Heads Up, Hands Down

My elementary school library stocked a good variety of what were to become some of my favourite horse books -- a lot of Marguerite Henry works, the whole Black Stallion series, and a bunch of C.W. Anderson books ranging from the early reader Billy and Blaze series to more adult-oriented works like A Touch of Greatness and Heads Up - Heels Down.

Heads Up - Heels Down was supposed to be a factual, informative, guide to horse care, but for a city kid with no chance at all of ever owning her own horse (I knew that -- I'd already asked my parents hundreds of times) it was a work of pure wish-fulfillment fantasy.  Over the years, most of the knowledge of horsemanship I gleaned from the book has passed out of my memory, but the title has always stuck with me.  And of course the title itself is a riding tip: keep your head up and your heels down.

"Hands Down" and Friends

I was powerfully reminded of this book when Breyer decided to call their Breyerfest Stablemate horse and jockey "Hands Down" in 2018.  I don't think they meant it to refer to riding advice, however.  Although many horseback disciplines do emphasize quiet hands held low on the horse's neck, race riding is not one of those.  Jockeys may start a race with their hands on their mount's mane, but once they're in the fray and fighting for a place you often see them with their hands high on their horses necks, "scrubbing" away for all they're worth in a effort to push their horses forward.

Instead, a lot of the names Breyer came up with for the horses released for Breyerfest 2018 refer to the bettors' or watchers' experience of a race -- "Dead Heat," "Straight Bet," "Win, Place, or Show," "All Out," "In the Running," "Dark Horse," "By a Nose," "Home Straight," "Winners Circle" and "Hands Down" -- like a succession of Dick Francis novels (for the record only Dead Heat is an actual Dick Francis title).

When I first saw "Hands Down" previewed before Breyerfest 2018, I was amazed to see that it seemed to stand perfectly well on its own.  I have three other horse ornaments in that mold -- "Citation," "Native Dancer," and "Zenyatta," and it never occurred to me to try any of them on their own feet.

"Zenyatta" and "Native Dancer" on their toes.

To be honest, my "Hands Down" is a little bit tippy, but he will stand and so will all the others on this mold.  Quite a revelation for someone who's been a fan of the race horse ornaments for a long, long time.

All of my Breyer race horse ornaments are included in my collection database, but since they are not intended to ever be show horses I don't give them proper names.  Instead, I call them by whatever is written on their saddle blankets, so my first three in this mold are "Citation Six," "Native Dancer Four," and "Zenyatta Eight."  Following this trend, "Hands Down" has now been named "Breyerfest Eighteen" -- the first model horse I've owned that actually has "Breyer" in its name.

Four of a kind

It may not bring back memories of my old school days, but with a name like that, at least I'll never forget where he came from.