Model Horse History at BreyerFest 2018, Foreword

As promised in my social media posts, I'm going to share some observations on finding Model Horse History at the annual BreyerFest event at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky.  BreyerFest is mostly about new model horses and the real horses that relate to the breeds represented by by the plastic horse figurines.  But there's plenty of model horse history at BreyerFest too, if you know where to look.

My favorite BreyerFest story is something I observed outside the International Museum of the Horse on the Horse Park grounds. Two little girls and their parents were walking towards the entrance; one girl was holding a boxed Breyer Secretariat (designed by Sue Sifton). I engaged the family in conversation and the girl explained to me that he was her Favorite, Favorite Horse. 

I could see why.  And I was impressed that someone under the age of 10 knew about the significance of Secretariat.  (Breyer produced a different, standing model as Secretariat years ago, but this one captures the spirit of "Big Red" better, in my opinion.)

So I commented to them that the statue they were closest to, was of Secretariat himself, and that a gentleman named Ed Bogucki had designed it. 

The little girls screamed with delight and ran over to the statue while their dad took their photo.  I stood a little way off, and took a picture of their special moment, too. (You can see Dad behind the shrub, to the right of the statue.)

Over the next few days, I hope to share some of the stories of model horse history I found at BreyerFest over the last three years.  Stay tuned!