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The 9" pearl white Arabian and the blue ribbon were my prizes that year. The previous year, I had won the same class, and received the 9" metallic blue saddlebred (shown hiding behind the white Arabian.)
I never did very well in the Breyer Collector's Class, and was never brave enough to bring any of my chinas out to a live show. Breyers were extremely popular and well-known, and many showers entered the collector's classes-and usually they had lots of better quality Breyers than I did!
I knew I had to specialize in something different in order to have a chance at winning a class. Besides, I like something a bit different than the ordinary! I picked Hartlands because they were much cheaper than Breyers at the time (collectors were willing to practically give them away, as they weren't very popular), the original Hartlands from the 1950's and 1960's were painted very well (some in very stunning colours), and the new Hartland Collectables by Paola Groeber were being released. I found that Paola's Hartlands were superior in quality and finish to Breyer models of the time, and I really enjoyed collecting them.
Shortly after this photo was taken, Paola stopped producing the Hartland Collectables and the moulds, then owned by Stevens Manufacturing, were being produced with inferior quality paint jobs and sometimes in inferior quality plastic. I stopped collecting anything except the original 50's and 60's Hartlands.
Recently, the Hartland moulds were purchased by another company, and are now being produced as "Hartland Collectibles" (no relation to Paola's old company from the late 80's.)
For some reason, I'm not as keen on the new Hartlands, even though they are doing a much better job with quality and finish than Stevens did. I ordered one of the new models, and wasn't extremely pleased with it, so I haven't ordered any more.
Besides, I have discovered that the wonderful world of Julips can actually be experienced here in the United States, and they are exactly the sort of model horse that I like to collect! Loads of personality and character, and lots of fun accessories to play with!