Apparently I was destined to have this one...

I'm not a big believer in fate or destiny or whatever you'd call it, but sometimes things happen that just seem meant to be!

A few months back I was idly browsing MH$P looking for vintage customs. I don't really collect Trads these days as they take up far too much space and I prefer to concentrate on my Julips, but there's something about the often naive charm of older customs that really appeals to me - not least because many of them are mohaired, which is one of my favourite methods of customisation.

Anyway, one such vintage caught my eye - a Breyer 'Smoky' etched to an extremely loud sabino/overo (at least I think that's what you'd call it anyway) by Judy/Judith Miller. I love wild sabinos and etchies, so he immediately spoke to me. He'd had a broken tail but that didn't bother me that much because most of my models are just kept on display and rarely shown. He was cheap too, considering how much work had gone into him and I was seriously tempted. He was still available, so while I was trying to decide whether I should go for him or not, I googled the artist, hoping to see more pictures of her work. Unfortunately, the first thing to come up was a completed eBay auction of that very same horse...which had just sold.

 

I shot the seller an email just in case and to my dismay I discovered that they'd just forgotten to take down the MH$P ad and he was indeed no longer available.

Obviously there was nothing that could be done, so I carried on with life, occasionally wondering where he was now, until one day last month I was on MH$P once again and...wait, was that? Yes!

He was back up for sale, presumably by whomever bought him on ebay, and the best part?

The ad was listed on my birthday. Obviously the fates wanted me to have this horse!

This time I had no hesitations and hastily emailed the seller until I got word back that he was mine! :D

Over the next couple of weeks I checked the tracking number like a hawk as it travelled from Arizona to Los Angeles and from there, to London, then the rather vague 'United Kingdom' for a week while it seemed to bounce from sorting office to sorting office. A couple of days ago however, the tracking page changed to 'delivered' and I had a horrible panic as nothing had arrived at the house, and our neighbours hadn't been given it by mistake. Googling the issue made me even more worried as it seemed like the sort of problem that resulted from scammers and dodgy post office workers claiming things had been delivered when they'd taken them for themselves! I was going to call up the sorting office down the road and check, but thought I'd ask my regular postie when she was doing her rounds later that day. Luckily she confirmed that it had been delivered to the sorting office, and was waiting for me to pay the customs ransom fees!

Rather than pay online and wait another few days to be posted, my dad picked it up for me on the way home from work, so I finally got my hands on this gorgeous pony yesterday. His tail fell off as soon as I unwrapped him but I was prepared for that so I repaired it with superglue/bicarb.

The weather at the moment is not conducive to good model photography and I don't really have any backgrounds in trad scale so the photos are a bit crap but never mind.

As a novice etcher myself, I'm totally in awe of the work that went into this - literally every part of him has been etched and it all follows the hair patterns!

His eyes have been painted, and have such life to them! His teeth are the best though, so detailed!

 Rather unusually for me, I made him a bridle as soon as I'd fixed his tail! I had a curb bit knocking around and some really nice leather lace, though nnoyingly I didn't have enough for a throatlatch, but you often get western bridles without them so I think it works. I've still to make tack for either of my Copperfoxes yet this chap got something instantly? Spoilt brat. XD

 

I know the mould has its issues and isn't really what most people are looking for in a show horse, but I love his personality, and really want to make him a saddle to go with his bridle then spruce up my tiny collection of trad scale riders and take him out somewhere for a photoshoot.

I'm going to have fun doing scenes with him I reckon - he's such a drama queen. XD

With the right tack and scene-setting he could turn his hoof to barrel racing...

a clearly temporary barrel!

...jumping...

...or general misbehaving!

I've finally got round to watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (which is amazing btw, so many feels!) and obviously had it on the brain when he came, so he's now known as EA The Alchemist. I'll probably show him as a mustang, if that brand can be ignored.

This next one was the last photo I took - as you can see in the photo! - as he decided to fling himself off the wall and re-break his tail. It's box rest from now on I think!