Embracing the Fantasy

As you may have figured out by now, I was in my twenties before I "discovered" the world of model horse collecting.  Before I bought my first Breyers I had had toy horses and china horses, but I had never thought of either of those as collections.

However I did, as a teen, go through a "unicorn phase" during which I accumulated as many unicorn collectibles as I could get my hands on.

Unicorns were not as ubiquitous then as they are now, and collecting unicorns involved plenty of searching in obscure shops -- often those devoted to artsy and occult memorabilia.

However, the scarcity of unicorns then added to the thrill of the hunt, and before I abandoned my unicorn collection I had amassed a good variety of unicorn figurines in brass, pewter, glass, and clay, and a very respectable collection of books about unicorns.  To this day I know all sorts of obscure unicorn lore -- I know the difference between a Chinese unicorn (a kilin) and a Persian unicorn (a karkadann), why the unicorn is sometimes depicted with elephant feet, and what the various properties of a unicorn horn were believed to be.

I've kept the books, but over time I've lost or sold most of the figurines -- all I have left from that collection are the Hagen-Renaker (HR) unicorn baby and a handcrafted clay unicorn by Canadian potter Susan Meindl.  I also own the Breyer Little Bits unicorn, but I didn't acquire that one until I got into model horse collecting well after the unicorn phase.

A few of the fantasy critters in my collection.

With the sole exception of that Little Bit, when I first got into model horse collecting, I initially avoided fantasy equines and horses in fantasy colours.  Remember, I was originally focused on model horse showing, and in those days there were no classes for fantasy critters.  To this day, I think such models must be difficult to show and judge -- what could possibly be the breed standards for imaginary creatures after all?  I can't help but think that fantasy equine classes are mostly classes based on artistic impression and personal taste, but having never tried to judge one I cannot say for sure.

Now that I'm purely a collector and not a shower, my anti-fantasy stance has shifted considerably.  Unicorns and pterippi (or pegasii) are welcome once again on my shelves, and I'd probably make room for a hippocampus too if I found one that I liked.  I'm also warming up to decorator colours and even patterns on horses.  Still not a big fan or using horses as murals though:  I've never much liked the pictures on the Hallowe'en horses, or the little scenes on the sides of horses like Breyer's Romance and Tally Ho, but I've gone from being anti-clearware to pro-clearware in a very short time, so you never know what's possible.

All things being equal, I'd still probably put a realistic-coloured horse on my shelves before I put a fantasy horse there, but at least now the fantasy horses have their place.  These days I'm all about inclusivity and all horse-shaped objects may apply.