Funrise series 1 part 3

 

1st of all: I aten't dead. It's just that time has lost all meaning and I haven't felt like doing this for a bit, so this post has sat in my drafts folder for like 3/4 of a year. 

Anyhonk, on to the bays!

The DANISH WARMBLOOD

Trot trot trotting along with a cheerful yet professional smile on his face, this guy is the epitome of warmbloodness. 

Trotting models are hard to do well without sacrificing stability or animation, but somehow this one manages it - don't ask me how! Sure, his legs are a tad noodly and much of the muscling is fictional, but it's still a good trot with real movement to it. 

Mane and forelock are swept over to the right, something the paintjob completely obscures, and for some reason his ears are painted black. I'd blame the painter having an off day, but looking at others it appears to be a general thing. The body colour is unpainted reddish brown plastic with barely visible black points to the legs and white socks that accentuate his movement nicely, and a white stripe.

 

Overall, I really like this horse. The alert, head up pose makes me think of warmbloods being trotted up in hand, either at a show or being inspected before a competition. Shame about that bowed tendon, though... 

The THOROUGHBRED

Ahh, the Racehorse with a capital R. In model form usually depicted either standing majestically, as if in the winner's circle, or galloping its heart out. The Funrise sculpting/design team, knowing their limits, decided that a running pose would be both unstable and difficult to sculpt, so they decided to have him walk instead. 

I'm not sure this was their best idea.

The Funrise thoroughbred has a short neck with a hogged mane and a small head with flared nostrils and a determined look. He's lanky and leggy and seems to be moving out at a brisk walk - but those dragging toes just ruin the pose. I understand why they did it - when you want a model not to tip over, the more feet on the ground the better - but if they had just extended that front leg instead of having him look like he's about to stumble... 

I could be wrong, though. Tastes differ. And Schleich, at any rate, seems to like the pose so much they copied it for their current Thoroughbred mare. 

The LIPIZZANER

Show me a horse mad kid who didn't dream of riding a Lipizzaner and I'll show you a liar.

For a while I was thoroughly convinced that every grey warmblood at the riding school was one, at least if they did dressage. 

Surprisingly, this baroque breed is hardly ever seen in modern competitive dressage, but it excels in the more classical style as well as in harness. They're a relatively rare breed (11 800 registered horses per 2020) with a closed studbook run on the old lines, and is generally, well, a breed steeped in tradition.

One of these traditions is the naming of stallions. Or rather, the fact that stallions don't really get a name of their own. Instead they get a "family name" - the sire line (Maestoso, Siglavy, Favory, Pluto, Conversano or Neapolitano) - followed by the dam's name, so that a stallion whose parents are called Favory Europa and America would end up being called Favory America. 

In other words, my childhood decision to name mine Lipstick would probably get us thrown out of the spanish riding school 

Lipstick the Lippi is really quite a decent representation of the breed. Sculptural oddities aside, the general shape of him is perfectly cromulent. Short and compact, with an uphill build and well developed muscles, he looks like he's perfectly able to do most haute ecole movements - he just chooses not to. 

Ignore the lighting - this horse is white, white, white. Made from snow white plastic with no attempt at shading beyond the standard dark grey nostrils and hooves, he's a minimalist masterpiece!