Big Shoes to Fill

Well, Breyer has sent out the "buy now" notices for Georg, the final sculpture for the 2019 Premier Club (if you don't count the bonus Stablemate).  While I wait for my Georg to arrive, I thought I might spend a little bit of time looking back over my complicated relationship with draft, or dray, or draught, or cold-blooded model horses.

By and large, I try not to collect drafters.  Initially this was because I didn't find them versatile enough for my show string.  Although there are people out there doing amazing things with drafters, they are mostly shown in hand and in harness, and I didn't have either the harnesses or the carts to show them properly.

But collecting-wise, I also objected to drafters because of the amount of precious shelf real estate they command.  With the earlier Breyer drafts, like the Clydesdales, the Belgian, the Shire -- and even with Roy and Cedarfarm Wixom -- the problem was more their girth than their length.  But with the newer long-tailed horses like Othello, Brishen, and the long-tail version of Shannondell, they're taking up space from front to back as well as from side to side.

So drafters don't tend to stay too long around here.  Over time I've both purchased and sold the Circus Extravaganza set, the American Cream Draft, the Belgian Brabant, the Classic Shire, and the Stablemate G2 Clydesdale from Breyer, Stone's Standing Belgian, Trotting Christmas Shire, and Chips Clydesdale, the Hagen-Renaker miniature Clydesdale Horse and Clydesdale Foal, the Loza Clancy Drafter, an LJ Round Robin resin, and a Shafford Japan Belgian.

"Wiccan" my SR True Black English Shire

But it's not like I don't have any drafters in my collection -- it's just that the majority of them are tiny ones.  I have one oversize drafter from the White Horse Ceramics hobby mold and one more or less Traditional size Royal Doulton Cantering Shire (done on the Beswick mold).  At the moment, I only have three Breyer Traditional drafters -- the SR True Black Shire, an SR black Clydesdale Foal, and one regular Clydesdale Foal customized as "Fair Isle Flossie."  Every other drafter I own is classic size or smaller, from the Hartland Budweiser Clydesdale down to the Micros from Breyer and/or Creata.

"Vin Noir" my Creata Micro Mini Percheron Foal

I'm not exactly sure why I'm keeping the old bell-bottom Breyer Shire.  She's blobby and bland, but steady and solid as a doorstop, which is probably her main attraction.  In addition, she makes a good mother for my black Clydesdale Foal, and I'm a little reluctant to break up the pair.  The Clydesdale Foal is, to date, my favourite of all the Breyer Traditional drafters, and it's probably no coincidence that s/he is also the one with the smallest footprint.

"Zack" my SR Clydesdale Foal masquerading as a Shire foal

I won't deny that I like the look of both Wixom and Shannondell, but I've never liked either of them enough to want to make shelf room for them.  Stone's new Heavy Draft Mare a.k.a. "Bunny," sculpted by Stacey Tumlinson, is also very appealing, but her price point currently is not.  I wouldn't write any of them off completely -- there's always the chance that I could win a coupon for one (as I did with my Stone OOAK appaloosa), or manage a trade for one that really takes my fancy.

But for now, all my hopes are centered on the "gentle giant" coming this way -- Georg.  I'm curious to see how the production run stands up to the prototype (the production run looks much lighter in the one photo I've seen) and I'm hoping that, like Hamilton, he will somehow contrive to win my heart.  Drafters have a hard time staying in my stable.  If Gorgeous Georg is going to stay, he'll have some pretty big shoes to fill.