Breyer Horse Classics: Starry Night

When you hear Starry Night, the reminder of a famous painting probably comes to mind for many people. Vincent Van Gogh’s master work is recognized by so many, and captures the heart of so many more! Now, Golden Oak Stables brings you a special classic that has a special magic all its own and is unlike any other that has come before it!

Starry Night is the fourth in a series of decorator Classic scale models and is unique as ever. As many collectors know, decorators have become some of the most collectible and beloved models in any collection, and it’s easy to see why! The first decorators were made over fifty years ago, in shades of blue, gold and even painted like wood! Since then, they’ve evolved to be any number of non realistic horse colors and designs!

Using the beloved blue decorator color, Starry Night takes a darker tone to the midnight sky with deep blue shadings that lighten subtlety as it paints across it’s body. Bright stars give a shine throughout, and glitter and star dust make way for details that are beyond compare, and as magical as the milky way galaxy itself!

Do you have room in your collection for something a little fanciful? Starry Night is the perfect way to bring that special decorator into any collection!

~Stacy

Email Stacy: Stacy@GoldenOakStables.com

Breyer Horse Activities: Fantasy Horse Painting Kit

An exciting part of the Breyer hobby is the ability to get creative and do activities with your models. Since the very beginnings of the collecting hobby, hobbyists have been customizing their models and letting their imaginations run wild!

Customizing is the terms for when a horse has been changed from the way it came from the factory. This can be done in many different ways, the most common is through painting a horse, but can be as elaborate as resculpting major parts of the horse. Customizing is very popular in the model horse hobby and nearly every collector has given repainting and resculpting a try at least once!

Golden Oak Stables has the perfect set for the new or experienced customizer, and it’s certain to spark the most fanciful of your creativity. The Fantasy Horse Painting Kit is a set of five horses that is ready and waiting for your creative touch. Four adults and one spunky foal await your fanciful plan along with six paints, a paint brush and accessories. It’s all you need to get started, or continue on your customizing journey.

With bright colors, firey horses and everything you need to complete all five horses in one kit, the Fantasy Horse Painting Kit is sure to be a hit for any collector. What do your horse fantasies look like?

~Stacy

Email Stacy: Stacy@GoldenOakStables.com

Breyer Horse Classics: Butterfly Kisses

One of the most popular type of Breyer horses are decorators, and in the fifty years since they were introduced decorators have evolved and grown into one of the most popular type of models that collectors love to collect! This year, a new decorator comes into the Breyer lineup, but the decorators are not without an interesting history!

The first decorators were produced in the late 1950’s and were painted to look like they were carved from wood. These models became affectionately known as Woodgrain models and were popular among home decorators, giving decorators their name! Many horse lovers were attracted to this style because of not only the realistic sculpting, but because they could be so easily incorporated into your home’s style. In the early 1960’s the most colorful decorators came into the Breyer world, and they aren’t without a story. Wedgewood and Copehagen blue models and Gold Charm and Filigree models both made their debut in the early 1960’s as the next incarnation of the decorator horses. The surprise came when these models failed to become popular with collectors and were quickly discontinued. Because of this, they are some of the most desirable Breyer models ever collected and are highly prized today.

By the late 1960’s the decorators had slowly waned in popularity and were quietly discontinued. The surprise came in the 1990’s when Breyer began releasing decorators again, seeing the popularity among collectors! Since then, new Woodgrains, Wedgewood, Copenhagen, Gold Charm and Filigree models have all been produced, along with a whole new world of creativity that brings decorators into the new millennium!

Butterfly Kisses comes into Golden Oak Stables with a decorator style all it’s own. Painted in a color scheme of light blue and white, this lightly shaded model is the perfect canvas for a stunning decorator model. Across the barrel of this beautiful horse, a scene of bright and colorful butterflies flitters past!

With a long and colorful past, decorators are fun to collect and beautiful to display. Do you have any decorators?

Email Stacy: Stacy@GoldenOakStables.com

Breyer Horse New Releases: Peace, Love & Horses

One thing that can be said about horses is that they bring joy to so many. The love of a horse can bring a whole wealth of happy emotions to a horse lover and now you can celebrate all of the wonderful things that horses bring to you with Golden Oak Stables.

