Bronze Horse Sculptures
Horses have been a very large part of my life, riding from as soon as I could walk, ‘Lightening’ a little black pony followed by ‘Terry’ a dun. From 11 I had to ride whatever was in the stable to be re-schooled. We had a floating trophy of a bronze horse sculpture for a year, I sat looking at this longing to make bronze horse sculptures myself!
Arriving in Somerset after 9 years in London and no riding, and having had to have had my hands operated on, I realised I was not immortal, so I went to a friend who had a foal from a mare bought at auction and I paid £150 for “Foolish Fred” a 4 month old thoroughbred foal, together we had the most tremendous fun in 2 years of competing from novice to advanced eventing, elementary dressage, national championships at Goodwood horse of the year show and Spiller’s open dressage and jumping. We completed Wylye international 3 day event, but “Fred” suddenly died in the spring of his 9th year.
An allergy to chemicals caused me to close my business, “Fred” had died, my son gone to NZ, the cat died at 20 years old, I had no money, no job, being dyslectic, no education, so I went to Zimbabwe to teach myself to be a sculptor! I made wax horses and cheetahs, and took them to South Africa and managed to find a foundry where I could stay and help cast the waxes into bronze.
I then took them back to Zim to do the finishing, patination and bases. After a while I managed to set up my own foundry and do my own casting in Zimbabwe. It took a long time to make my own bronze horse sculptures but it was worth it, making bronze polo ponies, race horses, bronze horses both rolling and rearing!!
