Madison's BCC entry

Today's first featured BreyerFest Best Customs Contest entry comes from the always fiercely competitive Excellence in Finishwork category. Take a look at Madison Poulin's Stitch.

Madison writes: This is Stitch. She is a Breyer Traditonal Braided Rowan painted as a clipped dapple bay with heterochromia.

Stitch has been months in the making. Since November, she has taken countless hours, layers upon layers of pastels, more than a few struggles, plenty of redos, and about five different photoshoots to finally become the horse I imagined at the start of her creation.  

I always knew I wanted her to be a dapple bay pinto, but I created her entirely without references. The only direction I followed was the feel from my paintbrushes! 

She earned her name from one of my favorite songs, “Stitches” by NervePitch, but the meaning became so much more than my favorite song. She was stitched together from every part of the process: my love for pintos, my excitement over Breyer's new Rowan mold, and my determination to push myself beyond what felt comfortable. 

She was painted with acrylics, pastels and pencils. This picture shows her at the beginning of the process, with pastels on a cream acrylic paint base. 

Congratulations, Madison. All that work really paid off. Stitch is glorious. Good luck at BreyerFest!

Celsie's BCC entry

The award for the most carefully documented entry in the 2026 BreyerFest Best Customs Contest just might go to Celsie Rae Abelt. In this guest post, she shares so many progress photos it's like we're literally watching her model come to life! Thank you, Celsie!

The Making of Baroness, Dutch Harness Horse Mare

by Celsie Rae Abelt

After Breyerfest 2025, I already knew what I wanted to do for my BCC 2026 entry. I had a fantastic reference and the intimidating prospect of sculpting a horse doing a suspended trot.

I started with the Dundee mold and proceeded to chop it to bits. Then I let it sit for months until the deadline started looming and I couldn’t ignore it any longer.

Manipulating the bar stock for her right foreleg was the most challenging part of this piece. 

It had to be *just so*, because if that part of the armature was off, I couldn’t just remove it. 

I began sculpting in April and had her in primer less than six weeks later, which is the fastest turnaround I’ve ever done on a drastic. 

My husband and father-in-law helped with the woodworking on the base. I sculpted the arena dirt – including hoof prints – and my favorite little detail is the sculpted cloud of dirt around her toe.

I base-coated her with acrylic to save myself some time.

The rest of the layers were oils. I’ve been working hard the last few months on chestnut, since it’s one of my weaker colors. 

She turned out just like I hoped!

I wanted to push myself with capturing movement and power, and I could not be more pleased with the results.

This contest always gets me out of my comfort zone, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to participate. 

Congratulations, Celsie. This was an ambitious project and she turned out great. Also, I love, love, love that shade of chestnut. Good luck at BreyerFest!

Emmalia's BCC entry

I was part of the three-judge panel that selected the winners of the 2022 BreyerFest Best Customs Contest.

Before we chose the winners, we had to choose the finalists, using the photos they had submitted. That was hard. There were so many beautiful entries, and also, so many entries that were probably beautiful but were not photographed well. I can not tell you how many times one of said, "This probably looks better in person, but it's impossible to know with these pictures."

Of course, the Best Customs Contest is not a photo show. But also, you can't judge what you can't see. I can not overstate how importance of clear, well-lit, in-focus photos.

Emmalia Sebusch got that memo.

Take a look at these gorgeous photos of her 2026 Excellence in Performance entry.

This is how you make it on to the table in Kentucky!

Emmalia writes: Skijoring is one of the oldest and most thrilling winter sports. The horse pulls a skier with a tug rope attached to the saddle. Skijoring is a Norwegian word that means “ski driving”, which was originally a mode of transport in Scandinavia, and it later evolved into a competitive winter sport across Western America. Hosts of the events will create the ski jumps out of snow, and also outline the pathway for safety with colored spray paint. A typical course can feature red posts that are called gates, and ski jumps while the horse takes off and the skier attempts to hit every gate, every ski jump, and also stick the landing. The fastest time wins! My diorama depicts a skier taking off of a jump while being pulled along by her teammate.

Emmalia's model started out as a Breyer Nazruddin. Here's a pictorial overview of his creation.

Congratulations, Emmalia. Your horse turned out great and these are perfection. Good luck at BreyerFest!

Jennifer's BCC entry

There are a lot of Jennifers in the model horse hobby, and more than a few of us make tack. This includes Jennifer Arsuaga, who shares these photos of her 2026 BreyerFest Best Customs Contest Excellence in Tacking Making entry.

Jennifer writes: I was inspired by the colors of the designs for this year's Breyerfest theme and made my own pattern for the blanket. 

Everything is hand made - embroidered blanket, 

over two hundred tassels,

braiding...

and cowrie shells.

I'm not sure how long it took me, other than a long time. I worked on it whenever I had time for the past year.

Congratulations, Jennifer. All the time and work really paid off. It's a beautiful costume. Good luck at BreyerFest!

Brenna's BCC entry

They say good things come in small packages, but in the case of  Brenna Rantala's 2026 BreyerFest Best Customs Contest Excellence in Finish Work entry, the more accurate statement would be: Impossibly exquisite things come in teeny-tiny packages.

This is not a traditional scale Wixom, my friends. It is, in fact, a Mini Whinny.

Brenna writes: Painting micros is currently what is bringing me the most joy in this hobby, and I wanted this year's contest entry to reflect that. 

I have been thinking about customizing a micro Wixom with as much detail as I could manage for a while now, and after playing around with my micro dappling technique over the last couple years -including the last two NaMoPaiMo's - it finally felt like it might be the right time.

Brenna's 2026 NaMoPaiMo horse 

She is painted mostly in oils, and I've tried to add some additional depth and details that aren't included in the sculpt, particularly around the face.

I'm really pleased with how she turned out... but I would have loved one more month to really finesse her tiny details!

Congratulations, Brenna. And I can honestly say I don't think you needed another month. This piece is phenomenal as is. I literally have never seen a little rubber horse look so good. Amazing work and good luck at BreyerFest.

Joanna's BCC entry

 Today's first featured BreyerFest Best Custom Contest is Joanna Bechtel Chronister's Kito.

She writes: This is Kito. He is a Pseudomelanysm Bruchelli Zebra. I entered him in the Most Extreme Custom division.

His name means Jewel in Swahili.

He’s based off of a real zebra in Kruger National Park.

I’ve been fascinated by pseudonysm in zebras since I saw him.

Kito started as an Idocus. I removed his mane, tail, head, neck and ears. Then I resculpted all that plus  part of his head.

Congratulations, Joanna. I, too, have a picture of this zebra in my reference files, so I love seeing him realized in model form. He is every bit as neat as I'd imagined. Good work and good luck at BreyerFest!