New for 2014 Breyer brings a new lovely Classic model that is sure to bring a new twist to your collection. Peace, Love & Horses is a fun new horse that brings a twist to your collection while remembering what horses bring us, peace and love. Created on the Warmblood mare mold, Peace, Love & Horses is a decorator that is unlike no other. Collectors have dubbed Breyers with a fanciful edge to be Decorators. These models were first introduced in the 1960’s, when blue and gold Breyers were marketed as decorating pieces. Now, Breyer horses come in dozens of different colors and they don’t stop there. Breyer has created elaborate decorators that push the limits of the imagination and now collectors can add a new one to their collection!

Peace, Love & Horses is decorated with retro flowers and a peace sign that are all colored in shades of the pastel rainbow. With a bright rainbow mane and tail, rainbow shading on the face and green legs, there’s all to love in this horse. Even her hooves have been painted a stunning shade of blue! She brings the spirit of a bygone era to collectors and also reminds us of the joy and peace that horses bring us.

Collectors rejoice, a new decorator is on her way into the stable. Reminisce about Peace, Love & Horses with Golden Oak Stables and a new lovely little decorator for your stable!

Email Stacy: Stacy@GoldenOakStables.com

Breyer Horse Collecting: All About Decorators

Many collectors have heard the term “Decorator”, but do you know what it means?

Decorators have long been a part of Breyer’s history, even as far back to the earliest Breyers but the name came to popularity in the 1960’s when Breyer produced a series of blue and gold horses meant to be used ad home decoration. These colors, Wedgewood; a solid matte powder blue, Copenhagen; a glossy dappled blue, Gold Charm; a glossy solid gold and Florentine; a glossy dappled gold, would go on to become the most recognizable of all the decorators. The word decorator has gone on to mean any horse that is painted in an unrealistic pattern. The first real Decorators by that definition would be the Woodgrains which were produced from the 1950’s until the late 1960’s. Some other colors from that time period also include a glossy dappled black and a charcoal coloration. Both of these are often considered to be decorators but sometimes not.

In recent years Breyer has brought back the love of decorators. In 1991 Breyer brought back the decorator with an Arabian painted in a bronze finish which was wildly popular with collectors. Since then Breyer has produced everything you can think of! Some of the more interesting ones are clear horses of all different colors, horses painted with logos, color changing paint, and more! They have brought back the decorator in a big way for collectors and they are popular as ever! The “original” four decorator colors even make an appearance from time to time and are always met with great popularity!

This year Breyer has two decorators which not only are exciting collectors but also help in a big way! The Traditional and Stablemate Breast Cancer Awareness horses are both created out of clear plastic with a gorgeous pink tone. They each feature the iconic pink ribbon design in a whimsical and beautiful pattern. While they are beautiful as can be, the best part is that Breyer is donating a portion of the profits from each sale to the fight Breast Cancer!

Decorators old and new are exciting and fun to collect, but with Golden Oak Stables you can collect a gorgeous decorator and help fight Breast Cancer too!

~Stacy

Email Stacy: Stacy@GoldenOakStables.com

Breyer Horse New Releases: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

October brings cool air and changing foliage but it also brings awareness to one of the most prevalent diseases plaguing our country: Breast Cancer. This year Breyer has taken the call to present not one, but two models to create awareness for this life altering disease!

In America, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her life; that’s over 12% of women! Throughout the world, over 10% of all cancer cases are Breast Cancer cases making it the most common type of cancer aside from skin cancers. Sadly it is also the fifth most common cause of cancer death. In 2004 over half a million people lost their lives to this awful disease. Although this disease is far more common in women, it also effects men. About 1% of  breast cancer cases are found in men.

Survival rates range anywhere from 98% to 10% depending on what stage cancer it is an other factors. Prognosis in male cases tend to be worse than in women due to delays in diagnosis.

While mortality rates are high and there are new cases every year, strides are being made consistently as far as treatment and outcomes are becoming brighter and brighter every day. This is largely in part to large social awareness about this disease that touches just about everyone in the world at some point in their lives in some way. October has been dubbed “Breast Cancer Awareness Month” and each October brings sights of pink ribbons, the symbol of the disease and large public campaigns to help raise funds that aid research.

