If you’ve been horse crazy since childhood, chances are you had at least one Breyer. Maybe you were lucky enough to have a wooden stable full of them. Perhaps they sat on shelves, pristine in their boxes, or perhaps they were played with regularly, covered in marker from an unruly little brother, broken legs reattached with glue and Band-Aids. 

Now imagine growing up and opening your inbox to an email from Breyer representatives: They’re considering one of your very own equines to be immortalized as a Breyer model. 

That’s exactly what happened to Whitney Barnard. 

Barnard knew that her mule, Alan A Day’s Work, who she rescued as a just-barely-halter-broke 4-year-old, was already a bit of a long-eared celebrity. 

“There were two moments when I realized that Alan was well-known,” Barnard recalled. “The first was when I was out at a dinner with some acquaintances in the horse world and a well-known eventer said, ‘Oh, you’re Alan’s mom!’ and I realized that more people knew me as ‘Alan’s mom’ than Whitney!”

The second moment happened when two young girls were looking at a sales horse at the Kentucky stable where Alan lived. One of the girls spotted Alan outside and recognized him instantly; though she lived hundreds of miles away in Virginia, she followed him on Instagram. 

But it still caught Barnard off guard when, last summer, Breyer asked to interview her about Alan and discuss the possibility of involving him in BreyerFest 2024. She was warned in their initial email that there was no guarantee Alan would be selected as a model, so she went into the Zoom interview armed with every story she could think of to make the committee fall in love with Alan. 

Turns out, she hadn’t needed to. 

Shortly into the conversation, one of the Breyer reps said that they loved Alan and wanted him to be a part of this year’s campaign. They needed Barnard’s permission to make a model of her 15-year-old, bay-roan-Appy mule, and of course, she agreed. What proud equine mom wouldn’t?

“The people at Breyer have been wonderful to work with,” Barnard said. “I sent in body shots of Alan at all angles. He’s a roan. He looks different every season! He has white on the tips of his years, and I didn’t think they’d catch that, but they did. They got his striped hooves. And they even got the whites of his eyes that only show when he’s really thinking about something. They did an excellent job.”

The theme of BreyerFest 2024, which will take place July 12-14 at the Kentucky Horse Park, is “Against All Odds,” and Alan’s story is certainly one of overcoming obstacles. 

Thirteen years ago, Barnard, who enjoys a challenge and generally passes her horses on to new homes once they’re “made,” was ready for a new project. At a judged trail ride, she began chatting to a woman who was riding a mule. That woman put Barnard in touch with a friend who was struggling to care for a herd of about 30 horses, donkeys and mules. 

“Of course, I was drawn to the meek, fearful little Appy,” Barnard said with a laugh. “He knew how to lead… kind of. We sort of scooped him into our trailer and coaxed him into the pasture, and I just spent the first few days and weeks just hanging out with him. Sometimes you could catch him, and sometimes you couldn’t. I learned quickly with mules that anything you want to do with them has to be their idea. They’re very independent thinkers. That’s the biggest difference between them and horses.”

But she wishes that people would let go of the “stubborn as a mule” stereotype. 

“They’re sensitive,” Barnard said. “They remember everything. You have to be more careful with a mule. If I mess up, Alan doesn’t let me forget it!”

But she said that sensitivity makes her relationship with Alan far more rewarding than any relationship she’s had with a horse. “He has to trust me,” she said, “and I have to trust him. If I take my time in the warm-ups, he’ll do just about anything for me.”

Barnard initially bought Alan as a resale project. The realization that Alan was her “heart mule” snuck up on her over time

“The first day I jumped Alan, I asked a parent of a lesson student to just hang by the ring,” she said. “I just wanted someone nearby if anything happened. But when we hopped over a little crossrail and then a little vertical, and Alan loved it. I remember thinking that maybe I’d keep him just a little longer.”

Eventually, Barnard realized her partnership with Alan was permanent. 

“It got to the point that Alan and I had done so many things together, and anyone could ride him,” she said. “He’s small, and he’s a wonderful babysitter. I thought about finding him a home where he could be a kids’ mount. But every time I tried to write up an ad, I just couldn’t do it. Mules bond really hard with their people. I realized that if I sold him, it would actually be just as hard on him as it would be on me. So he’s not going anywhere.”

But it wasn’t just Barnard and Alan’s partnership that inspired and interested the folks at Breyer. Alan has become an ambassador for inclusion of mules in the hunter/jumper world. 

In 2021, after a hard-fought, years-long campaign, a rule was passed to admit mules into the jumper divisions in USEF-rated competitions, in large part because of Alan. Barnard, because of her role as assistant managing director of education for the USHJA, was always cautious about her involvement with the proposed rule changes. But she assisted Katie Karpavage, another jumping mule owner, with the proposal that allowed mules into the jumper ring in 2022. Barnard and Alan have been competing in the jumpers ever since. 

In 2023, Kimmy Risser, an avid Alan supporter, took on the hunter discipline with her own mule proposal. She observed that if mules were already on the show grounds for jumper classes, they also should be able to compete in the hunter ring. She believes allowing mules into more classes makes the sport as a whole, especially at lower levels, more inclusive. 

In December, the proposal to allow mules into hunter classes was passed by the USHJA board. In June—a month before Alan-the-Breyer will be available at BreyerFest—the hunter rule change proposal will be voted on by the U.S. Equestrian Federation board. If it passes, mules will be allowed to enter USHJA- and USEF-sanctioned events starting in January 2025. And Barnard can’t wait. 

“I don’t think people understand the trickle-down effect of this rule change,” she said. “Alan’s a 13.3-hand mule. At first, we weren’t even trying to show at rated events. But we couldn’t even go to a hunter show down the road with a bunch of our friends because that local organization followed USEF rules. Alan and I were cut off from a lot of local opportunities because of mules being prohibited at the national level.” 

Inclusion at the national level opened up a lot of other opportunities for them, and others.

According to Breyer’s website, the “Against All Odds” models that will be available at BreyerFest all share stories of “triumph over adversity, advancement in the face of disbelief, and defying expectations at every turn.” 

And little Alan and his big ears will be ready to inspire the young and the young-at-heart alike with his story of perseverance and inclusion. 

“What little girl doesn’t dream of seeing her favorite horse as a Breyer?” Barnard said. “I grew up having tons of Breyers, and not owning my own horse until high school. Breyers were how I got to experience horses between my weekly lessons. So knowing that Alan is going to be living in kids’ homes all over the country, giving them the opportunity to experience horses in the same way I did growing up—that’s really touching.”