About the Bloggers!

I promise I'll find something more interesting to write about in the future (I mean, BreyerFest AND Equilocity are next week, so there's bound to be some stories to tell.), but I figured I'd get a jump-start on this blogging thing with a post about just who we are and what we do. We're not just in the game to be a faceless model horse retailer-slash-hobby blog. Where's the fun in that?

Emma and Alex - Just doing our thing!

Well, this is Emma speaking. Currently I'm a high school graduate (almost college student), and I've been riding horses for around eleven years. Eleven years of Pony Club experience, six years with multiple 4H groups, and I've been collecting those pesky plastic ponies for probably around nine years. Right now, I'm a C1-Certified former USPC member and Manes & Tails Model Horse 4H Club is my go-to group-- teaching kids about the model horse hobby is one priority out of many.

As for my horses (the real ones), there's Alex:

My (four-legged) partner in crime.

Thirteen-one-and-one-half hands tall, part Welsh Pony, part American Saddlebred - all Alex. He's been the light of my life for a whole decade, and we've made an incredible team. I couldn't ask for a better pony, no matter how short he is.

Then there's Jenna:

I've been told I need to smile more over fences.

My taller "luxury" model, this Donnerkeil Trakehner baby has her share of problems, but I love her anyway. Despite her asthma (which we've more or less managed to conquer), she has an extreme willingness to work and a personality to die for. We've gone everywhere from five minutes down the road to the Kentucky Horse Park together, and Jenna seems to love her job.

Now, a little bit from my mom's side of things.

She really loves donkeys.

My mom has always loved horses, even when she was a kid. But until I started riding, she never really had the chance to be around them as much as she liked. A few years after we bought Alex, she bought her own horse-- Lilly.

Lilly is blind as a bat, but she can still find her way home.

Though we've both had our horses for years, the model horse showing deal didn't start until I attended my first show once upon a time back when our area had a NAN-Qualifying show called "Equifest". The horse that my mother claimed was my "ugliest" took a second and got one of those little green cards that are now so often sought after by collectors. I thought it was an amazingly weird experience, and just like that, I was hooked.

We started doing shows in our hometown in 2009 and have progressed since then, adding more and more classes, two separate age divisions, and even having a "Triple Crown" for our kids. Manes & Tails Model Horse 4H Club didn't start until earlier this year, but we had decided it was time kids in our area learned to show their models properly without missing out on the real horse aspect behind the scenes. 

One of my favorite pieces - a Windstone Editions Hippocampus

Model horses have taken us just as many places as the real ones have: Kentucky for BreyerFest (every year since 2010), Wisconsin, Lower Michigan, and even Florida. Now that we're retailers for Breyer and my own custom horses, we hope that this trend continues.

Both of us hope that you enjoy the blog and everything that's to come. We're excited to share with you all that we that's model horse related, including BreyerFest and Equilocity next week, upcoming customs, performance scenes, prop making projects, repairs, model horse show pictures, new horse releases, and more!

Stay tuned. Our next stop is Lexington, Kentucky!

~Emma