Trails of the Painted Ponies started in  January 2003 with the first herd consisting of 12 ponies hit the  market. I watched  as the second heard came out  in the summer of 2003. Despite the second heard release I still procrastinated in purchasing my first pony. Christmas rolled around and my daughter gave me my first pony "MOSAIC APPALOOSA ".  I was in total ahhh. I have not seen these ponies in person just on the internet. But still I didn't start my collection. Lack of funds was one reason and the other was the fact no body in my area was selling these ponies. Well all things change when the  pony organization  decided to start a retirement program. I was basically forced to start my collection before it got to expensive and to difficult to locate the retired ponies. I made the commitment to collect all the ponies with E/1 s on the base. What a good choice that was because now it's a known fact E/1s is what all the collectors want.

I started on eBay to locate retired ponies. I contacted Westland Giftware to find local stores . I had my friends and family going to stores in their areas from Riverside, San Diego, Orange County and Sacramento looking for ponies. With in 45 days I had  the 1st,2nd and 3rd herds and well on my way to spending big chunks of change every 6 months on the new herds. As I was getting my ponies I was observing EBay and what was happening there. I bought extra  retired ponies as I found them. Over the last couple years I have been selling them to help off set the cost of collecting. I am down to my last few retired ponies and soon it will be totally up to me and my purse to pay for my collection.

There was one thing I did not take into account and that was a cabinet to fit all these ponies. I had at least 80 some ponies with more coming in the future. I couldn't find a pre-made one .None of them had enough shelves to accommodate what I already had. So I had one made  with 5 glass shelves, solid back, glass sides along with very open front.  It took him 6 months to build. They fit all my ponies to date along with my books and 1 large pony. I am almost ready for a second one but the cabinet maker says no way. So Im on the prowl for a second big cabinet to house ponies

I have to date all 11 herds, all the Christmas series, all special releases and all books 1,2, 3, and Ride the Sky . All are E/1 (first edition) and most are signed and or embellished  by the artist who created them. I also have 1 custom pony painted by KATHY  MORAWSKI  creator of QUARTER HORSE. He is a dark dun snow cap appaloosa. I purchased this horse when he was 3 months old  he is now 7. Very striking colors, very vivid and just a sweat heart of a horse . Born on a ranch in Canada to a PMU (pregnant mare urine) mare. Even though I have bred  appaloosas for 15 years I never kept any of them. When I saw HueY as a weanling on the internet I knew I had to have him. . So now he has his own painted pony that I look at every day reminding me  how blessed I really  am to have him and my collection.

Collecting these ponies is not for the faint of heart. A new herd  of 8 comes out  every six months, Christmas herd of 4 once a year and then special releases. If you buy the signed version of the pony the price is $75.00 per pony virus $20 to $45 for unsigned.. Also I have found these signed pony's the numbers on the base are very low which adds to the value. The problem with these ponies is that they are signed on the bottom of the base where NO BODY can see the signature. Once I get these ponies I  then track the artist down and request to have the pony resigned on top of the base. I have to pay shipping both ways and some of the artist request a fee despite I already paid  a premium price for the pony. Im not complaining. I very happy the artist are willing to accommodate my wish's.  So as you can see the price jumps $20 to $40 per pony on top of the $75.00. I could take a chance and buy the unsigned version but if I am unable to track down the artist then my pony is naked.

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Custom painted The Trail of Painted Pony. Replica of my Appaloosa gelding.