When I first went to the Slade Art School - summer school course, one of the first things my tutor advised was ‘Tom – don’t do horses’. It was the best advice she could have given.

By that stage, I had spent 12 years working in horse racing, and I had drawn and painted hundreds of horses. They were my go-to subject, and when I got to college I didn’t know where else to start, but the challenge she gave me was just what I needed.

It was the start of the process I have outlined in ‘The early layers’ article I wrote, of self-reflection and responding to the challenge – ‘why make art?’.

 ime has passed since then, and a few years ago I thought it was appropriate to re-visit this subject. As suggested above, I had spent many years working  with horses – as a stable lad, a few rides as a jockey, I’d evented and team chased, and I’d worked in Ireland, the UK, Australia and America with horses, and having drawn and painted many of them, I wanted to explore this subject through the sculptural language I have developed.

So in late 2017 I started to make ‘Drinking Horse’ which has proved very popular with early editions selling out. I also made a large version which was exhibited at Newbury Racecourse – which provides a lovely link back to my horseracing days because at that time, I worked in Lambourn which is just down the road from Newbury Racecourse, and I have many memories of racing there. It was very special to be back there with one of my sculptures.

I don’t think of myself as a horse sculptor, but as a sculptor with a life-time interest in horses – which I hope allows me to capture their essence.