From the moment I first saw this horse — and that was on Instagram — I knew I had to have it in my herd. It seemed like the perfect horse for Barbie: the right size, very cute, with a gorgeous long mane. I had no idea what kind of horse it was, but I felt that getting it wouldn’t be easy — maybe even impossible — so I started looking for more information...

1. About
2. My Skye
3. Washing, detangling and straightening
4. Remaking the missing accessories
5. Renewed Skye
6. Comparison with Barbie dolls and horses
7. Video

1. About

The mysterious horse’s name is Skye, and she belongs to a small series called Saddle Stars by Blip Toys. It’s a modest collection, as it includes only two horses — Skye and Pixie — both made from the same mold, differing only in their coat color and accessories. Skye was the first horse in the series, released in 2017.

The boxes of these horses had a front flap that could be opened, and on the inside of that flap were details about the specific horse. This sort of “cover” was closed with a piece of Velcro and concealed the window through which you could see the inside of the package — the horse and its accessories.

The information printed on the inside of that opening “cover” reminds me of the My Little Pony figures — they used to have similar character descriptions.

And so, in Skye’s case, we learn that she lives in Tucson, Arizona, was born on November 9, 2008, her favorite dish is sage salad, and her hobbies include trail riding and stargazing — which already sounds a bit odd, but the real kicker is the last one: painting! As if that weren’t enough, she even has her own favorite quote: “Don’t call it a dream, call it a plan.”

Right next to the “About Me” section, there’s another one titled “Skye’s Journal.” From it, we learn that Skye is always seeking new adventures — whether it’s discovering a new hideout in the desert, filling another page in her journal, or galloping freely with the hot Arizona wind in her hair.

Skye writes that her friends often joke she has a bit of wild horse in her, since no one ever knows where her quest for adventure might take her next. She admits they’re right — she truly loves nature. Her friends also know that, despite her free spirit, she’s a loyal and dependable companion they can always count on.

Spending time with her Saddle Stars friends is one of the best ways to come up with new ideas and expand her creativity. In addition to exploring the world, Skye is always looking for new ways to express herself creatively. Painting and journaling are her favorite activities, and she loves trying new things. Recently, she’s learned how to use a telescope and observe the stars.

The entry ends with two questions: What do you think? Would you like to join her in discovering the world and your own talents?

On the back of the box, we find words that describe Skye’s personality — creative, free-spirited, and affectionate.

There’s also a description explaining what makes this series special and who it’s meant for:

“Girls who love horses know well that their grace and beauty are unmatched by any other animal. Saddle Stars horses are beautiful play horses for girls, each with its own unique personality and gorgeous hair. Every horse in the Saddle Stars collection has its own story and personalized accessories, providing hours of wonderful play!”

In the small thumbnails in the bottom right corner, under the heading “My Style,” you can see several details:
- a bracelet labeled “Skye’s style = joy,”
- a portrait of her featuring mane accessories with the caption

“There can never be too many braids and flowers for her,”

- and the last thumbnail showing a hoof and horseshoes with the caption “Changing my horseshoes again.”

On one of the side panels of the box, there’s a list of the items included in the set, which are:

🐴 horse
🐴 brush
🐴 bracelet

🐴 bridle with reins
🐴 saddle pad
🐴 bag
🐴 3 hair clips
🐴 8 horseshoes

On the bottom there are informations about manufacturer, the year and place where it was made.

To wrap up the topic of this model, I have to briefly mention Pixie, who was released a year later and is less common than Skye. She comes with different accessories and has a gray color.

I found three or four videos online reviewing Skye — in most of them, Blip Toys sponsored the reviews by sending the product to the reviewers.

Unfortunately, none of these horses were available to me when I discovered them; I’m not even sure they were ever sold in stores in my country. In one of the videos, it was mentioned that this was a Target-exclusive product, though it could also be found on Amazon. The price wasn’t exactly low, but that’s understandable — the horse comes with plenty of accessories, is well-made and carefully crafted, and even has attractive, thoughtfully designed packaging.

So, I added my dream of owning a horse from this series to my list of wished-for but unattainable collectibles.

2. My Skye

In November 2024 — around the same time I somehow managed to get Chloe, whom I wrote about in my previous post and featured in my latest YouTube video — an online listing caught my eye: Skye was for sale.

I rubbed my eyes several times in disbelief, unable to trust what I was seeing —

“What?! Skye?! I must be dreaming! Let the world burn if it must — chances like this may never come again! She has to be mine!”

I practically stood on my head to make it happen — completed the purchase and waited patiently for the package to arrive. Skye had quite a long journey ahead of her, as her previous home was in Copenhagen, Denmark.

