You can’t ride them, but you also don’t have to feed them, muck out or pay veterinary bills for them.
Yet there’s much more to the popularity of Breyer horses than simply ease of ownership. Their sheer variety and beauty stimulates the imagination to rides of fantasy, a way to channel love of horses when the real deal isn’t available.
The annual festival for these models is Breyerfest, which ended its three-day run yesterday at the Kentucky Horse Park, where 35,000 people made a pilgrimage to participate. There were another 26,000 visitors on line , with more than 65,000 site visits. Visitors consumer more than 26,000 hours of content, which included many live equine performances.
Jessie Hayes on Avatar’s Jazzman and Lauren Chumley on Nikolas. (Photo courtesy of Breyer)
They included a pas de deux to German techno pop music by Lauren Chumley on the buckskin German riding pony Nikolas, the “Celebration” horse for the German-themed festival, and Lauren’s assistant, Jessie Hayes on Avatar’s Jazzman, the Morgan who was the model for previous Breyer issue. (Read more about Nikolas and Jazzman in the second feature at the bottom of the page on this website. Here is a link.)
Hundreds of people lined up to buy the model of Nikolas, released at Breyerfest. Their interest in a collectible is justified by the record price, $65,000, that a model of Glossy Dun Silver Pegasus brought at auction during the event.
The $65,000 Pegasus. (Photo courtesy of Breyer)
So while a Breyer may be a toy, or something for the mantelpiece, someday you may also be able to think of it as an investment if it’s in good condition. (Hint: Keep the box.)