Breyer Contestant Gift Certificates

All participants in our recent Breyer video contest are entitled to a $10.00 Look A Gift Horse, gift certificate. These are sent out by email. If you submitted a video in our contest email your full name and email address to layoke@lookagifthorse.com and we'll get your gift certificate emailed out to you. Thanks again for entering.

Breyer Contest Winners!

What a close contest! Thank you to everyone who submitted a video for our Breyer Horse, "So Real" contest. After careful analysis our judges have picked our winners. First Place: Rebecca C. - Second Place: Jessi - Third Place: Natalie L.. If you are one of our winners, please email your full name, address, phone number and email address to layoke@lookagifthorse.com so we can get your check out to you. If you participated, you are a winner in our book. Click the following link to view Rebecca C.'s video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOGxo50DdjM Great job Rebecca, Jessi and Natalie.

Breyer $500 Contest!

Obviously, we're a little late with our announcement on the winners of the Breyer Video contest. We'll be sending out a newsletter tonight with that announcement, and once that is out we will post the BLOG. Be patient, we've almost got it.

Don't try this at home!

I have been around horses most of my life, having been born on a farm in Kansas. My two sister's and I rode bareback, not knowing what a saddle was until we were in our teens. The story I have to tell is funny now but not so funny at the time.
Our parents took us to the movies one night and we saw, "The Three Stooges" and all there stunts. The next day off to the barn we went, where we spent most of our time when not in school. We decided to try out the Three Stooges stunt where one of them jumped out of a top door of the hay barn onto a horse and I was picked to jump out of the hay barn onto the horse. So up I went in the barn and got in the door, I looked down where my sisters and the horse, Jewel were. I was about nine years old at the time and always picked to do the dirty work. My sister's were 10 and 12. I looked down and was to scared to jump. They keep hollering jump…jump… but I said no. My sister said come on down I will do the jumping. So down I went and up she went. I moved Jewel the horse directly under the hay barn door so she wouldn't miss her. Just as my sister jumped Jewel moved and came down on my foot and my sister hit the ground and about broke her butt. I think what we got from our dad hurt a lot worse then Jewel stepping on my foot and my sister landing on her butt. I loved that horse with all my heart and will never forget her. Jo in Phoenix

Win Up to $500.00

WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A CONTEST! Have you ever gone online to YouTube.com and searched on Breyer Horses? We have, and there are some pretty darn good videos there. After looking at quite a few of them, we thought it might be nice if there were a few with the Look A Gift Horse logo on them. Any individual who produces an eligible video entry in our contest will receive a $10.00 Look A Gift Horse gift certificate. The winners of our contest, as determined by our panel of distinguished judges, will win cash prizes as follows: 1st Prize - $500.00 2nd Prize - $300.00 3rd Prize - $100.00. The theme for our contest is – Breyer Horses “So Real”.
Official Rules: Acceptable video formats are AVI, MPEG, QUICKTIME, REAL, and WINDOWS MEDIA. Videos must be less than 75MB in size. Videos are to be 60 seconds in duration, and must display the Look A Gift Horse logo for the last 5 seconds of the video. During the 5 second display of the logo, include a voice over with your personal message about Look A Gift Horse. Once you’ve completed your video, upload a copy to YouTube.com and email us a copy at tmyoke@lookagifthorse.com. When uploading your video on YouTube.com enter “Breyer Horses” when asked for “Tags”. The deadline for entry is July 11, 2008. As part of our judging, we will monitor the number of times your video is viewed on YouTube.com from July 12, 2008 through July 19th 2008. Winners will be announced July 22, 2008.

