BCS Winter Photo Challenge

I had a hard time going to sleep last night, and my brain was galloping off in all directions with ideas for this challenge.  Having read 8 others' entries, I found myself seriously inspired.  Normally I don't do contests like this.  Apparently a combination of winter blahs and an all-inclusive welcome from my favorite blogger has done the trick.  Thank you, Jennifer.

1. VINTAGE
The above photo was taken in the basement of the house I grew up in, located in Boulder, Colorado.  Note the date on the side:  February, 1972.  That's forty-three (43) years ago, kiddos...   Of the twenty-seven models in the photo, four of them are actually still present in my collection:  the charcoal Fighting Stallion and these three:

Others have had themselves replaced, (such as the buffalo, Shag), but these are truly original: King the leader (not much imagination in names back then, I admit), Ponderosa the old blue shaman, and Tesoro the king's son.  King is so old he's a fatneck (a condition caused by insufficient airholes in the cooling model, seen in the early 70s [I bought him in 1971]) and so is Tesoro.

2.  NEKKID

Again, not much imagination... though I draw your attention to the 1-6th scale behemoth on the extreme left, the one with a bosal hung over his ear...

3.  SCALE ISSUES
Ratios?!  Proportions?!  I read this word as indicating something else entirely: 

Got scales??!!
This is the offside serape from TSII #409, a silver parade saddle I made in 1999.

The solid-silver panels, even the hip drops and bridle, are done in fish scales.  The round beads on the drops were intended to suggest rising bubbles...

4.  I SEE SPOTS

Although this one was easy, choosing which picture of him was not.  This is Rinker, who's had his own blog posts:  Chestnut No Longer   I have to confess he is still unfinished.  Ah, hope springs eternal...

5.  UNBRIDLED PASSION
I chose to focus on the word Passion for this one.  It's a bit of a stretch, but...

 The stallion, Coonti [Stone Foundation Horse 'Celebration'] is in fact unbridled...  That's Mahoosic the etched Roxy he's marrying.  Both these horses appear in the "Nekkid" picture, upper right.

6.  RARE BREED
What could be rarer than a breed you made up??

 "Old Worldie"
Old Worldies was a name I came up with for the blue and the gold ones, descendants of the mighty Rainbow stallion, Decorator.
Looking back on it, I suspect Breyer's use of European city names (Copenhagen, Florence) may have had something to do with it. 

7.  PORTRAIT
Another poser!!  since none of my resincasts or remakes are actual portrait models.  And then it hit me.

This picture is originally from one of the High Noon Western Americana auctions.
And here's TSII #448.

Sold at auction during the 2008 North American Nationals.  Colette Robertson got it, if you want to know.

8.  CONGA

This one also has its own blog post. 
Buffalo Conga

9.  THE GREAT OUTDOORS
While I have a lot of photos of outdoor subjects, one in particular stuck in mind.  I dug it up and tried to clean up the color, but this is really old.  What you have here is Unpublished and Never-Before-Seen:  Rubyhooringa (commonly known as Phar Lap) headed for the beach at Dog Island, Florida, 1986.

10  BEST OF SHOW

Rikki Tavi, shown at Didi Hornberger's Intermediaire, October 2012.  This, too, has its own blog post.  Rikki Tavi's Prizes   To tie things together, Coonti and Mahoosic were being married at the same show.

Obviously my love of outdoor shots has taken over, making up for the ones I couldn't find this afternoon while preparing for this post.  But we're supposed to limit ourselves to one shot per prompt.
Again thanks to Jennifer:  it was fun.