Chocolates

I was relieved that they didn’t do a Gloss Prize model of the new Fjord GVF Sjokolade at some point last year. I’ve grown quite fond of my cartoonish little Henries lately, and I had visions of completing my collection, sans the impossible-to-get 18-piece Special Run World Equestrian Games Reissue from 2010.

But now I have to deal with Truffles, this year’s Diorama Contest Prize:

He’s another "thematic" rather than realistic Special Run; according to designer Sommer Prosser (via Blab), he is/was supposed to be Silver Dapple Pinto - in other words, a "Chocolate" Truffle!

I had some reasons to believe that we’d be getting another Fjord Special Run sooner rather than later, especially after the mold’s return last year on Sjokolade.

Prior to the WEG Reissue, we hadn’t seen much of him since the original #482 Henry was discontinued in 2004. All of the other Special Runs of the mold - including the Silver Dun "Silver Wolfe" (in 2000) and the Just About Horses Gambler’s Choice Specials Naughty and Nice (in 2001) - were done during Henry’s generously long run (1996-2004).

Although mostly ignored by the hobby during his initial release, his popularity has grown in recent years. The appearance of Fjords in the insanely popular Disney film Frozen certainly hasn’t hurt the breed’s popularity either, especially among the youngest of us (chronologically, or otherwise).

And maybe influenced Reeves’s decision to promote the mold again? Especially now that they just announced a sequel to Frozen?

Breyer did have a brief dalliance with Disney, circa 1979-1981: they made a Special Run Black Percheron on the Belgian mold for the Disney theme parks. He can be distinguished from the other mail-order Black Belgians SRs by the color of his tail ribbon: Blue and White - as opposed to Red and White, or Red and Yellow. He's not super-duper rare, but he's definitely a harder-to-come-by Special, since a significant portion of them were sold to the general public first.

Just something to keep in mind. And an eye on, I suppose.

I was imagining a more conservative color for the now-not-imaginary Truffles, since the breed itself has a rather limited range of colors to choose from, about a half dozen variations of Dun: http://www.nfhr.com/catalog/index.php?colors=1

There used to be more: because of a genetic bottleneck in the late 19th/early 20th century and breed standardization, those colors have largely disappeared. At best, Truffles could be considered either an "historical" color or a crossbred.

I am more than fine with Sooty Palomino/Pale Silver Dapple Tobiano Pinto. (Or Silver Filigree!) My only complaint is that I wish they had made him a little easier to obtain. Time to go rooting around my body box for more and better ideas...