Horse paintings

This book of horse paintings is a tribute to my friendship with horses.

Nearly 20 years ago, I was invited to train in Natural Horsemanship on a ranch in southern California. For two years, once and sometimes twice each month I drove to my office outside L.A. During the day, I conducted business, and in the late afternoons and weekends, I took off my tie, put on my jeans and cowboy hat, and learned the art of communicating with horses.

It transformed my world.

I grew up never knowing what it was like walking with two strong legs. I caught polio when I was less than a year old.
There is no self-pity within my body. I never walked and, therefore, never felt the loss of my legs. As a result, I am convinced that my life on crutches was and is perfect.
From that moment on, I believed that if I wanted to learn an athletic skill, then my task was simple. Find someone who mastered what I wish to know, hire that one as a teacher, and then practice what they instructed.

Which is what I did.

Sitting on the back of a 1,400-pound being, asking him to move left, right, forward, and then stop, was as close as I have ever come to experiencing what my friends feel when they walk on two legs. Only I was learning this mobility with four legs.

A friend once said I reminded her of a Centaur: half-man, half-horse.

I was honored by her observation. The original story of the Centaurs was not invented by the Greeks. It came from their indigenous ancestors who used the story of a half-man half-horse to help their children develop an awareness that horses and humans are fellow citizens of the Earth. The Centaurs were shapeshifters. When I created these paintings, I recalled the power I felt, not only on the back of a horse but as a half-man half-horse.