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I know two things about the horse - one of them is rather coarse...

No, seriously, going by what's in the rummage boxes at toy fairs and boot sales, every second model Lesney ever sold was a horse box or other.
But not a single one of them ever contains even half a horse!

So there must be a parallel universe where there is a trillion and a half of Matchbox horses (that figure probably holds true simple counting).

Or does anyone out there know the fate of literally metric tons of little white plastic horses?

They tend to congregate at model soldier shows along with lost Cowboys, Indians, Farmers and the occasional Corgi Policeman...

Ghosthunter.

Maybe they got sick and went to the horsepital.

johnboy wrote:Maybe they got sick and went to the horsepital.

Oh dear, John is definitely back...

I like horses - especially with raisins!

In moms hoover
Gary

I bought a job lot of non-mint horse trailers last year. Each had two horses and some were still on the sprue. When the package arrived there was a bonus, not mentioned in the listing, a nice condition box for one horse trailer. I opened the box to discover it was full of additional horses complete with another set still on the sprue. That kind of thing doesn't happen very often (at least not for me).

If it were me, the horses would have been lost in transit, the horseboxes much worse than advertised and two of them missing
and instead of a bonus box, what was left of the horseboxes, would have been destroyed due to improper packaging.

How many different kinds of horses did they make and are there variations?

Diecastmolester wrote: How many different kinds of horses did they make and are there variations?

They came in two sizes, the smaller ones associated with the 17e and 40e Horse-Boxes, the larger ones associated with the 43c Pony Trailer and the King Size K-18a Horse-Box.

Each model contained the same pair of two different horses (two pairs for K-18a), one holding its head up, the other holding its head down.

During the Lesney era the horses were always white, some later variations of 40e and 43c made in the Far East contained black ones.

Some of the last variations made in the Mattel era had incorrectly sized horses included; there were Horse-Boxes with large horses (very difficult to remove) as well as Pony Trailers with small horses.

I have to say that loose horses (as well as cows for the Cattle Trucks) are relatively common at local flea markets, much more common than other loose parts such as dogs, girders, pipes, ladders, scaffolding pieces, roof luggage pieces, drivers and patients on stretchers.

ChFalkensteiner wrote:have to say that loose horses (as well as cows for the Cattle Trucks) are relatively common at local flea markets

Thats right _ I found one dog two cows and three horses in the last two years on flea markets.