Judging:
YouTube.com Views 10 points
Breyer Product Usage 10 Points
Videography 10 Points
Theme Cohesiveness 10 Points
Message 10 Points
____________________________
Total 50 Points

Kentucky Derby - May 3rd

When you think Superbowl, do you think Superbowl Party? Well that's kind of what Kentucky Derby day does for us. So, just in case you think like we do, we thought we'd share a favorite Derby drink recipe with you. Here it is:

Mint Julep - 1 serving
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
12 sprigs of mint
3 ounces bourbon
1 sprig of mint

Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a saucepan and boil for 5 minutes, do not stir. Pour over the 12 sprigs of mint in a heatproof bowl, gently crushing the mint with the back of a spoon. Chill, covered, for 8 to 10 hours. Strain, discarding the mint. You may store the syrup in the refrigerator for several weeks, preparing individual juleps as desired.

For each serving, fill a silver, copper, pewter or, stoneware julep cup with broken or crushed ice. Add 2 tablespoons of the mint syrup and the bourbon and stir gently until the cup is frosted. Garnish with 1 sprig of mint.

There you have it! Ladies add a bonnet and you're ready for The Kentucky Derby.

Tip-Toe Through The Tulips is in the house!

Wow, that was fast! I didn't have time to post this yesterday, because we had the grandchildren. Friday night Tip-Toe Through The Tulips arrived at our warehouse. We'll be busy Monday cataloging them and should start shipping Tuesday. We'll be shipping out our lowest issue numbers to those people who placed their orders with us first. Watch for the Summer release.

We're Soooo sick of AOL

AOL has been blocking all of our emails to our AOL using customers. We've been trying to work through this with AOL, but there's just no satisfying them. Below is an email that one of our valued customs sent to AOL. (She gave us permission to copy the email to this BLOG). If you're so inclined, we'd love to have AOL get about 1,000 emails just like this. I think they would probably have to relent to such an out pooring. If nothing else, it would be interesting to see. By the way, did you see that ebay sellers are asking for the resignation of ebay's CEO. Wouldn't that be interestng. Power to the people! Right On! Let us know what you think. FYI - AOL customers postmaster phone number (888) 212-5537. AOL email: postmaster@aol.com

I just found out from a company that I do alot of buisness with,that the reason they have not been able to contact me is because AOL started blocking their email.Please explain why ? The company I am refering to is : Look a Gift Horse {www.lookagifthorse.com}.For years they have emailed me with pre-sale information on items that I collect but this year I did not hear from them because AOL blocked them from contacting me so that I missed out on ordering first edition items for my collection.I am VERY upset about this as AOL never asked me about blocking this company & AOL allows plenty of other sites {www.funtocollect.com} selling the same items {at higher prices} to contact me.This issue needs to be fixed ASAP or I will stop doing buisness with AOL & I have been a paying customer for years.I expect a prompt expaination & resolution of this issue or I will have to terminate my PAID membership with AOL.

Trail of Painted Ponies Four Season's Collection

We just received word this morning that Trail of Painted Ponies is coming out with the "Four Season's Collection". Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter designs, each having a Single edition containing a Limited Edition Coin embedded into the top of the base. The individual ponies capture a unique aspect of a different season. Watch this blog as we will be getting more information today, and will be posting our blog as soon as it comes in.

Coming Very Soon!

We received word from our Breyer representative yesterday, that Indian Pony & Leotie are now in Breyer's warehouses. Ours will be shipping either today or Monday. If they ship our preferred carrier we should receive them next Thursday or Friday. Of course, we'll start shipping pre-orders out to you as soon as we get them. It won't be long now!

Trail of Painted Ponies 11th Release!

We shipped all but about 10 pre-orders yesterday. We would have got them all out, but our UPS truck came early. The remaining orders will be shipped today! Wow - glad that's done.

We got a look at our new furniture line yesterday. They're made locally by a friend of ours. JstarJ Woodwork is currently building us quality shelves and curio's in a variety of woods and wood finishes. It's a beautiful way to display your Painted Ponies and Breyer Horses. We should have them in the store for purchase in a couple of days.

Trail of Painted Ponies 11th Release!

