What's in a Name?

When I first discovered the model horse hobby the term that baffled me the most was the word "model."

You see, I grew up with a brother who was model-mad: his bedroom was full of plastic airplanes, ships, and tanks that he'd painstakingly glued together, painted and decorated with decals.  Those put-together plastic kits -- from makers like Revell, Aurora, and Testors -- were "models" to me.  I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea that a pre-assembled and pre-painted plastic horse could be called a model too, particularly since I knew that Revell and Aurora had model horses among their other, more motor-oriented offerings.

Where did the term come from, I wonder?  An early advertisement for Breyer's Western Horses and Ponies refer to these animals as "authentic reproductions," "toys," and "art objects."  The horses themselves were not called Breyer model horses, but rather Breyer Animal Creations.  

 

Which of these is a model horse?

(Aurora kit photo from The Vault of Comics)

A clue to the origin of the term just might be in some of the earliest collector's catalogues and dealer price lists we have access to.  In many of them each animal pictured is given a specific "model number" and some are given more than one model number to differentiate the colour options.  At the end of the 1968 catalogue, for example, Breyer still refers to "realistic reproductions," "toys," and "art objects," but each animal individually seems to be a "model."

Then, in its 1970 catalogue, Breyer offers to connect collectors to information about "model horse clubs" and the "hobby of photo model shows" while still using the phrase "animal creations" to describe its own works.  In 1972, Breyer begins to use the term itself, promoting its books and bolo ties as being "Beyond the Model Horse," using the word "model" to refer to Misty of Chincoteague and the offerings of The Tack Room, and referring to "horse models" in the paragraphs extolling Showcase Collection.  By the time the first Just About Horses came out in 1975, Breyer was printing poetry that referred to the company as the place to buy model horses.

So what happened between 1968 and 1970-72?  Well, for one thing Marney Walerius, sometimes called the "godmother of the model horse hobby," began consulting with Breyer.  Now, we know from Marney's book and writings, as well as from the model horse show she founded -- the Model Horse Congress -- that Marney consistently referred to Breyer animal creations as "models."  Possibly she lifted the term from those earlier catalogue numbers.  Wherever she got it from, it was certainly her term.

Now, I have no real proof that it was indeed Marney who actually decided to start calling these pre-assembled, pre-painted plastic ponies "models" -- just a coincidence peeping out of some admittedly incomplete documentation.  And in the end, it doesn't really matter where the term came from -- the point is that it stuck, and most collectors now apply it to any and all of the horse-shaped objects on their shelves, whether they're plastic, resin, ceramic or fine china.  We even apply it to Revell and Aurora kit horses if we happen to collect them.

Perhaps we should remember, though, that like any other "insider" term, the term "model" is collectors' jargon and as such may need to be explained to newbies and outsiders looking in on our hobby.  It's not as obvious a descriptor of our little collectibles as one might think.  I know that if I had told my parents when I was little that I wanted to get into model horses, they might well have bought me a box of Testors paints and glue.