This bronze grew out of a commission from Bruce’s wife to surprise him with the image of him as a teenager sitting between the forefeet of his Quarter Horse Bing, who he had taught to sit down. A casting of the bronze was donated by the family to Thatcher School where the original picture was taken, and it was presented in his honor at the Honors Convocation by their grandson much to Bruce’s surprise. The story behind it made it even more fun while I was enjoying the challenge of working out the technical difficulties of sculpting a horse in such an unnatural position.

First I blocked in Bing’s proportions in a sitting position and sent Bruce’s wife pictures of the headless horse to show her roughly what I had in mind. Then I roughed in his head position. I left his lower hind legs detached until near the end so I could work under him without them in the way.

Once I had Bing’s size and proportions set, I started on Bruce by making his wire “skeleton” which I stood next to Bing to be sure his size was proportionate before covering it with clay and positioning him in front of Bing.

First picture of Bruce seated between Bing’s feet. Bandit “examining” Bruce and Bing during photo shoot. Bruce and his portion of the base were worked on the separate piece of plywood throughout most of the process.

I did most of the work on Bruce’s head separate from his body and periodically stuck it on his body while supporting his neck with a piece of clay. Bing’s head complete with jeweler’s wax hackamore. What fun it was to tie the miniature string mecate as I did for my own horses.

The appearance of the “Bruce and Bing” castings on the left is similar to a traditional patina. They all go through that stage before the buckskin color is airbrushed on to Bing while Bruce is covered with foil.

Once the first Bing was completed, Dennis used it to match the color on subsequent patinas. The final step after Sharon mounts the bronze on the base is to buff the wax before packing the bronze to ship.

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