Breyer Arabian Horse & Rider Set

Breyer Arabian Horse & Rider Set

breed: Arabian

recommended age: 8 and Up

Limited to 1,500 collectible gift sets, Breyer's Arabian horse model wears ceremonial attire, color-coordinated with his rider's costume. The Bedouin saddle has two pommels, but no stirrups. The saddle blanket, breast collar and bridle are decorated with colorful Bedouin jewelry, gold thread, and hand-tied silken tassels. From such antique splendor emerged today's thrilling Arabian Mounted Native Costume class, introduced decades ago to Arabian horse shows,and retained for its authenticity and crowd appeal.

More than 4,000 years ago, desert poets began to celebrate the newly domesticated Arabian horse in story and song. Surviving the Sahara Desert's vast, waterless wastelands and relentless heat made horse and human natural allies in war and peace. The nomadic Bedouin tribe coped with the harsh surroundings by traveling from one oasis to another for their own and their animals' sustenance. As the small bands of Bedouins, camels and horses trekked across the sand, protective clothing lessened the severity of the high temperatures and ceaseless winds. Those practical, graceful garments, ingeniously designed to protect their wearers, are essentially unchanged since ancient times.

The horses portrayed in early jewelry and artifacts with small, shapely heads were easily recognizable as Arabians. Their Bedouin riders' dress was similarly unique. The doll in Breyer's new Arabian Costume Set wears the tribe's traditional over-garment, the abeyeh or jalabiyya, which was originally dyed with indigo blue, madder root red, saffron yellow, or the cochineal plant's vivid scarlet. The doll is wearing an ornately embroidered ceremonial abeyeh. Many such over-garments were also decorated with jewels, shells, silver, bells, and fabulous textile appliqués, or muragga'a. Under the abeyeh, this figure wears the simple body shirt, or galabiyeh, worn by both men and women, with loose-fitting trousers, both originally made of linen. Her garments are richly embellished with the decorative bands, or tiraz, that have adorned Bedouins' sleeves, hems, cloaks, headbands, belts and drawstrings since the 10th century A.D.

Then, as now, men and women's heads were always covered, with modern head coverings often adorned for special occasions. A tiraz, typically made of fabric, leather or metal, holds the doll's head covering in place.

Breyer's Arabian horse model also wears ceremonial attire, color-coordinated with his rider's costume. The Bedouin saddle has two pommels, but no stirrups. The saddle blanket, breast collar and bridle are decorated with colorful Bedouin jewelry, gold thread, and hand-tied silken tassels. From such antique splendor emerged today's thrilling Arabian Mounted Native Costume class, introduced decades ago to Arabian horse shows, and retained for its authenticity and crowd appeal.