Horse Trading

Last weekend a bunch of us who live in more or less the same area (or at most a three and a half hour drive away) got together for an honest-to-goodness swap meet.

I've always wanted to do something like this.  The one year I went to Breyerfest I was afraid to attend the swap meet as I feared that it wouldn't really be about swapping but rather about selling.  I just couldn't see myself wandering from table to table with a bag of horses trying to make a deal -- especially if no one else was doing it.  So I didn't bother to bring any sales horses and while I did a lot of shopping at the room sales, I steered clear of the swap meet.

Funny thing is, this last weekend brought back memories of Breyerfest anyway.  I held the get-together at my place and after everybody there spread out their trade items my whole kitchen looked very much like a Breyerfest room sale -- minus the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds.

Everyone was making deals.  I traded away seven horses and a couple of props of various makes and sizes and ended up with a fleet of Stablemate wagons, some Stablemate accessories, a handful of Stablemate riders in English and Western garb, three Stablemate horses, one Suncatcher Paint & Play Stablemate, and one Little Bit drafter (as you can tell, I was looking for the small stuff).

My swap meet haul

There was some selling, but mostly trading, I think.  The best part was that everybody went home with something new. 

There's something about getting together with like-minded folk that just energizes you.  When you see what your fellow collectors are doing, it can inspire you to do more with your own collection.  You get to talk to people who really "get" you, and you get to talk about all the model horses you have happily cluttering up your home.  In the case of my little group, we started to make some new connections, heard about fellow collectors in the area who we might be able to reach out to, and talked about reviving a live model horse show in our area.

Buying and selling will always be part of collecting model horses, but I really enjoy horse trading because in order for a trade to be made each party has to walk away feeling like they got a good deal.  At a swap meet, you get to look over the horses on offer in person, and each party involved in a trade is saved the cost of postage.  This is quite an advantage when trading clinkies, or china horses, as shipping these comes with a boatload of stress on each side of the transaction.

If you ever get the chance to attend, or even host, a swap meet in your area, I highly recommend it.  It has many of the benefits of a live show, without the competition, and if you have the space or the time there's no reason why you can't combine it with a judging clinic, a performance showing Q & A, a painting party, or whatever else you might like to do with your model horses.

It used to be that the term "horse trading" conjured up visions of dishonest dealings and unethical business practices.  But when practiced by model horse collectors in a fun and friendly in-person atmosphere, horse trading sheds its shady history and shines forth in a whole new light.

Horse trading -- it's not for fraudsters, it's for friends.