More Pretties

Looks like no Valentine’s Day Special for me. I’m okay with it; more money to pay the bills instead. (And my Glossy Joey should be coming soon!) I wasn’t planning on buying much before flea market season begins in April, anyway. Not that that plan is working all that well:


Found these at the local Salvation Army about a week ago. It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t visited the store since before Christmas, so I stopped in on my way home one night to see if anything new and interesting had come in. (Well, duh.)

They were cheap - and on sale - so of course I had to rescue them. They were being used as decorations in the "designer" section of the shoe department, a high traffic area frequented by overly enthusiastic shoe fanatics and their daughters, both playing dress up.

("Designer" shoes are the ones that’ll set you back more than ten bucks, but less than 25. The "fancy-expensive" ones that go for more than that they lock up in the jewelry cases. Truth!)

My fifteen minutes of Internet research has determined that they were made by this outfit, and are (or were) apparently worth at least a little bit of money:

http://www.pjs-carousel.com/

I probably won’t be keeping either one; I was already considering doing a little herd culling in the next few months - when I can find the time, ha! - so it’s straight into "inventory" for these pretties. I won’t be planning to sell them until BreyerFest, since they’re kind of heavy, and a bit on the delicate side. I have no idea what I’ll be asking for them, yet.

Speaking of …

Aside from the strange selection of the Stretched Morgan as the Early Bird Special, what’s troubling me most is that they’ve changed the time, day and location of some well-established events. With the information not being as readily available as it used to be, I fear a lot of semi-regular attendees may try to fly on autopilot this year, with the usual consequences.

Let’s see. The auction now appears to be Friday afternoon, not Saturday night, and there’s not one, but two costume/dress up "contests." One of those contests is just before a Beatles tribute concert Saturday night - well after all of the other festivities are done for the day, which presumes we all go about our business for a couple hours in the meantime - fueling up, dressing up, and shopping up.

Oy, vey! And I thought the scheduling last year was a headache.

Not too keen on Reeves now scheduling major events on both Friday and Saturday night: that seriously cuts into our shopping/socializing time. The Ninja Pit, Raffles, and Contests are fun and all, but it ain’t BreyerFest if I can’t spread gossip among my minions and root around body boxes for misidentified treasures.

British Flavoured

Spent some time yesterday poking the underbelly of the Breyer web site - the legal way, via the links, tabs and buttons.

I’d consider myself a fairly adept user - I even took some classes, back in the day, when I had delusions of being a webmaster. Even though I haven’t done much in that department since then, I still find myself obsessing over the structure of every web site I visit. If I get annoyed enough, I’ll even start sketching out - on paper, or even just in my head - how I’d reconfigure it.

I wasn’t super-impressed with the Breyer web site before, but now that I’ve spent some time wandering around the place, I think it annoys me more than almost any other site I visit on a regular basis. There’s too much "fluff" getting in the way of the "stuff". Fooey!

Rather than discuss how I’d completely restructure it, let’s discuss the BreyerFest material, which was my original reason for visiting the site.

I am not as upset as many are about the lack of true "Britishness" regarding the Celebration Horse "Mariah’s Boon", and the Store Special "Taskin". They are, if not true British breeds, at least British-flavoured.

I am as mystified as everyone else over the Early Bird Special: a Stretched Morgan mold, in Liver Chestnut? That’s one peculiar choice for a British-themed BreyerFest. Aren’t Morgans like the quintessential American breed? Kind of wondering how they’ll spin that one. (As a product of "New" England? Maybe? Whatever.)

"Bennington" seems a little blah from the picture, but that’s probably more the photographer’s fault than the horse. I certainly wouldn’t complain if I won one.

The dapply-dun-silver-whatever that is the SR Cigar "Aintree" is beautiful, but my preference between the two now public Tent SRs is the British White Bull "Bowland", on the Charolais Bull mold. I’ve wanted a British White for years, so that one’s a no-brainer for me. There’s at least one other Tent SR that’s on my must-have list, but since the photos haven’t officially been made public yet, I’ll have to continue refraining comment. (HINT: I kinda-sorta gave you a clue the last time I talked about them.)

I’m running way short of time today (work + driveway shoveling) so I’ll finish up the BreyerFest 2012 discussion tomorrow.

It's Pink?

