CollectAShire Horse Mare - Black Age 3+

I repainted it to look like a friends horse, it was perfect, she loved it

Lovely quality

This beautiful horse arrived promptly and well packaged. Excellent value and my horse mad granddaughter loved it as a birthday present.

My daughter really loves this beautiful model, she just started collecting collecta horses. She has 21 models already.

Everyone likes shire horses. Shires can make any situation better. Like when you’re in the queue at the supermarket and the dummy in front of you has filled her trolley with ‘reduced to clear’ items and all you wanted is a pint of milk. This can be a frustrating and stressful experience, especially when you realise she’s chosen today to redeem three months’ worth of special offer vouchers which are hopelessly lost at the bottom of her handbag. Now imagine this; at the next till, instead of that grotesque couple in flannel track suits with their obnoxious ADD riddled children, there is a beautiful shire horse with a long flowing mane, swishing her tail to keep away the flies from the fresh meat counter. She sees you across the aisles and gives you a knowing look, a look full of compassion that speaks to your soul and says “I know, right? I’ve been stood here twenty minutes and all I wanted was a bag of bloody carrots”. Doesn’t that make the waiting easier?Now you can live that dream in the comfort of your own home (which presumably has a miniature supermarket) with this pretty lady.One of the many things that make shires so awesome is their prodigious size this horse is no exception. CollectA model their mare in 1/20th scale. Scheich and others are more like 1/24th so if you want to display a small herd you might find this mare dwarfs your stallions. That’s just not natural; he’s never going to hear the clip clop of tiny hooves if he looks like a 15hh Tinker. Horses are total snobs about things like that. To mitigate this I’ve put her in front of the Schleich gelding in my mantelpiece pasture and gone for a false perspective effect.Some horse figures are lumpen and toy like but this sculpt was commissioned from a respected equine artist. It’s a very nice job with good detail, especially the hair and musculature. All four hooves have decent frogs and no shoes (yay). Along with the full tail this makes for a mare 'au naturel'. A quick check of her nether regions reveals the necessary equipment for suckling two foals. It also reveals oversize text indicating her Chinese origin (this really is big. I mean distractingly huge. From a distance you can pretend it’s a big belly vein but seriously, you could grate cheese on those letters). The best part is the pose. I suppose it’s just a walk but it has lots of movement going on and… well… sass. I’ll bet there’s many a colt who would like to get a hoof in her stable door, if you know what I mean.I have some gripes for which she sheds a star. Her back is long and saggy as though she’s been giving rides to that obese track suit family we saw in the supermarket. Nostrils are shallow and the fronts of her ears are flat. There’s a dent between her eyes right where shires have their distinctive Roman profile. I also suspect her head is a touch small. She’ll never win a red rosette for conformance. I reckon there’s more than a dash of Friesian in her.One last gripe; her legs are bit bandy, especially the left rear. This happens during cool down after moulding and is quite common for animal figures. It can be corrected but it’s a delicate veterinary procedure involving hot water and a hair dryer. I’ll have this done when I get the vet in to fix the alphabet spaghetti on her belly.The paint job is nice and has a very ‘in scale’ satin finish. There are subtle browns sprayed over the charcoal base coat and the face and fetlocks are in organic cream (I meant organic as in a natural colour, not Yeo Valley). The eyes and nostrils are gloss which gives them that moist look as though she could sneeze on you at any moment. Unfortunately, my model has a small paint chip revealing the raw plastic below. Guess what colour? Red. Not Hereford bull red but post office Sherpa van red. The colour voted 'least like a horse' for three years running until neon green was discovered in the eighties.Despite some flaws I think this is probably the best shire mare available at the moment. Certainly more realistic than that white ‘Princess Celestia’ Schleich offers and at less risk of founder than the rather portly Papo.BTW I'm not sorry for the title. I think equine puns are horsesome.

superb model,very well priced,very pleased all round

My daughter likes the horse very much

my daughter loves this and arrived faster than advertised