The Model Horse Hobby

I wish that I could truly express what I feel about this hobby in words  However, I can do my absolute best to let others know how it makes me feel, what I see in it, and how the friends that I have met changed my life. 

Friends come and go in the hobby and I cannot stress that enough.  Some times, your views are different.  Some times, things slowly change and you pull away from each other.  And other times, you might be accused of something that you truly did not do.  And some times, some people pull away from you completely.  The above photo is special to me for a small reason and one that I am not even sure what happened.  I had a close friend in the hobby.  She helped me develop a small group that went on to help others enjoy Breyerfest.  I looked forward to meeting her for our once a year sojourn where we talked plastic horses, dined on fast food, and frolicked around to pet real horses.  But one day, she stopped talking to me.  She blocked me on facebook and well, I never did understand why.  I sent emails, asking what did I do?  What had happened? I got no response.  At Breyerfest 2018, I saw her and she turned her nose at me and snubbed me in the Clarion.  I could have cried.  Last year was a bad year for me, hobby wise, but that response hurt me to my core.  I have since seen her online as she has unblocked me now, but sadly, I just do not look at her in the same light anymore.  But it serves to remind me that the hobby changes daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly and we are merely pawns in the universe.

But this is not a sad post! The above picture reflects the absolute fun that I have had in this hobby.  As a volunteer for Breyer, I love being in the front lines and answering those questions that I have all year long in the group! This guy here, Robert, made a very busy day turn into something hilarious! He had to be a unicorn and man, he rocked it! He was genuinely curious about what makes thousands of people come to this event of plastic ponies and we volunteers certainly indulged him in how we felt about the hobby, the models, and so much more! Meeting people like this makes me smile and I love to share my love of the hobby with everyone and anyone, even if they don't want it! The hobby has so many amazing people in it that sometimes we take them for granted. We hear about the bad experiences and then we glaze over the good ones because the bad experiences have jaded us all.  I wish that I could make a call to arms for the model horse community and make the hobby a very positive experience that supports the members around them. 

So this year, let us try to make everything a positive experience for those around us! Breyerfest is an amazing event, especially to those that actually are lucky enough to go.  The hobby has enough cliques in it and distress over models, so why have everything be dramatic! Take a breather, compliment a model or a friend, and answer a question today.  I will get off of my soap box now and I hope that maybe one day, we can see the hobby take a turn towards a more positive light.