Not everyone lives in the United States

Today I want to write about the international side of the model horse hobby. We both live in Finland, and have seen the things I'll talk about today. It sometimes seems like a lot of people living in the US thinks everyone lives there. This can be seen for example in the great model horse groups of Facebook. While Afuze doesn't use this platform, I myself am active there. And I am not going to lie, I envy the collectors living in US.

A group picture of models I took for our Finnish information page about this hobby. Some of the tack made by me, some by Afuze.

Could you, American hobbyist imagine this: no live shows, no Breyerfest, no physical stores selling Breyers. This is the reality for us living in Finland, and I believe to a lot of collectors living around the world. I can only dream of a model horse convention. Also going to a physical store to buy models is one of my big dreams that I don't see becoming true anytime soon.

Today I read a thread on Facebook about Breyerfest special runs. The original poster suggested that Breyer could sell the special runs online for people that don't attend Breyerfest. There was people telling that people who pay for Breyerfest should be the only ones allowed to get Breyerfest special runs directly from Breyers. But this is what I am talking about. To the ones saying this, Breyerfest is only about attending and the willingness to pay for it. They don't realize that some people cannot attend Breyerfest even if they wanted to.

I am one of these people. Getting to Kentucky would be way too expensive for me. Also, I would have to fly. I am terrified of flying, so even if I had the money or any of the other resources getting there would be impossible. And here I am not even discussing the moral side of flying! Flying is one of the biggest polluters on this planet, and that on it's own is a reason not to fly. If I lived in the US or Canada I would run to Breyerfest. But for me that's impossible since I live in Finland.

A Finnhorse custom by me, named Varhaiskaali (primal cabbage). Finnhorse is a Finnish breed so it seemed fitting to have a picture of Kaali here!

Reading about people's attitudes in that thread made me wonder if I am (or we are) considered less important collectors? Are we not good enough to be seen in this hobby? Just because we don't live on the same continent as others. I understand that Breyer (and other brands) are not charity, they're businesses. So it makes sense that they have to charge for shipping here more, or otherwise they can't make anything available anywhere. But I would like other collectors to not have the mentality, that the indicator of a serious collector is being able to attend Breyerfest.

Other things American collectors seem to take for granted are for example physical stores. Well, here we have one shop called Lahjakas, and while you can go to their stock to buy models, it doesn't really count as a physical store. I love this online store though, they ship really fast and have the best customer service I've come across. But children here don't usually have Breyers as toys as they're so hard to get. And this means no models in thrift stores and none in vintage stores etc. Afuze has been able to get a PAM from a thrift store, but that's it. (Afuze comments: I remember how even the experienced Finnish hobbyists were shocked when I told them how I found that model!)

I am really wanting to conga the traditional Peruvian Paso mold, but I most likely can't afford it right now. Even if I could find some of them, the shipping to Finland gets expensive. But I must start the conga when I am rich... which might take long. Some hobbyists I know buy a lot of models secondhand, but from what I know these people are adults with jobs and spare money to spend (I am twenty and a student so that probably tells enough).

One of my rarest models.

Another thing I see is different is being able to sell your work. Here we don't have a big market for model horses, their tack or anything related to them. So if you want to sell your stuff you have to sell abroad. And I don't see that many people excited to buy from Finland, and it seems like making a name takes more since you don't automatically have that many hobby friends with the same native language. I would say that also the lack of physical events like live shows makes this harder.

Speaking of friends. I don't know anyone IRL who collects! Afuze is a dear friend of mine, but we have not yet met in real life. We are definitely planning to, but live hours away from each other and neither of us have cars. This hobby feels lonely here, this is one of the reasons we started this English blog. It seems like no one reads our Finnish blogs.

I have never attended a live show. We don't have them here. So that side of the hobby is really strange and unknown to me. It seems to be a huge part of American model horse people's hobby, but here I am. It doesn't even exist to me! And it's not because I want it to be that way, so it's kind of sad.

Halter and halter rope I made for Afuze, already rehomed to her collection.

I am writing this, because I want us to be heard too. It seems that people are always surprised when I tell about my hobby and the differences between Finland and United States considering model horses. I am actually sad, that we don't have many things other people have and really dream of live shows etc. Both Afuze and I have worked to get this hobby more known here, but it's hard when people don't even have a way to find the first mentions of (about?) the hobby!