Why only one is not enough

This is for all those people who question my need to buy more horses so often and despite how I 'already have so many'. These people never seem to hear it when I say that there in America are collectors, who have HUNDREDS of traditional scale models, shelves full. I have only... 50? That is not much!

These three were bought from a fellow Finnish collector.

So, why only one horse is not enough?

Well, let me explain.

One thing I want to point out is scale. Model horses come in many scales, and I quite like to know what the difference between them is by experience. There was a time I didn't know how small stablemates are, and had to ask it. I still remember the description: "lightly hand-wrappable" alias so small that you can almost close the horse into your hand. 

The palomino and the pinto came from my American friend, LittleYoungOne, the dark bay andalusian (who's barely visible) and warmblood came from Kave (who painted both). Behind the palomino is my NaMoPaiMo model Torsti, as you can't see.

Different brands. Sculptors and styles vary, and every horse is different. Every brand is different, and often brands don't share sculptors with each other. 

Got this mare similarly as most of my collection, but she's a pretty model and therefore worth photographing and sharing.

Breyers are better than Schleich. I have a rather massive collection of Schleich, most of them from the early 2000's to the mid 2010's. There was a time I enjoyed Schleich and genuinely liked to buy new ones. Then the quality went down, and at the same time I already may have known what Breyers were like. Now Breyers give me the same enthusiasm what I felt about Schleichs years ago. It is what it is - I could never have only one or a few, I want a lot!

I make tack. It could be boring to do a ton of stuff and only for one size. With both real and model horses, one size does not fit all. I could not make tack for my friends if I had only one horse. I like the fact that now I can compare different models to make sure the tack is accurately measured. There is a lot of variation even among 'equally large' horses like warmbloods. Oh, there's so much variety in that box!

I made this halter to fit specifically the exact mold it is on; though the horse it's going for is in someone else's collection. (The horse is not scratched - just dusty!)

I am materialistic. I don't understand why people are so scared of materialism, or think it's a bad thing. Having stuff around makes me happy, even better if I can see it! Model horse hobby is one of the most perfect forms to let it storm around. For me, it has always been an option, because I don't know how to organize (or keep things organized all the time), and as a traditional artist I've already gained a massive amount of art supplies and have zero space for it. It's completely natural... But basically I can just honestly say that hoarding hobby stuff makes me happy.

This is partially to the materialism part: I like to have several pieces of something matchy, for example models of a certain scale or brand. In fact, I need to have it so, no less. One or two is not a collection, but a ten is. I don't even know why I feel it like this, but as long as I have too few of something, I don't bond with it properly enough. 

Everything in this photo came from my American friend LittleYoungOne. The skeleton got named Silli (Silly Silli), and he's one of the funniest things I found from that package. He may be a potential studio mascot.

Modelverse. I know, you're already so fed up with this topic, but I can't stop. It's my life. I cannot see a world for a certain scale if I don't own enough models in it. But the big thing is, that I must have all the horses I have. And more. I have so many ideas and plans, so few horses (and dolls) to make them real with.

Back before late 2016 I had only three traditionals: my PAM (who was unnamed for too long), an unfinished Blue Box QH and a wrecked flockie. All of these were in standing position and therefore I had very limited options for scenes. I know that some people actually prefer standing models over anything else, but I think these alone are just boring. I want that famous variety I already mentioned in the beginning of the article. 

Sense of community. By gaining a large and growing herd of different brands, scales, colors and breeds I also may get a better feel that I'm in a community. I'm a sideviewer most of the time anyway, so this could be at least the one thing I can relate to others with.

So to put it simple, this hobby could be basically impossible and really odd if only one could be a thing. People with tens or hundreds - let alone thousands - of plastic (or rubber, flocked, carved, china, porcelain) horses cannot be wrong. In a randomie's opinion my collection of Breyers may be overgrown and waste of space. (I occasionally get those "you could make a lot of money by selling these at some point" type of comments.) They just don't know what are like the collections of people who have for example collected much longer than me; those people may also have used way more money on their models than I with mine... 

I made this horse. And tack. And the doll.

So, anyway. I keep spying what to buy the next time.