the “Supermuscled” Quarter Horse because, well, look at him! He’s awesome. 

I presume the mold change was either a consequence of another mold alteration that necessitated removing some of the extra detailing, or the “bulldog” body type was already trending out of fashion and Breyer did an update to tap into the market for less beefcake.

There was a second round of alterations that softened the detail even more and eventually gave the mold a tummy tuck, but I haven’t been able to determine when that happened, exactly.

I only discovered this alteration by accident when I bought the above pictured Quarter Horse because he had eyewhites, a very rare feature on Buckskins. When I opened him up and looked him over, I was astonished at how well-shaded he was… then realized it wasn’t just the paint job I was looking at!