This bronze was in the back of my mind since I caught a picture of Aaron, Clay Maier’s lead horse in his beautiful performance “Friesians Spectacular”, balanced on one foreleg as Clay was ground driving him in a very collected canter in preparation for having him jump the same jump he clears in actual performances. Once I saw Sophie charging around the arena with such abandon, I knew I had to sculpt these two horses as counterpoints. “Elegance” is shown on the black granite base, but he is also available on a walnut base that matches that under “Exuberance”.

“Elegance” began with his body and head roughed in before I added his front legs and then his rear legs. The legs were started over the twisted wire, and then I cut a groove in each shoulder and haunch, turned the end of the wire at a right angle so I could push it strait into the clay when I laid the wire into the groove. Then I built the shoulders and haunches up over the wire.

I nearly always leave face and ears to last as they tend to get damaged while I am working on the rest. And in this case the long tail also was saved until last as it was so complex to balance.

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