Cordoba

This high relief sculpture is a celebration of ethical horsmanship. It is pictured here in polymer clay, prior to a limited edition casting in bronze.

 

A well educated rider with good 'feel' - (the ability to accurately read a horse and adapt instantly to whatever's most appropriate in that moment) will earn their horse's trust and be offered a connection so close, it'll feel telepathic. This connection I'd describe as a state of bliss and is what this is sculpture is about.

 

It was inspired by a visit to the Royal School of Equestrian Arts in Cordoba, Southern Spain, where in the 16th century, the famous Lipizzaner horses were first bred. These mostly white horses, (always born dark haired) formed the base of the breed which is now best known for their world famous dressage performances at the Spanish Riding School of Vienna.

 

Dressage is often likened to dance. It comprises a set of movements that develops a horse's athleticism and flexibility, movements which have been honed to an art form from their inception by the ancient Greeks.

 

Though my main interest had always been dressage, horsework wages had always been low and a ticket to London to see them perform was for most of my life, as unaffordable as a trip to Vienna, so when I found myself at the Royal Stables in 2018, meeting my first Lipizzaner, it was a seismic event.

 

Appropriately enough it was the hottest week in the hottest year on record, in an area known as 'the frying pan of Spain' where I took my seat on the front row and looking up the centre line, wept as I watched these horses working. One pair in particular stood out.

 

On return home, I immediately started work on this piece. It took me 2 years to complete.

 

The dressage movement depicted here is known as piaffe and would come many years into a horse's long, careful, progressive training programme. These movements are not 'tricks'. Horses will often piaffe, passage or pirouette, collect or extend their paces, riderless, out of excited exuberance as they play with their friends in a field.

 

What makes them advanced dressage movements is simply that they're performed on request. It takes many years of careful incremental training however, to reach a point where the horse is able to sustain piaffe with ease, flexibilty and athleticism, just as it does with any dancer or athlete.

 

I've sculpted this horse with no 'tack'. Both saddle and bridle have been used for millenia - the saddle centering the rider directly over the horse's centre of gravity and the bridle affording nuanced communication. When this tack is well fitted, well kept and in experienced hands, it's the most comfortable and beneficial arrangement for both horse and rider. But the idea of riding bareback with no bridle always had an appeal for me as a child - evoking ideas of wildness and freedom, of a closer connection, of an absence of discomfort or of rider domination - ideas promoted by Disney and unhorsey romantics. Though fantasy, that idealistic image still conjures the concept of kindness, so it's with artistic licence that I've sculpted this horse with no tack.

 

This is a high relief sculpture, pictured here in polymer clay prior to a limited edition casting in bronze.

 

Bronze or aluminium, foundry stamped, numbered, signed and dated

Size: approx 10.5" wide x 10.3" high

POA