VBreyerFest Loot pix, round one

I believe that praise is an effective management tool, much more so than scolding or emphasizing what went wrong.  It is in praise of Breyer, then, that I post this; not, (I hope) in the spirit of showing off my conspicuous consumption, which alas I am all too prone to.  My own husband has shown, time and again, that praise works much better than blaming.  Thank you, Breyer:  You take my breath away.

Look what they sent me!  And this is only the first round.  With what heart I can muster, I am amazed, astonished, surprised and pleased.  When the days of decontam finally counted down and when I finally felt able to open packages (believe it or not, these are separate things), I was exalted to find my very own race number bib for the 5K!!  It's not a model horse, but for very personal reasons, this meant as much to me as anything I've ever gotten from BreyerFest.

This is only Round One, of I don't know how many rounds.  Herewith my Ballynoe, still in his box (I have not decided whether to keep him; I have two others of this mold).  A second softsided package arrived within a day or two of him, which I deduced had to contain my race t-shirt.  For those who don't know, BreyerFest's 5K is normally a charity event.  When they couldn't hold it as usual and were suddenly saddled with unexpected costs, race entrants were given a chance to purchase their t-shirts separately.  I am so glad I did!  The t-shirt is thick and soft, not as thin as past 5K t-shirts, well made and certainly a beautiful color.  The finisher's neck sash, with its cute medal, was shipped automatically to all race entrants: an act of faith on Breyer's part.

The photo does not show it, but that red kilt in the center of the medal can rotate a little, twisting back and forth.  It's movable!  It's mounted on a pin in the center.  Way to go, kilter!!

Oh by the way::  My race results were officially accepted, and I placed third in my age group!!!

This is the first time I've placed, (or should I say, 'shown' :), in any race.

Thank you, Breyer.

I am including two other horses in this round because they were my earliest purchases for this year's BreyerFest.  The Stablemate came first.  He was discovered in the early weeks of the Not Going To BreyerFest Clarion FaceBook group, April and May.  (I collect palomino SMs.)  I already had a palomino QH Stallion, but that was a much later release; this one was an original issue of the Maureen Love SMs (1975-1988).  He was expensive (says I who thinks anything over $10 for a SM is expensive).  After I committed to buying him, thus trying out a virtual version of what had always taken place in the rooms before, I felt stung a little, and retreated.  I think now I retreated too far.  I was low on funds for various reasons, but I should have had faith.

The foal, Chico from Mamacita, was one I'd wanted for years.  I didn't have the mold.  I struggled to choose between this golden dun/baby bay and his darker red-bay issue.  I thought he'd make a perfect foal for my racing Akhal Tekes (he will be Altynai's/Talisman's son).  Glory be, I found him in the Clarion too.  The slow process of bargaining and buying him introduced me, as it should, to a younger generation and a new way of communicating.  Info and learning went both ways.  I learned tracking numbers could be scanned & sent on FB Messenger and she learned what p + h stood for.   Thank you Zoey:  I love him!

I'll say here that scrounging through those Albums under Photos, deep in the FB group, was my closest approach to hall-crawling and room sales.  When I finally figured out how to search effectively (the secret was to search twice, once to bring up "No Results Found" and once to choose between Sales Posts and All Posts [CHOOSE ALL POSTS!!], which could not be reached otherwise!), I had a blast.  Much of my BreyerFest time went to this.

It has been a very slow-motion BreyerFest for me.  It has been much reduced in scale.  I find myself returning to profound gratefulness and deepened meaning for the few items I have been able to bring home.  This concept, possibly quarantine-enhanced, was the norm during my hobby mail-order years (1976-1997).  It is a familiar place for me, and that familiarity is wonderful in a world changing all too swiftly.

There are more horses coming.  I was successful in my VBreyerFest shopping, largely because I didn't want anything from their Store!  I experienced the unfortunately-classic Deny-Refresh trial with my Tent Ticket on Friday afternoon; but the situation resolved within 3 hours and I bought my Boudicca.  She will be, incidentally, the mother of this foal. 

There are other horses coming besides her.  Trading is alive and well.  I have a dealer for a local friend, surely a bonus and yet another thing to be grateful for.  BFest may have been slow this year but it concluded with a rush!  Last and best, I'm back to making tack again.  But you'll have to wait for Sneak Peeks of that.  Rome wasn't built in a day, etc...  :)

One last sunlit shot (that's my shadow), and a pun from the punner in my house.  I showed him the 5K neck sash.  He hefted the medal, surprised at its weight, and said,

"Heavy metal band!!"