The latest issue of Breyer's newsletter Just About Horses (or "JAH" as it's more commonly owned) is circulating, along with information about Breyerfest 2010.  This year's Breyerfest has a "Hollywood" theme, including the models chosen to be spotlighted (spotlitten?) during the event.

The Breyerfest model which is seeing the biggest buzz is the American Saddlebred horse All Glory.  All Glory is a spectacular horse in his own right.  The bay gelding has won several competitions including Amateur Roadster Under Saddle Class and the Ladies Amateur Roadster to Bike at the World's Championship Horse Show Winners.

However, overshadowing All Glory's own glory is the teensy little fact that he won the former ribbon while being driven by William Shatner, and the second ribbon being ridden by his wife Elizabeth Shatner.  All Glory is in fact owned by the Shatners, out of their Belle Reve ranch in Kentucky where they have been raising American Saddlebred horses since Shatner's early days.

Rumor has it that only Elizabeth Shatner will be present at Breyerfest to sign autographs, but fans can hope, can't they?  

Shatner has also ridden Saddlebred horses several times in Star Trek.  This includes the movie Star Trek: Generations where he rode one of his own Saddlebreds during his scenes with Patrick Stewart in the Nexus.  For some reason I have in mind that Tango, the horse used to tempt former captain Christopher Pike into staying in the illusion created by the Talosians, was also a Saddlebred; possibly one owned by Shatner, who owned horses before he donned the Starfleet tunic.  I can't find any information to corroborate that, though, so you might have to chalk it up to the words of one ancient old Trekkie.

This is a bay horse made from the Rejoice mold, which was sculpted by Sommer Prosser in 1998.  The Rejoice mold has also been used in the Family Saddlebred Trio, which we talked about recently.  And in fact this model (as Rejoice) was chosen as the Breyerfest Celebration Model in the year of its release.

(Confusingly, from what I can gather online, All Glory is a gelding - while the Rejoice mold is a mare.  Will Breyer be sticking boy parts onto the Rejoice mold for the All Glory release?  Or will they just leave it as is?  I mean, let's face it, there's very little going on "down there" to distinguish a male mold from a female one.  It's just funny all around, if you ask me!)

The American Saddlebred is best known as one of the few "gaited" breeds.  The classic Saddlbred has five gaits: the typical walk, trot, and canter, plus two extra gaits, the rack and slow-gait.  These gaits are known as "ambling gaits," similar to other rapid four-beat gaits like the Icelandic pony's tolt.

Both the rack and the slow gait are "four beat" gaits, where each hoof lands separately.  The slow gait is about the speed of a trot, while the rack is nearly the speed of a gallop.  Both gaits are renowned for their smoothness, the classic test being for the rider to ride with a glass of water balanced atop their traditional top hat.

Edited To Add: A better, more accurate discussion of the difference between All Glory, Rejoice, Saddlebreds, Standardbreds, and National Show Horses can be found in this new article "Rejoice/All Glory Breed Confusion"