Hairballs

In my last blog post about horses with customizable manes and tails, I focused exclusively on horses with plastic manes and tails.  But there are other model horses, the "real hair" mane and tail horses, with 'dos that are designed to be brushed, styled, clipped, braided, or curled as the owner sees fit.

For the most part, North American model horse collectors shun these sorts of models as simple toys with no real collectible value.  The term "Barbie horse" is often used as a sort of denigrating catch-all for everything from My Little Ponies to Grand Champions to Breyer's Dapples and Pony Gals.

Sunny's Mom: One of the first offerings in Breyer's Dapples line

In this way we are considerably different from our European counterparts who have a real soft spot for horsey hairballs.  In England, for example, Breyers were not readily available for many years and so the British focused on collecting such hairy beasts as the Julips and Magpie models that were marketed in their area.  Even today we have Helen Moore handcrafting Equorum horses for the European collector, and there's a feeding frenzy each time Donna Chaney releases a new horse in her RubberNedz line, which pays tribute to the Julips and Magpies of the past.

While "real hair" (usually mohair) manes and tails have played a huge role in non-factory or hobbyist customizations, they still play a relative small part in factory model output, unless that factory deals only or primarily in haired models (such as Grand Champions and Paradise Horses).  I can't think off-hand of any Hartlands, Stones, or even Marx horses that came with hair manes and tails.

The case of Breyer's haired models is interesting, though.  While the fantasy-coloured flockies and oddballs of the past like Kipper may have been aimed at a youth market, others like the flocked draft horses and the Classics horse and carriage sets were aimed at the higher end collector.  Today, the split is between the kids' horses (Wind Dancers, Pony Gals, and portions of the Spirit: Riding Free collection) and crafters (with horses like the My Dream Horse Customizing kit, the new Horse Painting kit, and the Spirit Paint kit.

A Spirit Paint Kit horse painted and trimmed

While most model horses are notorious dust magnets, the situation becomes even worse when the beast is haired and/or flocked as hair can't really be dusted -- it has to be groomed, and over-grooming can contribute to hair loss.  Tangles and knots can happen almost as easily as they do in real life, and maintaining a 'do will always be a struggle.  This is one reason why so few "real hair" horses fare well on the secondary market -- messy tresses are usually the norm among the hairy host.

All that being said, a nicely curated collection of Grand Champions or even Barbie horses can make an impressive display.  The secret is in taming those manes and tails and keeping them clean -- and that's a neat trick.