Hello, and thank you for visiting my Horse Sculpture blog!

Hello to all,

If you are here, that means you are a horse lover and an art lover all rolled into one -- my favorite kind of people! I have created this blog to document my journey as I attempt to enter the amazing world of model horse creation. I am planning to sculpt some horses that I hope to have cast in resin and offer to collectors, having made one and gotten some favorable reviews from some people whose opinions I greatly respect. First, though, I thought I would explain how I came to want to do this.

I have been involved with horses -- live ones -- for most of my life as a rider, trainer, and now as an equestrian journalist, but this passion all began with a little palomino Breyer model I saw at my best friend Theresa's house in the 3rd grade. I started collecting Breyers, secretly forgoing lunch so that I could save the fifty cents a day I got for lunch money to buy more model horses. Theresa -- always an excellent co-schemer -- helped me by sharing her lunch every day. I will always remember the thrill of walking into the store and looking over the display of Breyers when I had enough coins in my pocket to buy one. My collection grew (at a rate of about one every two weeks, as Breyers cost about $5.00 back in the day), and whenever Theresa or I would sleep over at each other's houses, all the Breyers we owned came with us. We had elaborate games with them, such as the one where the horses got sold away from the "good farmer" and had to live with the "bad farmer" until they managed to escaped, and I built a model "pasture" in my bedroom with popsicle stick fences and powdered model "grass". I even made elaborate and surprisingly good saddles for them out of old Wallaby leather shoes, and would beg my mother to deem my current shoes worn out enough to sacrifice to yet another saddle-making endeavor.

My parents eventually found out about my lunch money misappropriation and were none too pleased, but kind people that they are, they did not confiscate my ill-gotten Breyer booty. That significantly slowed my collecting, but soon after that I started riding lessons, and with my involvement with live horses, my interest in the model variety slowly faded away. Many years later, I sold most of my Breyer collection to help pay for some bills on a live miniature horse I had as a pet. They had been sitting in boxes in my dad's garage for so many years, and when the vet bills for "Jellybean" started piling up, it somehow seemed appropriate to sell them for that cause. I kept a few favorites (and their little home-made saddles), but many old friends left me that day.

Some years after that, my artistic itch took the form of a Breyer-sized horse sculpture that I made out of ordinary modelling clay, just for fun. I had no idea what I was doing, for although I had done a great deal of art of various kinds on a semi-professional basis, I knew nothing about sculpture. For that reason, I chose a very simple pose, thinking that the whole thing would likely be a disaster anyway, so best not to make it too complicated. However, much to my surprise, I was rather pleased with the outcome of that little experiment, pleased enough to have a mold (four molds, actually, for all the various pieces the piece required) made for ceramic casting. My thought was that I might be able to market some bisque fired and hand painted horses, but I only ended up making a total of five before I found that actually assembling the many delicate pieces that came out of the molds, touching them up for every detail, firing them and then painstakingly hand painting them was simply taking too much time to be worth it.

Still, I had so much fun with the actual sculpting process, that it was always in the back of my mind that I would like to make another some day. Fast forward to the present, when it finally dawned on me that I could sculpt horses and have them cast in resin instead of clay, and when I joyfully discovered that there was a whole world of model horse making, collecting, painting and showing. In researching this world I have been amazed at the talent I've seen from both sculptors and painters, and while the genius of artists like Morgen Kilbourn or Kitty Cantrell is more than a little intimidating, it is also deeply inspiring. I have also been touched and impressed with the friendliness and support I have found so far in this community. Ms. Cantrell, in particular, has been extremely encouraging and has urged me to believe in my talent and take my work seriously.

So, I now put myself in your hands and ask for your thoughts and comments about my work. All I have to show you at this date is a few of the bisque horses I created, but I will post more photos as work on the new ones gets underway. Someone suggested that I should make and offer for sale a resin model of my bisque horse (which I call "Olympian", as it was inspired by the beautiful warmblood horses that are at the top of the Olympic disciplines), but I have no idea if it is good enough that you folks out there would be interested. If you have any thoughts on this, and certainly if you would want one, please let me know as I would do it if there was enough interest to cover the expenses. Regardless, I would love to hear from you! I can be reached via email at thedarkhorserider@gmail.com

Many thanks,

Susan Kauffmann