My original plan with the Breyer Blossoms program was to just buy my birth month’s horse (April) as my representative sample and ignore/bypass the rest. For all the usual reasons: no space, no money, not a lot of interest.

Judging from the photographs I’ve seen on the Breyer Facebook page, it appears that the only month I’ve seen so far that I do not like is …April. They went with a hot pink base color? Seriously?

Some daisies do come in pink; English Daisies (Bellis Perennis) have been a staple in my garden for several years now. They’re prolific, easy-to-grow, and low maintenance - essentially, a very pretty weed. But they’re not the kind of daisies that immediately spring to most folks’ minds, either.

I am not a huge fan of the color Pink. I was never a "girly girl", was never into Barbies, and my skin tone precludes me from wearing it. I don’t even use it that much in my quilting projects, even though it’s a pretty versatile and useful color, from a design perspective.

I like the other "pink" horse released this week a little better: the semi-Decorator Valentine’s Day Web Special "I’m Yours". If you haven’t seen her yet, it’s a realistic red roan Bluegrass Bandit with a kiss-shaped star, and faint kiss prints on her flanks, similar to the hearts on last year’s Huckleberry Bey.

I’m a little surprised they didn’t call her "The Kissing Bandit", but I suppose they probably didn’t want to deal with the trouble that would come their way from the parents of the more underaged components of their target audience. (The ones old enough to use Google, but not old enough yet to have had "The Talk".)

I haven’t taken a gander at the current debate about it on Blab, or elsewhere. If it’s anything like the tenor the Blab "disappeared" discussions took last week, I’m probably not missing much. I do not understand why it’s perfectly acceptable for a customizer to add exotic flourishes to a realistic paint job, but it’s an unforgivable sin if it’s part of a production paint job.

Some people like a little frou-frou, and some don’t. Depends on the model for me. I’m a tiny bit disappointed that it’s not a straight up red roan, since I already have one nonrealistic Bluegrass Bandit in the herd, but not disappointed enough to not enter for it.

What concerns me now that Reeves has moved so much of its customer interaction online is that the bugaboos and preferences of a very active, very vocal minority of those customers might end up dictating the kind of models that get released for everyone. Not everyone wants glossy, nonmetallic finishes on only conformationally-correct models by sculptors X, Y - but good heavens, not Z!

There should be room enough, and releases enough, for everyone here.

Red Flags

Reeves finally got around to crediting former JAH subscribers for the remainder of their subscriptions - online store credit codes, as I expected. I’ll save mine up for either the next Web Special I win, or for BreyerFest tickets, whatever comes up first.

I wanted to write about the Valentine’s Day SR, but since Reeves hasn’t "officially" released the body shots to the public yet (as of this posting), I’ll have to put off my commentary until next time.

That’s okay, it’ll give me time to polish it into something other than me complaining about other people complaining. Been there, done that. Repeatedly.

Instead, let’s complain about something else today - like that second dubious Red Pegasus that sold on eBay for an undeserving amount of money. There’s something I can get good and righteous about!

Sigh. There are some models that just set me off. You know about the Black Adios, and I’ve (so far) spared you the ugly details about why I don’t own an SR Buckskin Adios. I’ve already done a post about my annoyance over people claiming they have Kansas City Shams, and someday soon you’ll know why I feel the same way about the "Trakehner Society" Trakehners.

This week, the Red Pegasus has entered that hallowed canon.

I’ve written before about my frustration about giving advice to people about the authenticity of rare or questionable models. All too often, it’s merely a formality: what the owner is seeking is validation of their purchase. Tell them that you have serious doubts about a model's authenticity, and some of them will either (a) tell you you don’t know what you’re talking about, or (b) go find someone else that will tell them it’s authentic.

Not a lot, mind you, but enough to give me pause.

So anyway, in spite of the fact that the seller’s story was extremely dubious to begin with - and some details later proven demonstrably false, on Blab - the second one still sold for almost $400.

What I fear most is not that it will encourage this seller - and others of similar moral caliber - to mysteriously "discover" more Red Pegasi in the attic. That’s a given. No, it’s that these auctions will be used as proof of the authenticity of future auctions to come. "Gosh, two other ones just like it sold on eBay for mucho bucks, so it’s gotta be real! Collectors must know something I don’t know!"

