“Exuberance” is actually a beautiful Belgian mare named Sophie. I was so enthralled with the joyful way she galloped around the turnout arena at the Draft Horse Classic that I took picture after picture of her. Her very abandon immediately brought to mind the extreme grace and collection of the beautiful Friesians performing in Clay Maier’s “Friesians Spectacular”, and I decided to sculpt “Elegance” from one of those reference photos as her counterpoint. The owners of my Belgian Madonna “Kate” recognized Sophie when they saw the bronze at Western States Horse Expo and got her owner and I together. Happily her parents bought the #1 casting for her Birthday, and Valley Bronze was able to duplicate Sophie’s exact markings for that casting.

The actual sculpting of “Exuberance” went extremely quickly. As I do with many of my sculptures, I used an armature that entered her side rather than supporting her from below. This allowed access to her legs and barrel as I was working on them.

Right side of completed clay Exuberance

Left side of completed clay Exuberance

Right front side of completed clay Exuberance

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