My First Breyer Story

I've told this story many times and many ways before, but I don't think I've told the full story here, yet.  Almost every model horse collector I know has some version of this story -- it's even become a feature on Breyer's Collector Club website called "My Collector Story."  It's the story of "how I got my first Breyer."

My story is a little bit different than most as I didn't get my first Breyer until I was already a young adult, despite being vaguely aware of Breyers since my pre-teen years.  I first encountered Breyers in a full-colour advertisement gracing the back pages of Horse Of Course! magazine, subtitled "The Magazine for People Who Like Horses."  The advertisement (like this one) featured stages in the production of the Breyer Fighting Stallion, line-drawn, and ended with a vision of a small "conga line" or shelf full of proudly rearing stallions.  For me, it was love at first sight.

I'd chosen the magazine from those in the rack at our local Greyhound bus depot to occupy me during a bus trip.  I can no longer remember where I was going that day, or why.  I just remember that once I got back home I could never find any issues of Horse Of Course! in any of our local drug stores.  It seemed like the newsagent at the bus depot was the only place to go to get a copy, and that was simply not a place my family and I ever went to except to either take or meet a Greyhound bus.

However, I soon became aware of Breyers in another out-of-the-way corner of my world -- in a hobby shop in a large mall practically at the other end of the city from where I lived.  My mother and I used to go there in December, as it was one of the best places to go Christmas shopping, and not long after the Horse Of Course! incident I found, tucked away in a corner of an otherwise dull hobby shop, a few actual Breyer horses.  This was in the picture box era, so all the horses themselves were hidden from the eye -- I had only their printed images to look upon.

At this stage in my life I had already read every horse book Marguerite Henry had written to date, so I was amazed to see models of Misty, Justin Morgan, and Brighty pictured on the boxes.  But I immediately got the wrong idea about Breyer from this:  because they had models of at least three of Henry's equine heroes, I assumed they had made models of them all.  Given how expensive the horses seemed to me then, I resolved to wait until I could somehow either purchase or get someone to buy me a model of Black Gold -- hero of my favourite Marguerite Henry book of all time (yes, I've always loved sad stories).

Little did I know that Breyer had not, in fact, produced a regular run model of Black Gold at that date, and would not until 2007.  We have no Montgomery Wards in Canada, so even if I had known about the idea of special runs I wouldn't have been able to order myself a Black Gold model in 1985, and by that time the hobby shop had closed its doors and I had simply gone on with my Breyer-less life.

My first collectors' manual

Until the summer of 1987.  I was doing some apartment-sitting for my sister that summer, and my route to and from work every day took me right past our large municipal public library.  One day I glanced inside and noticed a display of model horses in the front lobby. As soon as I could find the time, I went inside to check it out.

I don't remember now whether there were original finish (OF) Breyers in the display or not.  I do know that there was a customized horse there (what we then called an R/R/H for "repainted, repositioned, and haired") and a couple of issues of Breyer's Just About Horses magazine, one of them opened to a "how-to" page on customizing.  Now, I already knew by then that I had no artistic talent, but I liked attending classes and I thought perhaps the display was meant to promote a "how-to" model horse customizing class.  The woman who had set up the display had placed her business card throughout, so I jotted down the number and gave her a call.

It was a bit confusing at first.  The woman was not teaching a class -- she was a collector and a shower and had set up the display in order to publicize the hobby.  However, she knew where to get Breyers and could give me the names of people I could contact to find out more about the hobby in general and customizers in particular.  She suggested I come take a look at her collection to see what the hobby was all about.

I went, and saw, and because I did so I now have sympathy for every non-hobbyist who views a collection for the first time and doesn't know what to make of it.  That was sort of like me.  However, there were some bits and pieces I did recognize -- the woman actually had a very impressive collection of OF Breyers in addition to a handful of R/R/H pieces, and she had some Beswicks as well.  I had Beswicks, and I knew what Breyers were, and I was charmed by the idea of acquiring a large collection of them.  I might not have the talent or daring to undertake customization, but I could certainly collect.  I'd been a collector of one thing or another all of my life.

My first hobby guides: one by an American and one by a Canadian

I went away armed with a wealth of information.  I had addresses to write to for a sales catalog and to subscribe to Just About Horses.  I had addresses to write to for homemade guides to model horse showing, like Kathleen Maestas's "Basic Guide to Showing Model Horses."  And I had an address for a Canadian model horse registry and bi-monthly newsletter.

The picture that sold me on Silky Sullivan (note that Man O' War and Terrang are misidentified in the picture)

The address I was given for a sales catalog was the address for Bentley Sales Company in Des Plaines, Illinois.  They sent me a 1987 box brochure, and with it I decided to start off small.  I chose one of the Classic thoroughbreds as my very first Breyer.  I liked the Classic scale since it more or less matched the scale of the Beswicks I already had.

My first Breyer and the box he came in.

The horse I finally landed on was #603, Silky Sullivan.  At the time, I wasn't aware of his racing record.  I knew all about Man O' War and Ruffian, and had heard of Swaps and Kelso.  Silky Sullivan and Terrang were the only two I knew nothing about, but something about Silky's head-turned stance made him look slightly friendlier to me, so Silky it was.  In due time, he arrived, packed in a kind of updated version of the picture boxes of my past -- a kind of packaging that was just entering the waning stage as Breyer began making the move to plain yellow display and picture boxes for individual horses and gift sets around this time.

I named my Silky "Rum-Runner" at first, but when I went to enter him into the Canadian registry there was already another Rum-Runner in there and so he became, in time, "Rum-Runner Red."  He attended all of my first live show experiences, and although he was never a champion for me, he remains my first Breyer and my sentimental favourite.

Before there was Silky, there was virtually nothing -- just four Beswicks and a box of old Marx horses.  After Silky -- well, just as his box suggests, my collecting would "put on a burst of speed, passing the field so fast that the others seemed to be running in slow motion."