Do you know what a Breyer Horse is? Surely you do, but just in case you don't, a Breyer horse is a model horse made by the Breyer Horse Company and here’s a short history of Breyers and how we came to create the first of our TeamTrox Holiday Horses in 2015.
The Breyer Company has been making animal models since the 1950’s and the very first one they ever made was a horse. Since the beginning, their most popular models are based on horses and Breyer model horses are collected by people all over the world today.
In 1997, Breyer issued their first ever Holiday Horse named Snowball. Snowball was a grey version of their Haflinger model horse and had a simple red bow around his neck and four leg wraps.
When we decided to create a custom-made Holiday Horse based on a real horse, Sharon Lujan's Arabian gelding named Hero, we decided to start with the Breyer model horse called Selle Francais. Breyer's are relatively easy to find, so that was a plus! The choice of model, as well as the decorations, are based more upon symbolism than strict basis in "real life". That said, the Selle Francais model is strikingly similar to the actual Hero and we did customize the socks and blaze to reflect his markings. Our Holiday Horses are decorated primarily with pieces that have some symbolism relevant to the holidays or Hero and Sharon specifically. We use anything and everything as decorations BUT for our versions, nothing is permanently affixed to the model. Everything you see is wired or tied on the model.
The Selle Francais is the model of the French Sport horse, a registry started in France in 1958 and bred in other countries now. In order to be considered for inclusion in the official registration, each horse must pass an inspection which judge their conformation gaits and performance. Other breeds of horses, including Thoroughbreds, Arabians and French Trotters may be used for breeding and their offspring can be eligible to be registered as Selle Francais (if they pass inspection of course).
It’s interesting that Breyer chose to make the Selle Francais model in gray because it’s much more common for a Selle Francais to be chestnut or bay. It’s thought that the grey Selle Francais horses traces to the Arabians that were included when the Selle Francais registry was first created.
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