This year Breyer has taken the initiative to create awareness for Breast Cancer in their own special way.  The Traditional scale Breast Cancer Model is a beautiful Andalusian with a flowing mane done in a stunning clear pink plastic. Adorned throughout its body are symbols of the everliving fight against Breast Cancer: the pink ribbon. This stately horse charges strong into a fight that we all are touched by. The Stablemate Breast Cancer Model is prancing strong with the spirit of thousands of survivors behind it. It is done in a transparent pink plastic like its Traditional scale counterpart. These two models not only are wonderful symbols of Breast Cancer but they also are making a change themselves! Proceeds from each of the models will be donated directly to Breast Cancer Research. Way to go Breyer!

Golden Oak Stables has a stable full of every type of horse imaginable, now there are  horses of a different color, horses that symbolize hope and change.

~Stacy

Email Stacy: Stacy@GoldenOakStables.com

A Little Bit of Breyer Fantasy: Wind Dancers

Floating through the sky in colors of blue, orange, pink and purple, Wind Dancers are colorful little fillies and mares ready to tickle the imagination.

A relatively new series, Wind Dancers capture the imagination of many with their whimsical appearance, and their bright colorful colors made them a quick favorite. This series offered in its entirety by Golden Oak Stables is enough to capture the interest of any horse lover! The Wind Dancers are sculpted by Kathleen Moody, who is known for sculpting many of the most fanciful and favorite Breyers. Her sculptures capture the imagination by flirting on the edge of realism and fantasy. The Wind Dancers mares all feature long manes and tails as well as large gossamer wings which glisten in the sun and the fillies, while smaller in size, still have the iconic gossamer wings making them a perfect match.  These models are sized larger than Stablemates, nearly Paddock Pal Sized, sitting at about 4-5 inches tall for the adults and 2-3 inches tall for the foals, are perfectly sized for collecting or playing!

Kona is a navy blue horse with two front stockings and lighter blue wings. She is pranced up a bit and ready to take off! Sirocco is a bright orange beauty that is reared up on her back legs. She has large wings that flitter in the sun with colors of light orange, yellow and pink. Bright and pink, Brisa dances in the sun in the brightest of pinks. Her light pink mane and tail accent her wings which are accented in dark and light pinks along with a touch of blue! A beauty in grey, Sumatra is beautiful in an understated grey with a white  mane and tail. She trots her way along with teal wings that accent her understated color beautifully.

Every mare needs a foal and  The Wind Dancers Gift Set is a set of four foals, each of which match the adult Wind Dancers perfectly. These tiny foals are as colorful as their mothers and also have large translucent wings which glitter and glisten in the sun!

Breyer has also created a series of stories to complete out the Wind Dancers line. These stories tell the stories of each of the Wind Dancers and capture the imagination of the horse lover in all of us!

Young or old, Wind Dancers capture the love of horses we all have and remind us of a land of fantasy which is often easily forgotten.

~Stacy

Email Stacy: Stacy@GoldenOakStables.com

Breyer Horse Showing: Secrets of Collectibility Judging

One of my favorite divisions to both show and judge is the Collectibility division, in which the  judge ranks horses in rank of what horse is the most collectible. But what does that mean? Many people find this division not only the hardest to judge, but also the hardest to understand. What makes a horse place first and what makes a horse place sixth? Why didn’t my horse get a ribbon at all? Here’s a bit of the secrets behind Collectibility judging!

Golden Oak Stables’ shows have the most extensive novice show lists in the nation, including collectiblity classes, and for those of you who’ve attended, you know it is my favorite division! I also get the most questions on this division. “Why did I get first?”, “Why did I get last?”, “That horse looks exactly like mine, why did it win?”, “How do you know what all of these horses are?”. These are all very valid questions that many people have, and its also important to remember that all judges will judge a little differently, but here are the things that I look for.

1. Rarity/Desirability

2. Age

3. Color/Variations/Ect

4. Number Produced

Now, this list may seem a little ambiguous (and it is), but this is the running list in my head of how certain Breyers rank on my scale of Collectability. I don’t use this list all the time and I’m not going to give it to you in full (it’s far too long) but here’s a generalized version:

1. Vintage Extremely Rare Horses

2. Test Run and Very Limited Run Horses (Age indiscriminate)

3. Special Run Horses

4. Variation Vintage Horses

5. Variation Newer Horses

6. Regular Runs

This is *NOT* an absolute list; each and every horse deserves individual consideration, which it will get when I judge. There are times when a regular run horse is rarer than a hard to find vintage horse, or that a hard to find vintage horse is just not a good example of the model due to condition or just poor painting at the Breyer factory. It truly all comes down to what is on the table at the time.

