Pre Holiday New Additions

I love the holiday season; it's my favorite time of year. I start feeling it in October, and then after Halloween, I am in full-on Thanksgiving and Christmas mode.

Over the years, Breyer has become a part of my holiday fun. It used to be I would look through the JC Penneys, Sears, and Montgomery Wards toy catalogs, looking at the special run Breyers and circling the ones I wanted. Then it became holiday horses and advent calendars. 

Now, it's holiday blind bags, Christmas blankets to order, the annual Pony for Christmas that I always add to my collection, and finally waiting for the Christmas Day surprise. 

Wednesday, Breyer announced the Short and Sweet blind bags. Ordered! Already here and waiting to be opened is the Twelve Days of Breyer advent calendar (I am carefully avoiding any reveals; so far so good. I want to be surprised when I open those doors.)

All these things add to the fun of the holidays for me and let me express my horseyness along with my Christmassy side. But other things are being released by Breyer, too.

Killington & his mini me, Little Killington, the winter decorator, for example.

My set arrived earlier than tracking said it would; no complaints from me.

Killington is on the Fighting Stallion mold, one of Breyer's oldest, most iconic molds, and a favorite of mine.

Overall, mine looks very nice. I really like silver filigree and the mold looks good in it.

There is a discoloration on his off hind foot, but it's minor and not enough to bother me or to cause me to return Killington and ask for a replacement.

Little Killington is awesome, too.

The mold was resized beautifully with the hooves in proportion to his body, just as they are on the Traditional sized Fighting Stallion. (One of my biggest dislikes about the new Stablemate molds is how so many of them have hooves that are too big for them proportionately.)

Thanks to Shannon Rodgers, I came home from the Happy Trails V/Dan Patch Fun Show with her bobblehead Dan Patch!

As she was packing up, she brought him over and handed him to me, saying he was a gift. 

What a nice thing to do! I've put him up on a top shelf with my Hartland and Breyer clocks. Thank you, Shannon! (That painting of Abby behind the clocks was also a gift from Shannon - she painted that and gave it to me at an earlier Happy Trails show.)

The Happy TrailsV/Dan Patch Fun Show signing horse is now on my shelf, too.

As I looked at all the autographs, I realized that my sister, Leslie, had forgotten to sign him. She's gonna show up here on Thanksgiving Day and discover that there's no food for her until she signs him! LOL

When the show finished, Kelsey asked if I had time to meet her for dinner this week. Craig was going to be in Indy on Tuesday, so we arranged to meet at Mountain Jacks that night.

Kelsey and me at Indy Blooms. I love how her shirt reflects the theme of the show!

Mountain Jacks has the best prime rib in town. There was so much food, I took home a box of leftovers and invited Craig to eat when he got home. He took me up on that offer, but there was still prime rib and green beans left for me to have for lunch the next day!

Kelsey surprised me with some gifts - a postcard of Black Jack in John F. Kennedy's funeral procession. I have the Breyer resin Black Jack model and Kelsey knew that. 

My Black Jack won the Breyer Resin/China class at the Clover Classic in 2023. I have no plans to show him again - I have no wish to risk breakage.

Kelsey had been in Europe on vacation in October and visited the Spanish Riding School in Austria.

To my surprise, she brought me back some souvenirs! (Yep, I'm saving the bag, too!)

A horseshoe nail taped to a card with the school's logo on it.

And, a Stablemate sized china rearing horse with the school's name on it!

Wow! What thoughtful gifts!

There is some sort of maker's mark on the base but I don't know what it means.

It was hard to photograph, too. I am sure it was put there intentionally, but what it says is a mystery. (If you recognize this maker's mark, please put it in the comments!)

The nail and the china horse are both on display with my picture of Abby and me that Trinity enhanced with silver thread.

Horse-wise, this holiday season is off to a good start!

Happy Trails V/Dan Patch: Show & Memorabilia Pics

First, for those who wondered, "There and Back Again," was a reference to The Hobbit. The full title of J. R. R. Tolkien's book is,  The Hobbit, or There and Back Again.

Now, onto those show photos! I'm breaking them into two blog posts - show photos and Dan Patch memorabilia, and then the toilet paper races.  Today we are looking at the first two.