And finally, she arrived! As the worst-packed parcel I have ever received!

She was wrapped in a plastic shopping bag and secured only with clear tape. One hoof and one ear were sticking out of the package — seeing that, I got a bit worried that she might have been damaged during transport. We all know what happens to parcels in transit. I would never have thought someone could pack a parcel so terribly — especially for such a long journey… or honestly, even for just a few kilometers in a courier’s hands! But oh well.

I tried to unpack her gently and carefully so as not to damage anything. I’m honestly still in shock that someone could send a parcel like that — just a single plastic bag, no padding, no protection at all. Luckily, she somehow survived the journey and arrived without any breaks or cracks.

After taking her out of the bag, I examined what she came with — a saddle, a bridle with reins, and a single golden horseshoe. Her overall condition was fairly decent, at least when it came to the plastic and paintwork. Her tail was braided into a somewhat matted plait, and her mane… well, the mane was a complete mystery, twisted into a bun and held together with rubber bands.

Right after inspecting her, I started untying the mane — I wanted to see how much of it was left. I was prepared for the possibility that it might be badly damaged, and that bun looked very suspicious. I began removing the rubber bands — one, two, three, four… I eventually lost count, trying my best to save as much of the hair as possible.

When I finally untangled the bun, it turned out that the mane’s length was most likely original. Some parts were in slightly better condition, while the rest were heavily matted and dull. It also turned out there had been more than ten rubber bands in her mane — eleven, to be exact!

Skye in photoshoot after removing most of rubber bands, before washing

And without her equipment.

Skye has a print on her belly with importer info.

On the inner side of her left hind leg, there’s the manufacturer’s marking molded into the plastic — it includes only the copyright symbol (©), the company name Blip LLC, and the note that the horse was made in China.

3. Washing, detangling and straightening

Next Skye and her accessories were washed.

All of the previous owner’s “embellishments” were successfully removed. The hair was thoroughly washed and soaked in fabric softener.

After washing, I started by detangling the mane and tail — of course, using some hair conditioner to help with it.

As you probably know, both brushing and straightening can be very time-consuming tasks — but I don’t find them boring at all, since they’re the perfect opportunity to listen to podcasts, audiobooks, or even lectures — a nice mix of pleasure and productivity.

After brushing, the amount of shed hair wasn’t too bad, as you can see in the photo below, and Skye’s hair looked like this:

While it doesn’t look too bad from above, things start to look a bit worse from other angles.

The first section of her mane had been braided — that was her original hairstyle, as you can see in the promotional photos I shared at the beginning of this post. And it was precisely that part of the mane that turned out to be the most damaged — the fibers were bent in all directions and tangled up on their own. The mane looked more like a tuft of cotton than actual hair.

The next step was straightening. But before I could do that, I had to wash her hair once more to remove the excess conditioner I’d used for detangling. Even right after washing, the hair already looked much better.

The hair looks better now, but it’s still not at its best yet.

After using the straightener you can really see a noticeable difference — below you can see the mane after straightening, and the tail before.

Skye’s hair is truly of great quality — after meeting the straightener, her mane and tail regained their original look.

Her hair is genuinely of very high quality — it returned to normal without much trouble, it’s strong, doesn’t break, and feels nice to the touch. For a horse produced after the year 2000, that’s truly impressive.

But to keep things realistic — unfortunately, while brushing, quite a few hair fibers came loose from the roots. To prevent this, I carefully applied a bit of super glue to the base of the mane, doing it very gently and in a way that wouldn’t be visible or interfere when flipping the mane to the other side of the neck.

4. Remaking the missing accessories

I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t try to recreate some of her accessories. Of course, I’m not venturing into anything as ambitious as horseshoes, but a saddle pad and hair decorations are definitely within my abilities. I’m putting the bag on the back burner for now — it’s not particularly complicated, but it does require more time, and lately I can’t exactly say I have much of that to spare (which is pretty obvious from how rarely new posts and videos have been appearing — and I’m definitely not admitting how many interesting projects I’m behind on!).

Saddle ties

I’m starting with the simplest things — the saddle ties. In the original version, Skye has ties on both sides of the saddle, which look like small leather straps.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any leather cord in a color similar to the original, but I did find one that was yellow-orange. I cut two equal lengths and threaded them through the holes in the saddle on both sides.

Saddle blanket

The original saddle blanket was probably a piece of faux leather with embossed details. The perfect replica could be made, for example, using embroidery floss and a macramé technique to weave some Native-inspired patterns — but that would take ages. So, I decided to take a simpler route and make it from two pieces of fabric sewn together. I chose a suede-like beige fabric and a burgundy one.