An easy way to think about it is that I pick the model that is the most desirable on the table, or the one which most people want. This becomes convoluted when there are dozens of models on the table, but as a collectibility judge, I try very hard to place your rare models properly and honor them with the honor of having a good day at the show!  Keep on bringing out your rare, hard to find, special run, regular run and vintage pieces!

~Stacy

Email Stacy: Stacy@GoldenOakStables.com

Breyer Horses: Customizing All On Your Own

It can be a little intimidating to show off your own art work to the world, no matter what kind of art it is, or where you are showing it off. As model horse hobbyists we have a whole section of our hobby that caters to the large amounts of creativity that we have, through customizing. Many find it difficult to gain confidence in this through showing simply because there are so many talented creative people in the hobby, but here are a few things to remember and to look for!

Customizing is the big word that model horse hobbyists use for altering a model horse in any way. Whether it be painting, resculpting, hairing, pastelling or any other of the hundreds of different things you can do to a Breyer horse to make it your own. Many people strive to create the most realistic model possible, others create models that remind them of horses that they know in real life, and others create fantasy or decorator models. Whatever you want to create, you have a place in the hobby!

With the internet as prevalent as it is today,  Breyer horse artists have a big advantage than others may have had in the past. There are dozens of professional model horse artists’ blogs which you can read on a regular basis. These are often filled with ideas, tips, and tricks to help you with your projects. Learning from another artist is truly a wonderful way to learn the trade and a wonderful way to meet other artists! Another great thing about the internet is that there are dozens of Breyer horse forums that are available to everyone! These websites often have specific areas for hobbyists to post their creations to get either support or a friendly critique. Sometimes support is one of the hardest things to get, and the support of other hobbyists can help you gain the confidence to move forward.

If you have desire to show your creations, forums are also excellent for helping you understand what many judges look for in models, which can help you place in the ribbons. Speaking of live shows, there are shows out there that have special classes just for customizers. At Golden Oak Stables‘ shows, we hold “Owner Custom” classes which are open only to the showers which attend the shows, and their creations. These classes were very full at our spring show and we have high expectations for future shows. These classes were truly the highlight of the day. Most shows which you will find these will be novice shows or shows with an extensive custom class list. In New England we even have an Amateur Owner Club starting up specifically for these classes, so keep your eyes out!

The Breyer horse hobby is amazing for fostering creativity so keep on creating, no matter where you are in the country or the world!

~Stacy

Email Stacy: Stacy@GoldenOakStables.com

Holiday Breyer Horses: Nutcracker Prince

Its that time of the year again and the holidays are quickly approaching. Snow is begining to fall in many areas of the country and lights are strung up as far as the eye can see, but for me, its just not the holidays until my Holiday Breyers are displayed and my horse ornaments are on the tree.

This year’s holiday horse, Nutcracker Prince, is the premier of the holiday collection. He is one of my favorite holiday horses that has been offered by Breyer and is full of energy and holiday spirit. He is a light gray Arabian stallion on the iconic Huckleberry Bey mold. He is stepping high with his mane and tail flowing back behind him. His coat has a slight pearl sheen that shimmers in the light.

His costume is red and green velvet that is embroidered in gold thread featuring pieces of candy, bells and bows. His bridle is also velvet and gold cording that trails through the mane. There are feathers on top of his head in a plume and beautiful bead work. Tucked into his costume pockets are two ornaments, a nutcracker and a ballerina.

Nutcracker Prince is a standout in the history of holiday horses, he’s truly beautiful and striking. Along with Nutcracker Prince is a full line of holiday ornaments, snow globes, horses and more! Check out Golden Oak Stables to see the entire line!

My holiday Breyers have become part of my holiday traditions, my Breyer ornaments hold memories of years gone by and my horses remind me of the beauty of my collection. I can’t think of a better way to remember the holidays gone by than with my Breyer horses!

~Stacy

Email Stacy: Stacy@GoldenOakStables.com