Karen Malcor-Chapman

Last month the model horse hobby lost one of its beloved and respected OG members, Karen Malcor-Chapman.

Like most of us, Karen grew up as a stereotypical horse obsessed girl.

However, unlike so many of us, she took that obsession and turned into something real.

Her life was filled with horses, most notably her two famous stallions: Khemosabi++++// son Khornerstone KpM (Beau)...

and Woodstock North's Who's Appy Now (Appy)...

as well as her current and last "big" horse, Champagne Bubbles, an amber champagne Friesian Heritage Horse..

My first "contact" with Karen came though the pages of the model horse magazines of yore.

That Southern California address - so near to where I grew up! - caught my eye.

As did all those fabulous customs.

And that tag line - Wheeze got the Best! - who could ever forget that?

Decades later, we connected more through Facebook and, later, my blog.

We chatted a bit here and there - mostly about negotiating the health care system for aging parents - but our relationship never made it past the computer screen.

That doesn't sound like much, but really, she was the best kind of social media friend.

Karen's 2025 Christmas photo. The caption read: Happy Holidays from (non-snowy) Southern California!  Photo taken yesterday by my dear daughter Jenn... the 4 of us, (l to r) Khonshu, me, Luke & Bubbles were all standing together in costume!

Luke: "why am I here?"

Bubbles: "why is the dog here?"

Khonshu: "can I go now?"

Karen: "y'all keep standing still!"

Her feed was filled horses, dogs, cats, alpacas, goats, life...

I always hoped that someday there would be a less frantic trip to California, and we could meet for real.

I would have loved that.

with fellow hobbyist, Juan John Vallejo

Godspeed, Karen.

Wheeze got the Best, indeed.