Breyer Horses that’s what! For those who don’t know, Breyer horses are model horses used for play and imagination! There are thousands of different designs and breeds and a model for each one. Traditional Breyers (made to represent horses) measured to 12 x 9 in and Classics (made to represent ponies) measure to 9 x 6 in. There are even smaller ones for little kids and babies to play with, also made with a softer plastic so they don’t break as easy.

Breyer’s made a start in 1950 as an ornament on top of a clock! The real business started when people wanted just the horse, not the clock. They started to make more and Breyer has been making model horses ever since. Their first horse was a western horse (#57 western horse), very rare and not at all easy to find even though they sold thousands. I have only seen one picture of it, the one that they keep in a museum. Factory mistakes are rarely made too; I have only seen one in my life of collecting. They called him “Bloaty” because the horse was blown up to look like a balloon!

Breyer Fest is one thing I look forward to every year. It is a large event held at Kentucky Horse Park just for these pretty ponies! There is a whole 3 days dedicated to them. I will go into more detail in another article but let's just say this is the time of the year that the collectors all look forward to. These collector horses come with accessories too! They make saddles for them, cloth and leather, both with real metal or plastic/rubber stirrups and string girths. Blankets too! Winter ones with fluff on the edge and show slicks that are all shiny with show names stitched into them. You can find wooden tack boxes for them too, along with little plastic brushes, hoof picks, hoof oil, curry combs, and leg wraps! You can also get bridles and jumping boots, bell boots and trailer boots! And trust me there is so much more I can't even name them all. And you can get everything custom made too! It's not only Breyer that sells these things. People spend hours a day making things for different Breyer models, and they spend their life selling and making them.

Now what’s a horse without a rider? Most horses that a Breyer collector starts out with come with some kind of kit and those kits can include a rider! They are all different but hard to maintain in my opinion because when you take them out and use them their hair can go stray and tangled and you can never get it back to the way it was. Their clothes will get lost and boots will be chewed and their helmets will be crushed. So I would just stick with the horses/ponies and pretend there is a rider on there at times. Barns are another thing too. People like to buy many barns at once (along with fences, tack, etc) and make a whole farm! My sister still wants to make a super realistic Breyer farm and I hope that goes well because they are so much fun to look at because you can make almost anything with these horses and what you can get to go with them! I know that Breyer now sells little dog sets (like agility courses and just a house set with a dog bowl, leash, dog house, and of course the dog) along with sets with cats, ducks, goats, cows and more! There are also different companies that sell scale plastic animals that will go great with the farms too.

I don’t really know what else to say but all this is sure worth writing. I am in a family of 6 right now and we all love looking at the Breyers around our house. My grandparents love to go to Breyer Fest with us every year too. It's just great to know there is something I can do with horses outside the farm. Even when I'm sick and can't leave my room I know there is something horse related I can do that won't get me hurt or more sick. Horses are my life and I am glad to be with them any way that I can.