Show Photos

Because this was a small show, I was in charge of everything. And that meant I did not take nearly as many photos as I'd have liked. I'm grateful to Kelsey Kramer, Kammie Fenwick, and Shannon Rodgers who lent me their pictures and said I could put them on social media. 

Kammie Fenwick and her husband Patrick came up from the Indianapolis area. (It is always fun to see your own work in use - I made the two pony pads on Kammie's table!)

Liisa Etrita from Illinois. She came with Shannon Rodgers, who is also from Illinois. (I see my work on her table, too.)

Kammie in the blue hoodie, Michelle Evans (Indianapolis), and Shannon Rodgers. Michelle is looking at the Dan Patch memorabilia that Shannon has in her collection and brought to show us all.

See those round metal disks on the floor? They are lids from tin cans. As Brooke explained when speaking to us, they were used to repair divots and holes in the floor. Because the wooden floor slats are tongue and groove, they can't just be pulled up and replaced. So, in the 19th and 20th centuries when the building was in heavy use as a department store, the solution was to nail various tin can lids over the holes or damage.

An ingenious solution and a cool part of the building's history.

Shannon's table - she also brought stickers and candy for us all!

Some of the models up for the Halterish Fun Classes championship and reserve. It may have been a fun, non-NAN card show, but the competition was top notch.

Michelle Evans on the left talking to Kelsey Kramer (partially hidden, and from Lafayette) and me, sorting out some ribbons.

Caught admiring! This may have been the only entry in the class, but it was lovely. I took a moment to just sit there and enjoy looking at a beautiful model.

Feeling a little sheepish that I was snapped while admiring it.

It actually took Reserve Champion of its division. It was really a nice piece. (That's the raffle in the background and it did very well. Even at only $1 a ticket, $311 was donated to Brooke and Tom for more building work expenses.)

Kammie and Michelle checking out their models' placings. This was a fun class for the mare most likely to catch Dan Patch's eye. That's Pat Reed (Indianapolis) you can barely see behind Michelle.

I was pleased to see the photo booth get a lot of use. Kelsey is photographing her winning model in the fun class for highest knees.

Like I said, the competition (and as a result, the judging) was tough. So many beautiful models. There were many times when the top three or four ribbon winners could have won the class!

This Dan Patch model was a bobble head and was in several classes throughout the day.

He was named the champion of the Funish Halter division.

Dan Patch Memorabilia

Brooke and Tom brought their own Dan Patch memorabilia downstairs for us to see. It ran the gamut when it comes to ephemera. I think there are plans to have a small permanent display of Dan Patch artifacts in the building in the future.

I love this tray. If I ever find one, I think I'd hang it on my wall.

A display case with assorted memorabilia. I never had a chance to ask what was in the box in the middle of the top shelf that had spilled out when it was brought downstairs.

Books, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and more.

A 1957 Messner family wall calendar! That's on my "search eBay" list right now.

Several modern things that Liisa bought in the shop across the square. (I want to wander that shop the next time I am in Oxford.)

Some of the items that Shannon brought to show us. See those Dan Patch bridle rosettes? 

More of Shannon's things. The teeny tiny standardbred with sulky (foreground) most likely is a charm for a charm bracelet. (Also added to my search eBay list.)

Not knowing that Shannon had some bridle rosettes, I brought mine to share.

That wraps up the first part of the show report. Not everyone there is in these photographs, but I did get them all in the toilet paper races. Tomorrow we will watch those unfold unroll.

Stay 'tooned!

Off I Go!

It's show day! And I am ready to go and even had a spare hour to write.

Setting up the show hall on Thursday meant I could relax Friday. It also means that this morning I am not frantically doing last minute preparations. I don't think I have ever been so relaxed before a show.

The dogs know that something is up and are watching me carefully. But Craig will be home with them all day and so they won't be too lonely.

The Dan Messner building is decorated for Fall and looking better and better every time I see it. Brooke and Tom are working really hard - yesterday Tom took me into parts of the building that haven't yet been restored and the difference is jaw dropping.

I gasped audibly when I saw these original windows - they will also be restored to their former glory. The tin on the walls and ceilings will be restored, too.

Brooke and Tom did not charge me anything for the use of the building. So, to thank them for their generosity, all the money from the raffle and any donations are going straight to them. I really do support their cause in saving, preserving, and restoring the Dan Messner building.

More about the show tomorrow, so stay 'tooned!