This morning when I checked out the Breyer website's news section, I found that they have posted a special PDF newsletter.  In addition to offering a free gift ($10 value) for any qualifying Breyer purchase this month, they are also offering a $5 rebate for Idocus.

Idocus is a dressage champion, who originally hails from the Netherlands.  He and his rider, Courtney King-Dye, have in Breyer's words "become one of the most successful horse and rider pairs to represent the United States in the discipline of dressage."

Idocus is a Dutch Warmblood stallion, with an impressive pedigree.  His great grand-dam competed at the Olympic Games!  Idocus was foaled in 1990 in the Netherlands, and imported to the United States after weaning.  At the tender age of three, Idocus competed in the 100 Day Stallion Performance test, the youngest to compete that year.  There he won the title of Grand Champion, having racked up the highest jumping score of all the stallions.  Idocus has also won the titles of Dutch Warmblood International Grand Prix Dressage Stallion, and competed in three World Cups.

At the age of 11, Idocus returned to the Netherlands to be certified by the KWPN Society for breeding.  While there, his owner decided to keep him in training.  As a result, he competed in the 2004 Olympic games in Athens with the Dutch team.  He returned to the United States in 2005, and earned the highest award in 2007 at 17 in the World Cup Finals in Las Vegas.

The Dutch warmblood of today is the product of a number of warmblood breeds, including the Holsteiner, Hanoverian, and two native Dutch breeds the Gelderlanders and the Groningen.  Dutch Warmblood breeding is tightly regulated by the registry, which demands that approved mares and stallions meet not only physical criteria of looks, but also temperamental criteria.  In the words of the Wikipedia entry, Dutch Warmbloods are designed to be "uncomplicated to handle and ride."

The stringent requirements of the registry are somewhat unusual, but have resulted in a mild-mannered horse with a lot of physical potential, and very little in the way of hereditary complaints.  In the past ten years, Dutch Warmbloods have taken over the fields of dressage and show jumping, and Idocus is an excellent example of this.

Idocus officially retired from dressage to stand at stud in 2009, at the ripe old age of 19.  

(A Dutch Warmblood is also featured in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.  The Rohan horse Brego is played by a Dutch Warmblood stallion named Uraeus.  In the extended version of The Two Towers, Aragorn quiets Brego by whispering to him in Elvish.  Aragorn then tells Eowyn, "Turn this fellow free.  He has seen enough of war."  

When Aragorn is later injured by orcs on his way to Helm's Deep, Brego is the horse who rescues him from where he has washed up on the river bank.  Brego lies down beside him so that Aragorn can grab his mane and climb onto his back.)

The Idocus model was designed by Susan Carlton Sifton, and first released in 2009.