First, by looking at how the saddle sits on Skye’s back, I made a rough plan of what her saddle pad should look like — where it should start and end, and how big it should be in relation to the saddle.

While doing that, I also realized that Skye’s saddle is a bit too large. Of course, it’s a big western saddle, but in my opinion, it’s slightly overdone. Because of that, the saddle pad has to be almost the same size as the saddle; otherwise, it would end up covering half of her hindquarters — and that’s definitely not what I’m going for.

Now that I know how the saddle pad should relate to the saddle, the next logical step is to make a pattern based directly on the saddle’s shape.

After cutting the pattern out of paper, I do a fitting on Skye.

The pattern fits exactly the way I envisioned the saddle pad. So now all that’s left is to cut out the fabric pieces and sew them together.

Hair ornaments

In the original set, Skye came with three hair clips. Each one was made up of turquoise-dark green leaves — probably from the same material as the bridle and saddle — and a flower made of fabric petals. I decided to make the leaves out of polymer clay and craft the petals from dark red ribbon, then sew them onto the clay leaves.

I picked a matching color of polymer clay and started by shaping the leaves, making small holes in them to attach the petals later. After hardening the clay and letting it cool, I coated the leaves with clear varnish.

I then cut the petals out of ribbon and sealed the edges with a lighter flame to prevent fraying. I sewed the petals onto the leaves and finally attached the hair clips, securing them with hot glue.

There’s just one thing I don’t understand — why on earth did I make only two hair clips instead of three…?

5. Renewed Skye

At last, the time has come to see Skye in all her glory again — with her straightened hair and partially recreated accessories.

6. Comparison with Barbie dolls and horses

Skye is the largest horse in my collection, so naturally, the question arises — how does she compare to the others? For this special occasion, I brought out a few horses for comparison. I also invited some of the dolls and the dog to join in.

But before we get to the photos from the session, let’s take a quick look at their heights. In the real world, a horse’s height is measured at the withers, but in the world of Barbie and plastic horses, that’s not the most reliable method — almost none of them stand perfectly straight; each one is captured in some kind of motion. So, all measurements will inevitably be a bit off — we can’t be too precise here. I think a simple visual comparison to the most common molds and to the dolls themselves will do just fine.

Let’s start with the horse that Skye has dethroned in terms of size — Joey, who until now had been the biggest horse in my collection.

And I have to say, I’m a bit surprised — although I expected a difference between them, I honestly thought it would be more noticeable. Of course, Joey is slightly smaller, but really not by much. Skye has a more solid, heavier build — that’s most evident when comparing their hindquarters — but their heads are quite similar in size, and my black antique looks like a perfectly good match for her.

Please excuse Joey’s windswept mane — let’s just say he was having a bad hair day. Before the photo session, I tried to straighten what was left of his hair, and as a result, the mane puffed up and refused to lie neatly.

They also look quite good next to the dolls. Both Selena and Summer aren’t standing on flat feet — Summer is wearing heels, and little Selena is up on her toes. Still, I think both horses fit them nicely in scale.

Next up for comparison is Zdzisiek, the first Mattel Barbie horse in this lineup. He represents the Champion mold from 1991 — not the most common Barbie horse mold, but definitely a recognizable one.

Zdzisiek, as the first Mattel representative, doesn’t fare quite as well as Joey — which was to be expected. Next to the gigantic Skye, he looks more like a pony — and that’s just the beginning of the Mattel comparisons.

While he still looks fairly decent next to Selena...

...next to a standard Barbie, especially when placed beside Skye, things don’t look quite as good.

Now it’s time for Mattel’s most popular horse mold — the Prancer mold from 1983 — and our model for this comparison will be Elsa.

Prancer’s pose makes him appear even shorter than Champion in terms of his back height, though his head is held slightly higher — Elsa’s ears reach about the level of Skye’s noseband, whereas Champion’s ears only came up to her muzzle.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s difficult to compare these horses precisely since it’s impossible to set them all in the exact same pose.

It’s clear that Skye was designed with Barbie in mind, while Elsa fits roughly the same scale as Selena.

And now for the final — and most striking — comparison: Skye and Henrietta, the downsized version of the Honey mold.

Henrietta was originally intended to be a Haflinger, but when she was made, I had no idea she was actually a scaled-down mold — when compared to the real Honey mold, she looks much more like a Shetland pony. For now, she’s the smallest Mattel mold in my herd.

However, there is something that connects her with Skye — their coloring: the same markings on the legs, gray muzzle, gray hooves, and light mane and tail.