Collection Spotlight: Chestnut Stagecoach Surprise

 Happy Horse Fest! I'm writing this from Kentucky, after a long couple of days at NAN. This'll post while I'm at NAN Day Three, but I wanted to get in the BreyerFest spirit a little bit, so today we're looking at my chestnut Stagecoach Surprise from 2023. 

Hamilton was a mold I was dreading as the surprise, as I do quite like him and mostly conga him. He's not a high priority in the way the minis are, but I knew whenever he was the surprise I'd have to spend years tracking them down (and I've only added one since 2023 -  I traded one of my extra buckskin tobiano glossies for the sabino glossy. I've just had other pony budget priorities!) 

I think in part one of the reasons why I've been slow at accumulating the Stagecoach Surprises is because of how the order of the surprise molds fell. 2022 was the year of the Cleveland Bay, and I ran myself ragged trying to get as many of them as I could before leaving Kentucky, and I had zero desire to repeat that a second year in a row as I do value my own sanity.

The Stagecoach Surprise came in four realistic colorways split across matte and glossy finishes, with a decorator as well. The matte chestnut was a run of 1,125, and he is gorgeously shaded. I think I'd like to get one of the glossy chestnuts next! 

Now, 2023 was the one and only year I've participated in the Sunday Second Chance line at BreyerFest. It was a combination of a few factors - there wasn't one in 2022, so people didn't know if it would be returning for the post-COVID BreyerFests (and therefore no one was lining up for hours ahead of time), my friend Amanda and I didn't have any commitments Sunday afternoon, and another friend who was volunteering had a sightline to the Special Run line sent me a text that the sale was happening. Amanda and I were close to the line and decided, well, why not? 

I ended up going through the Second Chance line probably three times that day - once for me, once for Amanda since she had her dog with her and opted to take a break in the shade and babysit the bags, and once for my friend on her volunteering shift. I believe I pulled this guy directly from the Second Chance line that day. 

And it turned out that he was exactly the same red shade as a Vizsla. as confirmed by this comparison photo. I therefore named him after said dog, with the very original name of "Riker Horse" - because he looks like Riker, but is horse. (He was also definitely licked by Riker that day - a good blessing for sure!)

In a funny turn of events, he ended up on the table with Amanda's Second Chance sale Stagecoach Surprise at the River City Classic earlier this year. Amanda's is also named for Riker - his show name is Let Sleeping Dogs Lie because Riker slept on the bag while I was making laps of the special run line. We were thrilled when Amanda's horse went section champ in collectability, and mine went section champ in breed. 

And as a little bonus for my NAN show results next week...somebody did well this week!