Lot of Loot, Late

 I came back from BreyeFest with every horse I'd intended to get, a few more Stablemates than I'd intended, a surprise puzzle, some fantastic tack and the typical 5K race swag.  I also picked up some books that somehow did not get photographed.  Really this was a restrained BFest for me.  I did not fall in love with a model horse, which is kind of unusual.  But I did achieve my goal of visiting with friends, as many as possible, under difficult circumstances.  I did talk Heather into selling me her smashingly beautiful braided bridle.  I scored well in the race.  And -- most important of all -- I didn't get sick.

Stein enamel pin

A few months ago, I was wanting Stein quite a bit.  He is so gorgeous.  The grulla color is a lovely nick with that mold.  Not every color is great on every mold; but this was a marriage made in heaven.  Yet by the time I made my SR choices, I'd changed my mind.  I already had Fireheart.  I was taking him to BFest with me to console, distract and reassure.  No more space and not much money did I have to spare for a horse I already had the mold of.  I needed Astrid/Rapunzel as a new mold (with harness potential!); I loved her warm color and thought the new mane was charming.  (Yes, that is Sergeant Reckless's blanket.  It fitted!)  I needed Elbe, a Western pony type.  I no longer needed Stein, and when I saw his price climb to $400, I quietly indulged in a little JOMO.

On Saturday of BreyerFest I wandered into the KHP gift store, a place I rarely go.

Ostensibly I was looking for enamel pins, or for a horse to catch my eye.  In fact I was practicing being in a store that wasn't the grocery store.  Over pandemic I had unearthed and greatly beefed up my jigsaw puzzle habit.  Imagine my delight upon discovering several puzzles in the gift store!  I passed up on the 500pc Breyer one... I already had so many little images of Breyers in so many other venues in my life; and I've become seriously picky about my puzzles.  For one thing they have to be 1000 pieces or greater!  Lo and behold, a lovely painting of racers leaning around the curve grabbed my attention.  This puzzle was by a local company I'd never heard of, Depot Street.  Perfect!  Jigsaws, like boats, can be outstanding when manufactured by small, specialized companies.

In the gift store I also plumped for one of the Unicorn Foal Surprises.  This is impossible to understand unless you know that I collect palomino Stablemates.  Boy do I collect them!!  It's a larger collection than the enamels, but hasn't been going on so long.  How they do tend to sneak in!  (Now where on earth did that black foal get his color from?) 

I wound up taking home 4 palomino Stablemates, the gold-&-black dapple Prince Charming unicorn, and Wittelsbach, the blue-&-white Bavarian-flag Arabian.  Perhaps the prevalence of SMs is indicative of the restraint I was operating under, both physical and psychological. They seemed the appropriate scale:  they are small and easy to get.  The Magnolia Unicorn is a partial repaint by dear Jennifer Pomerance.    The Wittelsbach represents the results of my first real hall-crawl (an activity I had been much afraid of, so was gradually working up to).  The other SMs were targets of opportunity:  The Tennessee Walking Horse (bonus points if you discover I already have one) is actually the 2009 Gold Charm.  Believe it or not, this is my first Gold Charm ever.  See the end of this post for photos of my palomino SM collection.

Early on Tuesday I located Jaapi (Jody Powers) and purchased a fistful of halters.  I had honestly forgotten that she would have made halters for the 2 missing years.  I was particularly pleased with this year's cockaded halter.

 What an original idea:  Real feathers in the colors of the German flag!  Thank you Jody for a relieving and inspiring conversation.

The pony pocket was also a target of opportunity.  I wound up buying two new pockets, one for my cell phone, which then turned out to be a duplication of the size I already had. 

As far as tack goes, on Thursday I scored big by making it to Paola Groeber's room, acting on a rumor I'd heard.  (BFest is like that.)  Despite already having a goodly number of Kathleen Bond saddles, this opportunity was irresistible to me.  I bought two more.  Not only saddles but piles of matching breastcollars, back cinches and -- oh joy! -- saddlebags, were mine to pick over.  This was history.  I tried to get parts in patterns I didn't already have.

Kathleen Bond saddle

You can tell I took these with my cell phone.

Kathleen Bond saddle and accoutrements

Something small but amazing came out of those swift minutes hunched over Paola's bed.  I found a Light Breed Show Halter that I wanted.  Paola had made it herself; --- I had not known she made tack.  I love the browband concho.  Of course, this horse is not a Hartland --!!  But the size was right for what I had with me that day, a Stone Pony.  (This is the pearlblue version of Judge Judy if you want to know.)

July 16, Saturday, at the Park, saw my greatest loot pile.  ("The mighty hunter returns.")  This awesome display consists of both my SRs and those I was picking up for a VIP friend back home in PA.  My stuff is the lefthand third; you can see the puzzle and Unicorns box together.

My favorite loot for this extraordinary year is undoubtedly Heather Moreton's beautiful braided bridle.  This fabulous piece was acquired Tuesday afternoon, during my first real friend visit at BFest.  We had arranged to meet in a hotel room other than the Clarion.  It was here I practiced being indoors in the presence of a friend without a mask.  That was such a relief.  We did what we usually do:  talk tack, show off tack, and make tack!  Thank heavens, this fascination is undimmed.

I would not know until I'd returned home and undertaken a 5-day home quarantine whether or not my gambles with Covid were correct.  As it turned out, they were.  I won this time.  I passed with flying colors;  without symptoms, I didn't even have to test.  Here's hoping for a much better next year.

Now that you've read this far, here are the Stablemate collection pictures I promised.  These were taken before I left for KY.

Honestly, I sometimes think I should enter a Collector's Class.  Alas, I'm short on foals.

I could really carry on about metallics in palomino SMs...

As if I didn't have enough to blog about, this post is inspiring me to do one on People and Places of BreyerFest this year.  Stay tuned!   

... and thanks for your patience.