My Collector Story - Jocelyn

“My Collector Story” is a new Collector Club initiative designed to gather and share stories from Breyer fans and collectors. Who was your first Breyer model? What is your favorite model horse memory? How has the model horse hobby impacted your life? For more information, visit the My Collector Story homepage, or email your story to  collectors@reevesintl.com.

Breyer’s Community Coordinator, Jocelyn Cote, explains how she became a model horse hobbyist in her story below.

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I’m sitting here and typing this blog post from Breyer’s headquarters in Pequannock, New Jersey. If elementary school me had known that this is where my career would end up, she wouldn’t have believed it.

In the spring of 2003, I was 8 years old. My dad, a miniaturist and law enforcement collector, would often bring my two younger sisters and I along to his favorite local hobby shop when he needed to pick up some paint or display cases. And there they were: the shelves of gleaming yellow boxes that seemed to go on for miles. (In reality, it was probably about 10 feet of display space.)

First, my youngest sister begged and pleaded until Breyer’s Spirit and Rain models came home with her. My middle sister soon followed suit with Stardust the unicorn. It was now my turn to pick out a Breyer model for myself. I decided on Susecion and Le Fire – not necessarily because I was in love with the idea of a mare and foal set, but because of economics. It was two horses for the price of one!

I treated my models much more… respectfully than those of my sisters. Their models saw the brunt of our playtime, while my pair sat neatly on a shelf for the most part. Some of my earliest additions included the Gem Twist Fox Hunting gift set, Trigger and Topper, and a pair of vintage alabaster and dapple grey Old Timers found at a local antique shop. (My love of vintage molds and models started early on, apparently.)

I have a very vivid memory of trying to convince my dad to take us to BreyerFest in 2005 – “if we only go for one day, it’ll be cheaper!” Ah, to be young and not understand the time and money it takes to go on vacation again.

My first Breyer models, Susecion and Le Fire, in 2019. They don't look half bad - Le Fire
even has ribbons from live shows!

As my sisters and I aged, our models were pushed to the side and we moved on to other interests. It wasn’t until 2008 that I fished out a Just About Horses magazine from the day’s pile of mail and discovered the concept of the model horse hobby. We’d been subscribers for a while at this point, but as a child I mostly looked at the photos rather than reading the text. We’d sent in a two year subscription renewal right before my interest in Breyers faded, so the magazines had been arriving but went untouched. I pored over every single article in that issue and immediately joined any model horse-related online forum I could find. I shared my findings with my dad, who was immediately supportive of my involvement in the hobby. We even made preliminary plans to attend BreyerFest for the first time.

That June, my health declined rapidly. I was weak, lethargic and had insatiable thirst. My doctor diagnosed me with Type 1 Diabetes, and I spent my last week of 6^th grade in the hospital. Needless to say, BreyerFest was off the table. We passed along our tickets to a family friend who was attending, however, and a couple months later I was handed my treasures – Alborozo, Saltire, Melbourne, and Pharaoh. They were the pride and joys of my rapidly growing collection.

Still learning the ropes of my chronic illness, my parents were understandably concerned with taking me on any sort of trip, near or far. I did, however, convince my dad to take me to my very first model horse show that fall. With a small string of 13 horses in tow, I ended up coming home with OF Halter Champion, won by a G1 Thoroughbred Mare Stablemate I had picked up for $2 at an antique shop a few weeks earlier. Needless to say, I was hooked.

"Fiddle Faddle" the G1 Thoroughbred Mare winning OF Halter Champion at Frolic Into
Fall Live 2008, my very first model horse show.

It was around this time that I also began my YouTube channel, and started uploading videos of my collection that were filmed with a cheap point-and-shoot camera. The model horse social media community was in its infancy at that point and mainly centered around collection tours like my own, along with comedy-driven “Breyer randomness” videos and the very beginnings of the model horse film series movement. We were small, but we were mighty.

In 2009, I finally got my chance to experience BreyerFest for the first time. My dad and I drove 16 hours straight from Massachusetts to Lexington, and he had no idea what he was in for. I definitely did, though – I had spent weeks reading through every forum thread and online guide to BreyerFest out there. I already knew difficult concepts such as the Special Run Line like the back of my hand. I even attended the YouTube meet and hung out with some of my idols – I was completely starstruck!

I also jumped on the Instagram train in late 2013, just as the foundation of that platform’s model horse community was being laid. Instagram is where I have met all of my closest hobby friends, and joining the platform was not only the catalyst for me to start socializing with other collectors, but it was what made me realize that I wanted to pursue a career in social media as well. I shipped off to college in 2014, first attending a local community college and later studying abroad in London to finish off my bachelor’s degree. I was even able to participate in a few UK model horse shows before I had to step back and focus on my studies, which was an amazing opportunity!

But that was exactly the issue – my studies took up more and more of my time, and almost all of my models were literally an ocean away. For about a year and a half, I stepped away from the model horse hobby for the first time in almost a decade.

I returned home from the UK fully convinced that I’d be selling the vast majority of my collection. But once I was surrounded by my horses again, those fond memories came flooding back to me and I was reeled right back in! I began talking to my hobby friends on a daily basis again, and scrambled to enter my next model horse show. I think I missed the community most of all. As I’ve gotten older, being a part of the model horse hobby has become less about winning the biggest ribbons and acquiring hundreds of models – it’s about the friendships I’ve made that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

I happened upon Breyer’s Community Coordinator position by pure chance while browsing the website this past spring. The job description was too tailor-made for me to ignore, so I took a chance and sent in my resume. Sure, the position would require a relocation to New Jersey, but I was fresh out of college with nothing tying me down in Massachusetts. Moving was possible. A few weeks later, my car was packed for my one-way trip to the Garden State.

Working with Breyer has been a blast so far, and I’m looking forward to reading your Collector Stories and sharing them with all of our Collector Club members! Long or short, all stories are welcome.