Ah, if only that were so. I won’t point out anyone in particular, or name any names, but there are some profoundly uninformed hobbyists out there. The kind that buy first, and ask questions later. (A philosophy that I have recommended in the past - but only in smaller, more affordable doses.)

As far as I know, there’s only one Red Pegasus that I - and most other model horse historians - would consider above reproach. All we have is one model, and some theories. No ephemera, no other corroborating evidence of any kind.

This is not the kind of evidence to bet big money on.

Privacy vs. Ponies

All sorts of things I’d like to talk about today, but I suppose I am obligated to talk about the dustup that happened earlier today on Blab, regarding the stolen BreyerFest Special Run photos.

Someone - or someones, I’m not sure - apparently "hacked" their way into the less public parts of Reeves’ server, and downloaded photographs of several as-yet-unannounced BreyerFest Special Runs, as well as body shots of both sides of the upcoming Valentine’s Day Special. And then they posted them in a couple of threads on Model Horse Blab.

Reeves caught wind of it, contacted Blab, and the threads were locked down, removed from public access, and the person or persons responsible for the hacking and publishing were suspended from Blab, with insinuations that possible legal action to follow.

I just happened to be on Blab around the time the photos were being posted, and my first thought (after "ooh, I want…") was "Uh oh, someone’s been sneaking around the back end of the Breyer web site. Again."

I understand Reeves’ dismay at the situation, and I do not fault them for the swiftness or the intensity of their reaction. On the other hand, this has happened before, and Reeves should not have been surprised that it happened again. I am sort of shocked that, in light of those previous incidents, that they hadn’t beef up their security protocols by now.

This does not mean I express any sense of approval for the actions of the hacker(s) in question.

I’ve said this on numerous occasions: I love my hobby, but some of my fellow hobbyists I can do without. They don’t just lie, steal, or cut in line. They will have their children proxy show for them at youth-only live shows, trample a disabled woman in a wheelchair, and casually express (non-hobby related) opinions so offensive they’d leave most decent people dumbstruck.

Being a hobbyist does not automatically make you a good person. It just makes you someone I happen to have something in common with.

Because of this web site, and because of my reputation, I also happen to have access to a lot of (legally) sensitive Breyer information. I try my best to not spread anything questionable around, thought from time to time it does slip out, accidentally. There’s a lot of data in my head, and sometimes it’s hard to keep track of what is and isn’t permissible to say. If I do blurt out anything unacceptable, it’s not with any intent to do an Anonymous-style "gotcha" on anyone.

(Conceivably, I could, but I like enough of you that I want to stick around in the hobby a while longer, y’know?)

I didn’t download any of those pictures, nor will I relay any information about them, except in the most general sense (Glossies! Pintos! Vintage molds!) I suspect within the week, the privacy issue regarding much of that information will be moot. (That’s why they were on the server in the first place, right?)

Eating Your Mistakes

Just passing through today. In addition to the crazy work schedule, I have been feeling unwell the past few days. I was a little afraid it might be a touch of whatever intestinal nastiness that has been floating around in these parts (it took out an entire elementary school!) but I think the explanation is a little more innocuous than that.

I’m a decent cook, and a good baker, but the making of candy - fudges, pralines, truffles, even simple barks - stumps me. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to overcome this deficit in my culinary repertoire.

So far, not so good. So rather than let my friends, family and coworkers suffer, I’ve been eating the mistakes. (This weekend it was Peanut Not-Very-Brittle.)

It’s advice I wish more hobbyists would take to heart.

I haven’t been able to cruise the shopping sites for my usual research lately, but frankly, it’s been a bit of a relief. I was getting annoyed with seeing the same stuff, listed over and over and over.

And I’m not talking about low-end, bottom feeder stuff. These are things that a lot of hobbyists and collectors are still willing to purchase, even in this economy - low piece run SRs, high quality show prospects, and the like. It’s the prices that are killing the potential sale: too many of them are being listed at what seems to be the seller’s "break even" point.

If you’re going to buy into the notion that your collection is part of your investment portfolio (assuming, arguendo: it's not an idea I endorse) you’re going to have to accept that sometimes, investments tank. It’s no reflection on you as a hobbyist or person, it just happens.