Well, we've been working through the weekend again to get your new ponies shipped out to you. We've finished cataloging all the ponies - no twins this time. Yesterday we boxed up and prepared 50% of the pre-orders for shipping. Those will be going out Monday. We're going to prepare as many as we can for shipping today. Any that don't go out on Monday will be on the truck Tuesday for sure. We did get a few low numbers this time and those will be going out to our clients who placed their pre-orders with us first. These ponies are definetly beautiful. We think you're gonna love them. We're also working on a project with a friend this weekend. With the help of this friend, we're going to be bringing you shelves and curios to display your new ponies on/in. More on that tomorrow.

Web Site Upgrade!

We started a major upgrade to our store Friday night at 11:00 PM (MST). The upgrade was to take about 2 hours. We ran into some difficulties, and over 24 hours later the upgrade is still not complete. We are terribly sorry for this inconvenience. We are currently working to complete the upgrade and are hopeful that we'll be back on line very soon.

We Love Hasty Horses!

We wanted to share this with you. We think this is a great example of the personal service a smaller company is able to provide. This is an email Lorenda received from Lynn Haste from Hasty Horses. If you would like a full size picture of the upcoming designs, just let us know. We'd be happy to email a copy to you.

Hi Lorenda,

Happy New Year!
I hope your holidays were fun and prosperous!

For this year, we will probably add 3 new designs.
I’m going to attach one of my drafts for the sign I’m taking to the AETA show next weekend in Orlando. It is a rough draft, but these are the designs that are being developed. I’ve made some notes on this picture for your own knowledge. It shows the order in which these designs are going to be
completed. Over the last year, I’ve had several requests for bay and chestnut horses. So, the colors you see on the sign will
probably change. I’ve attached an example of one change on “The Tree”. Also, the pieces that include dogs are very popular and
customers have requested other types of dogs. So this may also be an adjustment made that is not featured.

You might not be aware as yet, but, Back in the Saddle is going to carry “Lucky and Clover” in the spring catalog. This should certainly
help get the word out as they also have a large distribution.

If you are going to go to Orlando, and have the time, come by and say “hi”.
Lynn

Lynn Haste
HASTY HORSES
P O Box 5513
Bryan, TX 77805
800-747-2498
FAX: 979-775-1779
www.hastyhorses.com

New Painted Ponies Arrival!

We did receive a partial shipment of the new 11th release Painted Ponies on Friday. We got 6 out of the 8. In the warehouse now are: Twilight Hunters, Dreamwalker, Crazy Horse, Wish Upon A Star, Indian Summer and Trail of Honor. We have not received word yet on when to expect the other two ponies, Serenity and Prairie Horizon. We'll begin cataloging and shipping as soon as the last two are in. Remember, our original projected date to receive the new ponies was early February, so far we appear to be ahead of schedule. We'll keep you posted as things develop.

Trail of Painted Ponies 11th Release

Last night UPS emailed us a Quantum view showing a huge delivery coming from Westland Giftware, to be delivered Friday. This could only be the new herd. We don't know a lot more than that at this time. It may be the complete order, or just part of it. If the order is complete, we'll begin cataloging issue numbers and prepare to ship them out. As always, we'll ship the lowest issue number to the first person who placed their pre-order with us and then go down the list. Let's hope we get low numbers.

Incoming Merchandise Update

We received word from Breyer yesterday that we had a large shipment that left their warehouse on January 9th. After tracking down the carrier, we have been informed that our delivery will be here tomorrow between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM. We received word today that another smaller shipment left on January 15th via UPS. That shipment will arrive on Monday and should contain some of the Breyer new releases. It sure will be great to be back in stock on so many items we've been out of since Christmas, and of course we can't wait to see the new releases.

We also got a quantum view from UPS informing us that Westland had shipped a Trail of Painted Ponies order that should be delivered tonight. Westland is also telling us that another shipment left yesterday. Dare we hope that some of the items we've had on back order are about to be delivered?

Anyway, this is all very good news. We look forward to stocking the store tonight and tomorrow for your shopping this weekend.