Gift Horses

When I wrote about the blue horses in my collection the other day, I forgot one.  It was an easy error to make, though, since the horse in question is not one I consider to be one of my "herd," but rather one of the unnamed horses I have scattered about my living quarters for home decor.

The blue horse, and his other brightly coloured buddies, are part of a set of horses known as the "Emperor's Horses" or "The Eight Horses of Wang Mu."  As the name suggests, there are usually eight horses in the set, each in a unique position.  They're commonly available in glazed white ceramic, but have been manufactured in a wide variety of media, including ivory, jade, terra cotta, wood, resin, cloth, and plastic.

As you can tell, mine have been through the wars.  Many of them have multiple breaks, and few have remained unscathed.  I've no idea how old they really are -- they were a gift from my cousin who got them from a friend of hers who, my cousin said, had had the horses for a long time.

I've seen others, apparently from the same set, on eBay once or twice and the sellers seem to think they're probably from the '50s or '60s, which seems about right.  If I had to guess, I'd peg them as being from the '60s, at a time when wild "far-out" colours were all the rage.

My cousin has been a real supporter of my hobby over the years and has gifted me with other horses gathered from her travels around the world.  They're all home decor items -- not the type I normally collect -- but I never look a gift horse in the mouth.  In fact, I appreciate gift horses more than I can say.

There have been a number of people in my life who have not really understood my hobby, but have gifted me with horse-shaped objects anyway.  This is unbelievably sweet of them.  I've also received gifts from hobby friends who know my preferences and have gone out of their way to find something they know I'd like.  I feel humbled by all such gifts.

Now I won't lie -- from time to time I've had to pass a gift horse on to new owners.  Like many model horse collectors, I often find space at a premium and I need to re-home horses that don't quite match my collecting obsessions in order to make space for those that do.  But that doesn't mean that I'll ever forget those gifts, or the thoughtfulness and generosity of the people who gave them.

Ours can be a difficult hobby to understand, but whether or not they "get it," when others gift us with horses they're giving us more than they know.  They're giving us joy -- not just in the horse-shaped object itself, but in our own good fortune in having such loving friends and family.

They're the true blue ones, and anyone with a lick of horse sense knows the true value of having such people in one's life.