Breyer was all set to reveal its new portrait model of the famous jumper Sapphire on May 22nd.  Endearingly enough, the big reveal was done during an ice cream social, at the Old Salem Farm Spring Horse Show.  So now that the official reveal was almost a month ago, where's the model?

I suspect that the Sapphire mold might have been scuttled, or at least significantly delayed, by recent events with the real Sapphire, who was bounced from the FEI World Cup Finals in Geneva for having been treated with performance enhancing cruelty.  Official veterinarians received a tip that led them to scrutinize her for "hypersensitivity."  Sapphire was disqualified on April 16th - presumably too late for Breyer to react by rescheduling or pulling its plans for the Sapphire model.

Hypersensitivity can occur when a horse's legs have been intentionally hurt or damaged.  Say someone rubs some burning cream on your shins - if you had to go hop over a barrier, you'd be darned sure to hop high, so that you didn't bang your shins on it!  Unscrupulous show jumpers will treat their horse's forelegs with an irritant, to "encourage" their horses to jump even higher. 

Sapphire's rider, McLain Ward, is no stranger to scandal.  Ten years ago, his father received a jail sentence for "arranging to have four horses killed as part of a widespread insurance scam."  You can hardly blame the son for the sins of the father, of course.

But what are we to make of the 1999 charges against McLain Ward for basically the same charges as he faces today.  FEI judges ruled that Ward abused his horse Beneton by putting sharp plastic chips in the horse's shin boot.  Although Ward has maintained his innocence in the matter, he was disqualified from the show, and suspended from competition for eight months by the FEI.

And here we are again, with McLain Ward facing charges of intentionally inflicting pain upon his horses in order to improve their performance.

Although there is no direct relationship between the FEI World Equestrian Games (which are being held in Kentucky later this year, and are heavily sponsored and promoted by Breyer) and the FEI World Cup (which is what Sapphire was disqualified from), both events are managed by the same governing body, the FEI.  The Federation Equestre Internationale is clearly not a big fan of McLain Ward!  And although I have not been able to find out whether Ward has been banned from participating in the Equestrian Games, nor if he originally planned to participate, I can imagine the FEI having put pressure on Breyer to muffle its release of Sapphire.

If that is the case, and Sapphire's official release is delayed - perhaps permanently - I wonder what it will do to the Sapphire models which have already been sold?  Will this scandal increase their value, or reduce it even further?

The real victim in all of this is Ward's horse, Sapphire.  Drugging and doping horses is one thing, but increasing their performance by hurting them should be a federal offense, if you ask me.