A giant sculpture of an Andalusian stallion is to be unveiled at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.
British sculpture Hamish Mackie will be showing the first of his six life-and-a-quarter bronze horses at the show next month (19-23 May).
The six sculptures were commissioned by Berkeley Homes for a new development at Goodman’s Fields, London EC1.
They are all of different breeds of horses — chosen reflect the history of the site, which was once used by Mr Goodman to keep London’s livery horses.
The breeds chosen for the project was based on “power, durability and the likelihood of their being in livery” said Hamish.
An Andalusian stallion rearing up dramatically at the traffic will be launched at Chelsea Flower Show prior to being installed with the rest of the horses in June.
There is an Irish draught/warmblood sculpture, based on a 17.3hh horse called Pinkerton, belonging to a Crown Prince of Greece.
Hamish contacted H&H showing columnist David Tatlow to find a subject for the thoroughbred/Irish draught sculpture.
A horse called Floyd proved perfect.
“Clearly this horse enjoyed being filmed, he came out performing to camera bursting with energy, which is why I chose this horse to be the one bucking,” said Hamish.
Hamish went to racehorse trainer Paul Webber to find his next subject — spending mornings on the gallops observing how the throughbreds move.
He found his inspiration in a thoroughbred called Gravitate.
“Paul was so helpful, just to see the developed muscles of a racehorse is phenomenal,” added Hamish.
The next sculpture, an Irish draught called Troy, was found close to the sculptor’s Oxfordshire home. The making of this horse was the most technically challenging part of the project as it is depicted standing in water.
The hardest horse to find was the last, an Arab/Russian rearing. After searching the internet Mackie found Anne Brown and Jackie Pringle of Gadebrook Stud, owner and manager of retired racehorse Sambist.
The horse was the finest racing stallion to come out of Russia where he won all five of the Classic races. The horse died last year but his image has been recreated in Hamish’s rearing sculpture.