Happens to me, all the time. I consider it a very good year, honestly, if I can break about even on what I buy versus what I sell. If I happen to profit, hey, good for me! But most of my enjoyment is in the hunt, not the profit.

Another factor in all of this is the way the selling sites are set up: eBay allows you to list up to fifty items for free every month, and MH$P lets you list a certain number of items per month for fairly low (or no) cost. So once you make the initial investment in putting together the ad, it’s simply a matter of renewing it over and over until the darn thing finally sells.

There’s also the rationale that repetition leads to sales. There’s a reason why shopping channels like QVC "schedule" selling times in one-hour increments. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes of someone telling you how wonderful that kitchen doohickey is, repeatedly, before your brain decides it’s time to pull out the credit card.

I don’t know if that’s the case in the online model horse world, though. Every time I see the same item listed again and again - at the same price, for weeks on end - it makes me not want to deal with that seller, ever. It tells me that something’s wrong, and it’s not necessarily the model’s fault.

(Sometimes it is, but that's another issue entirely.)

Cut the price to something the current market will bear, or take it off the market. "Eat" your failures, and move on. You’ll feel sick in the short term, but you’ll recover.

One Bright Spot

Wow, I had no idea this joint’s been jumpin’ while I was indisposed.

Work continues to not be as profitable as it could be. I’m stuck in the same situation I was last year: I’m getting put into smaller assignments with fewer hours, while less experienced and less accurate people are getting put into larger assignments with more hours.

It’s meant to be a compliment to me that I can be trusted on these smaller assignments (less supervision, more customer interaction), and not just lumped into the pool of available bodies. The downside is that working these "premium" assignments doesn’t come with any "premium" pay. It’s the same hourly rate, regardless, and (usually) no compensation for mileage.

So found myself in a situation last week where I would have had to drive 80 miles for 2 hours of work, while others were driving 50 miles for 10 hours of work. (That situation was resolved, more or less, but not without a lot of unnecessary kvetching by all parties.)

I did almost end up with 40 hours last week - a fine accomplishment, if it wasn’t for the fact that there was a not-insignificant number of people who ended up with more overtime last week than I had for all of last year.

And they wonder why I’ve been in a less than pleasant mood when I’ve been calling the office lately? I can do without the "honor" of making less money.

On to more pleasant subjects. Like the arrival of my latest grail, who I had the great pleasure of opening up last night:


(Yes, I know, the desk is mess.)

Yep, the WEG Traditional Man o’ War re-issue, one of only 48. Isn’t he beautiful? I feel extremely lucky to have gotten him at all: I just happened to hop on the Internet at just the right time. Another minute or two more, and I doubt I would have even seen him at all.

It’s a little hard to tell from my photograph, but he’s definitely a darker and richer shade of red chestnut than I’ve seen on most Traditional Man o’ Wars. A lot of them tend toward the orange or even pink, but this shade is much closer to the one they’ve been using on more recent releases like the Foundation Stallion Toreo, but without the metallic undertones.

Another difference: most of the original releases also have a mane and tail that are either slightly darker, or slightly grayer, than the body color, but the WEG MOW’s mane and tail are almost exactly the same shade as the body. It wasn’t a problem unique to him; a lot of earlier Breyer Chestnuts tended to have significantly darker mane and tails, a consequence of the company’s early inability to distinguish between Bay and Chestnut (and later between Chestnut and Red Dun, with Yellow Mount.)

The most obvious difference is the head, with the extra shading and the masked facial marking. And there’s the tag, too.

I was amazed that I got the Man o’ War for the price that I did, especially since the mold’s fortunes seem to be on the upswing lately. He’ll probably be the only WEG re-issue I’ll be owning in the near future (and possibly) distant future, however; the prices people are asking for many of the other super-limited WEG re-issues are somewhere in the ridiculous level. ($500 for the Haflinger, that’s barely distinguishable from the SR Strikey? Girlfriend, please.)

Letting Sleeping Molds Lie

This is the kind of week I’ve been having: the post I was working on for today just vanished, completely and utterly. I was typing along, making a few grammatical corrections, and then the file just disappeared. It left no evidence behind of even existing: no recovered files, work files, error messages, nothing.

Great, just awesome. As if I wasn’t already in a pretty cranky mood. It’s mostly due to work, the circumstances of which I’d rather not talk about in public. All that can be said is that I’m very much looking forward to Friday.

