Well here it is at last and my profuse apologies that it has been so long. We have had quite a busy year and I am surprised and very pleased at the response to the site.

A warm thank you goes out to everybody who has helped to our success. I didn't realise there were so many fans still out there and I have had some lovely emails with some interesting information. You have been very kind in your comments about the service, some of which can be seen on the letters page. Also thank you to those people who have pointed out mistakes with tack or horses, sometimes it's difficult to run a big site without some errors, and I don't always notice them. Our aim is to give you a good service and feed back is important. We do try to make things a little more personal rather than be an anonymous factory just out to make money.

The prices remained low throughout the year but there may be a slight increase in September (due to rising costs of raw materials). I have been approached by other websites and retailers to sell through their outlets but so far I have declined for a couple of reasons really:

Firstly I can pass on the discounts directly to the customer. Cutting out middle men, who just hold stock (and don't actually put in any of the hard work that goes into making the models), saves money and allows me to pay my very talented workforce a decent return.

Secondly Magpie Models has always been run as a mail order business and I would like to keep the tradition. Of course we offer affiliate memberships too and so we can pass on discount to those people who help us. This is your newsletter; this is the place where you can air your views, come up with ideas, send photos, drawings, stories etc. So send me your stuff and I will put it in the next one. Photos are better in JPEG format and email addresses are on the site under contact us.

I think we will try a newsletter twice a year to start, obviously increasing if we get more correspondence.

How about a puzzle page?
A swap shop or second hand model sale?
Any horse shows or model forums?

Let me know!

Finally a big thank you to Susan Gooderham for sending me probably the first catalogue of "Dream Ponies" from Swallow horsetoys, and Marian for finding out some of the history of Magpie Models, which I have printed, along with a first newsletter I found from when Emma Kelly owned the business. Anybody out there know any more?

Marian is from Model horses unlimited so check out her website on our links page, along with Jackie Radwanski from B.E.C.F (who always sends me her newsletters, thanks) plus a lot more. If you want to be included on the links page you only have to ask! I might want my link on yours too!

Cheers to you all
Jan Adams