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There were Morabs released in bay this year. They both came with
sort of unflattering accessories, plain white saddle pads and
yellowish orange tack on the mare. (I know they're
going for variety here, but orangey yellow is not that nice
a color on a bay.) The Stallion, "Chief Justice," is
totally gorgeous. He is the first bay horse to be released
in the Show Stallion pose, and looks very distinguished and "legal"
(I guess) on the shelf. His dark coloration makes him look all
serious and stoic, perhaps befitting his name perfectly. This guy
displays so elegantly and is just a class act all around.
Bronze Baron is a hunk, but Chief Justice is my favorite Show
Stallion
after Parachute. 
She could use a sock somewhere for character, but I guess they
wanted
to avoid her looking too much like the Holsteiner Mare.
(Did I mention
that's the Holsteiner mare from 2000? It is. )
And voila, the illusion is
complete. Hmm...
The husband here deserves some back story. Sometime in early
1996, the Running Stallion went on break and just
never came back. Everybody figured he was dead, or maybe in
Mexico
waiting until things, you know, "cooled off" in Canada and America.
You see, the Grand Champions are the most famous horses,
and like
all celebrities, they are all pretty much crazy and just waiting to
snap and go on rampages of various types. So when some horses are
only "rumored" to exist, or show up for a while and then vanish,
or get
pictured someplace but are never actually seen, or hang around for
years and then go on these long "vacations," it's usually because
they're
involved in certain activities and need to lie low for their own
safety. 
The Mare, "Willow Wind," reminds me of Ruffian with her white
hind pastern and star
marking. I've been told that
there are some Willows that have a pointed, slender crescent star,
while others (as in her catalog
photo) have this bean-shaped marking. (If you have a
genuine, crescent-starred Willow Wind, please feel free to send me
a picture of the marking, and I will happily post it here and give
you credit!) Willow Wind is a really fine GC and I would say
essential to any decent collection. Her dark color and shading even
hide the thicker legs of the remold, so she displays well.
Their coats
are flecked with black, and they have splashed white
markings that go up their legs and even patch into their bodies
a little. The Stallion, "Sonic Boom," is the favorite here,
because he even has touches of black on his wrists and hocks, and
a bicolored mane and tail. He is the Standout Horse
of this year's dozen, and one of my favorites.
The mare, "Petal to the Metal," is a comely offering, too, but
lacks the accent coloring-- the black points and bicolored hair
-- that set off the stallion. I think they named her Petal instead
of Pedal due to her being the female of the group; maybe it makes
her sound more ladylike? 
These two beauties are identical in coloration, and fancier than
your usual Lipizzaners. They came with gold trimmed saddle
blankets, and they aren't plain gray horses, either. They are
pale gray with dark gray shading, but they also have fleabit
spots everywhere except on their legs. They even seem to have
been flecked over twice; some of the flecks are darker and appear
to be underneath the shade color, and then there is a kind of mist
in some places, a light gray flecking on top
of the dark shading. It is layered and makes this pair
a must-have! It also raises the point that you only need to see
so many white with gray Lipizzaners before the arrangement starts
to get boring. When these guys show up, you wonder how you ever
tolerated such plain ones before, and how come Empire
can't put this much thought into all their horses? They don't
even have markings, but a mist of pink on their noses, and
they look almost Christmasy with their royal red and gold pads.
The Stallion, "Senor Valadore" and the mare, "Princess Perdita" are
a fine set and worthy of any collection. 
This Palomino paint coloration is very clever, but why do these
look so similar to the Quarter Horses from last year? Could
these be the same ones from 2000, just painted differently?
Empire was in trouble by this time and maybe they had a bunch
of unpainted Quarter Horses left over, so they decided to cut a
corner by putting in slightly different hair, withholding the
orange shading and adding white paint markings. It's possible,
as they do appear to be molded in the same apricot base color.
Still, this is a nice idea for pintos, and the
markings are patchy and nicely jagged, especially
on the Stallion, "Lucky's Lone Star." (Though that, too, is
reminding of an earlier pinto, the old piebald "Lucky's Chance".)
The mare is "Dosie Doe," and she came
with the enormous western saddle and a gigantic pad. (Why do the
smallest mares come with the biggest saddles?) It's
the fancy one that sometimes comes with parade horses, the brown
and tan one with the lavender breast collar. These are cute
western-themed horses, but again they have been upstaged, this
time by the sorrels. Still, I would consider these to be among
the more
sophisticated standard run pintos in the GC world, as their markings
are so varied. 