The horses have also been the furthest things from my mind. I did get a package on Monday that I’d like to talk about, but it won’t be until Friday before I get a chance to even open it. The anticipation is probably the only thing keeping me from randomly smashing things with my fists.

I did see, in passing, that the old Trakehner mold has a newly resculpted tail, for the upcoming Hickstead release. I haven’t had a chance to take a good look at the photos yet, much less see one in person, but I have to say that I’m feeling a little apprehensive about the whole thing.

I understand the need to freshen up molds to keep them viable, but with the Trakehner, I’m not quite seeing the point. We already have another, more modern standing Warmblood mold: the Idocus. Why try to make the Trakehner into something they already have?

I have nothing against change: my entire life has been defined by the fact that I seem to do nothing but. What’s jarring to me is the dissimilarities in the style of these more modern hairdos compared with the molds they are applied to. As someone who was trained as an art historian, I find conflicting styles within a single artwork jarring and obvious: that’s one of the things we look for. Sometimes, it’s the only thing we’ll see.

Hess’s sculpts, particularly his pieces from the mid-1970s onward, tend to be loose and impressionistic, in stark contrast to the tighter and cleaner styles that are more in fashion today. I may be committing a great heresy by even mentioning them in the same sentence, but I think the only current Breyer sculptor who comes close to capturing that impressionistic feel is Brigitte Eberl.

(Before some of you get your knickers in a knot, remember that style and quality are two completely different things.)

Anyway, like I said, I’m not quite seeing the point with this particular change in the mold. I’m a little concerned that the tail isn’t going to look like it "goes with" it, the same way the new tail for the Stock Horse Stallion doesn’t look quite right to me. I am a little too fond of the old Trakehner mold, and I don’t want to find myself reduced to obsessing over his tail.

Back to work, again.

Forgettable

I can’t believe I forgot about the Llanarth True Briton model in my discussion of potential BreyerFest Pony specials. Again! What is it about that mold that sinks it down my own personal memory hole?

(Yeah, I also forgot about the Cantering Welsh Pony and Newsworthy, but the forgetfulness doesn’t sting as much with them, somehow.)

Another pony that seems to inspire forgetfulness is the Galiceno Pony. Here she is in her original release of Bay:


It’s easy to see why she’s overlooked: like a lot of Breyer molds from the late 1970s, she’s a little on the bland and generic side (Stud Spider, anyone?) The mold itself is competently done, with a rather nicely sculpted head, but it’s definitely not one that inspires collector passion.

The mold has come in a small, but not displeasing assortment of colors over the years. In addition to the Bay, there have been two shades of Dun - a lighter shade as the 743 Criollo Pony, and a more metallic one for the BreyerFest 2004 Maracas Contest Prize - and a masked Black Leopard Appaloosa, as the portrait model for the POA Foundation Sire Black Hand. (Very well done, in my opinion.)

Then there was Freckle Doll, another one of Reeves’ more inexplicable pinto paint jobs:


I know I wasn’t the only one who opened the box, flipped her around, and then proceeded to yell out loud "That’s it - one big white splotch? Are you serious?"

I like to imagine that the Powers-That-Be must have forgotten that the mold already came in Bay, rubberstamped it for production, only realizing a day or two later the magnitude of the mistake. Which some brilliant quick thinker "solved" with a bit of acetone and a cotton ball.

I have absolutely nothing to back me up on this hypothesis, other than the wealth of other crazy-but-true stories I’ve heard that would make it seem not-implausible, at least.

The one advantage to the mold’s generic nature is that you can dress it up any way you want, and turn it into almost anything you need. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Galiceno could turn up as a BreyerFest special this year. I think she’d be rather fetching in some shade of gray, dappled or otherwise.

Betting on the Ponies

I’ve had a lot of "Where am I? What day is it?" moments this week: I’ve essentially either been at work, or asleep, since 3 a.m. Tuesday. (Don’t ask.) Mercifully, I have this evening off, though I plan on spending most of it catching a few more snores before starting it all over again at 3 a.m. tomorrow.

(Blast these early assignments!)

