I keep an eye out on the retailer specific Breyer models, because these tend to be the ones which slip quietly from the market without anyone noticing (or collecting them).  I recently went looking for some JCPenney Breyer models which seem to be all gone, but I found an interesting trio of horses on sale there, marked down to $59.99 from $99.99.  Not a bad deal at all!

The JCPenney website describes these as "Gaited Horse Trio" but strangely enough I was not able to find these three horses listed anywhere on the Breyer site, either on the Traditional list or in the Special Runs section.  However, I know that Breyer makes a lot of retailer models without necessarily listing them on their website - for example, I have not yet seen Pottery Barn Strapless show up there.  (Breyer doesn't seem to be very good about keeping their website up to date in general…)

I also was not able to find these as a trio anywhere on the Identify Your Breyer website.  And just to make things more complicated, the picture on the JCPenney website was at a funny angle that made it hard to see the models' poses!

I found myself yet again going picture by picture through the Identify Your Breyer Traditional page.  (That website is such an amazing resource!  I would be lost without it!)

The three models being offered for sale at JCPenney as "Gaited Horse Family" are listed on the Identify Your Breyer site as "Breyer Horse Trio."  The models included are:

1.    Bluegrass Bandit, sculpted by Kathleen Moody and Sommer Prosser, originally released in 2008.  Bluegrass Bandit is a dapple gray Tennessee Walking Horse mare who was voted "Trail Pleasure Horse of the Year" by Tennessee Walking Horse magazine, and was nationally ranked as the #1 Tennessee Walking Horse in the year based on show scorings.  This version of Bluegrass Bandit is painted in a lovely bay.

2.    Missouri Fox Trotter, another Kathleen Moody design originally released in 1997.  This model is best known as Iron Metal Chief, a popular model which was also sold as a special edition through JCPenney in 1997, complete with a horse blanket and certificate.  (This model had the funny little ribbon over its ear, which I always thought was a bit peculiar.  Something about the hang of that ribbon struck a false note for me, but it's a lovely model otherwise.)

3.    Saddlebred Weanling, the oldest of the three models, sculpted by Marvin Morrin and originally released in 1973.  (!)  This model has also had the most number of reincarnations, even appearing for a while as a rocking horse complete with a snaffle bit, saddle, and red flocking.  (!!!)

I always found it amusing when Breyer horses are packaged into "families" like this.  Mother, father, and baby; the nuclear horse family in action!  Of course, that isn't the way horses live - horses practice polygamy, with one stallion siring babies across a whole collection of mares.  But I guess "Polygamous Gaited Horse Family" would be a little more difficult to market.