In 2020, I set about making a horse head in a different pose to the drinking horses I had made historically. As I have explained elsewhere, I worked with horses for many years, so there are various poses that resonate.

Horses can be inclined to rear up for various reasons. Some are taught to do so – partly as a performance thing, but mainly rearing up is an anxious response by the horse to something that is happening. In a funny way I see it as a horse expressing themselves – albeit it expressing anxiety. Their eyes are very alert, their ears would typically be back, and their head would be at a slight tilt.

I have tried to capture something of that alert state in this sculpture – which I have made both in sandblasted acrylic on a small scale, and on a slightly larger scale in stainless steel.