It appears that the Taskin model is going to be a Store Special, after all. I haven’t followed up on the links though, to confirm, so take it with a grain of salt. No confirmation on the piece count, from what I’ve seen, but I expect it to be in the 500-750 range. The most recent Store Specials were 750 pieces, but the Dusty didn’t sell all that well, so 500 pieces wouldn’t be out of the question either.

I haven’t given much time or thought to BreyerFest, otherwise. It is about that time of year when they start peppering us with the PR though, isn’t it? I’m curious to see how they handle this in the post-JAH era. Since I’ll be on this work routine for the next couple of weeks, you guys will probably get the scoop on the latest BF news well before I do.

From what I can see, most of the current BreyerFest speculation seems to be focusing on potential pony-based SRs. A Bouncer is a no-brainer, and the 2004 XMAS SR Highland Pony Piper also a very distinct possibility, especially as the designated "Nonplastic" release.

I know there’s a lot of "hatin’" concerning the Traditional Hackney mold, but I wouldn’t rule him out as a possible mixed/crossbred pony, to compensate for his chunkiness. Most of us would prefer a new plastic Hackney, it’s true, but I think it’s more likely we’ll see one as a new resin in the "Breeds of the World" series, if at all.

(Did you know that the H-R Brookside Stella was among the molds considered for release by Breyer, back in the 1970s? I’m assuming the technical challenges posed by the mold put her out of contention. But oh, if only…)

I wouldn’t object to an SR of the original old Shetland, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they didn’t. No disrespect intended towards the Shetland Pony mold, but I think we’re long overdue for a new mold Shetland, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one shows up in the very near future. BreyerFest? Maybe.

If it’s not, I’m hoping it’s a Dales Pony. There’s a chance they could take the cheap and easy route, and just slap an appropriate paint job on the Piper mold, but I’m really hoping the fact that they specifically name dropped the Dales in the BreyerFest writeup in the last issue of JAH means a new mold is in the works.

You have no idea how much this idea excites me: I don’t know what it is, but I just love Dales Ponies! They most closely approximate my image of the ideal pony: sturdy, sensible, versatile, a little on the big side, a bit shaggy (but not excessively so), who also cleans up well if need be.

If I were a nonclumsy Nonplastics collector, I’d have an entire army of Hadrians.

Getting late (relatively speaking.) Time for bed.

A Draft of Champagne

Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. My next grail search didn’t even last the weekend.

Dang, I’m gonna have to start dreaming bigger. I’m not a gambling person, at all, but the next time a friend or coworker asks me if I want to go to the casino, I’m taking them up on the offer.

(You’ll have to wait a little longer than a weekend, however, before you find out who this latest grail was. He ain’t here yet, anyway.)

In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a picture of the possible BreyerFest Store Special for this year: a champagne buckskin Goffert!

http://www.villavanners.com/welcome.htm

I say possible because the wording on the web site about it is open to interpretation:

Villa Vanners is proud to announce that Taskin has been chosen to be a limited edition Breyer model. He will be appearing at Breyerfest British Invasion next July.

He could just as easily be a Line Special, Web Special, or even a Mid-Year, based on that description.

If he really is going to be the Store Special, he’ll definitely go over better than last year’s bland little Dusty. A big, fluffy draft horse in an unusual color? Duh. If he looks as promising as he sounds, I might even get one myself.

The usual suspects are making the usual grumping and harumping noises (Gypsy Vanners are a scam! It’s not a British Breed! I hate Goffert!), but one of my New Year’s resolutions is to pay less attention to the negativity in the hobby, and in life in general. I’m not going to turn into a Pollyanna by any means, but good grief, some of the stuff I’ve been seeing in the model horse community over the past month or so is enough to make me consider joining a religious order.

(What’s up with everyone wanting to sue everyone else, all of a sudden?)

Sometimes a pretty horsie is just a pretty horsie. Nothing wrong with that.

I already made some changes to my diet and lifestyle last month, so I’m thinking about something a little more nebulous in the resolution department. I liked the discipline I developed during NaNoWriMo, so I might apply the same working regimen to other unfinished business here. (Quilting and sewing this month, I think.)

I’ll also like to take a bit of a mental breather from the horse stuff. It’s not going to affect anything here; it’s more a matter of slightly refocusing and compartmentalizing, creating a space my personal life where the horses need not intrude.

Sometimes it’s good to get away from the horses once and a while, too.