A lifelong dedication and passion with horses is something I’ve delightfully, and sometimes painfully, experienced since I was a little girl. Since 1984, I’ve held onto a publication of a British magazine called The Field that showcased the Lipizzaners of Lipica, Slovenia. The stallion on the cover possessed a spirit to which I was continuously drawn. This issue sat in my art studio for many years, and every so often I’d glance at it and think of creating a painting based on this photo.

In May of last year, I finally put idea to practice. With a blank canvas staring at me, I started painting at 11 p.m. and didn’t stop until 2 p.m. the next day. I couldn’t. I was inspired and motivated. I sat down, stared at the painting, and was surprised and pleased with what I’d just done through, it seemed to me, the help of some muse.

Instantly, paintings of life-sized portraits of Lipizzaners filled my head–full body as well as head portraits; an entire exhibit dedicated to the Lipizzaner stallions. I felt that I’d been truly inspired. I called the office at Tempel Lipizzans in Illinois the next day in hopes of using their stallions as references for the paintings I envisioned. They requested an outline of my thoughts and plans, along with a photo of the painting I was basing this idea on.

After review, they suggested they would use the exhibit as the opening of their 2004 performance season. After that, I started photographing and sketching the Tempel stallions. Tempel Farms is an amazingly historic and beautiful location. Its staff is dedicated to training the art of the Haute Ecole, the “high school” of classical riding and training that the Lipizzaners are famous for that is also the origin of dressage as we know it today.

I then contacted the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria, and Stud Farm Lipica, in Slovenia, in hopes of including their stallions. Much to my delight, the people at both sites were interested in having me visit and include their stallions in my exhibit.

Dreams Lived
I traveled to Lipica and Vienna to sketch and photograph the stallions they chose for me, two from each location. Both venues were astonishing: Lipica’s history and its ideal environment makes it clear why it was chosen as the origins for breeding and creating the Lipizzaner breed; and The Spanish Riding School is the epitome of an exemplary training and cultivating environment, with a dedication to the ability, agility, and power of the Lipizzaner.

Much of this exhibit adventure awakened my childhood dreams: horses kept in a palace, fields with forests and mountains in the background to ride off into, and white-fence-lined pastures of green fields to daydream in. This entire exhibit adventure is full of little stories, amazing coincidences, and overwhelming responses by many people who want to help send the exhibit to Europe.

I arrived in Vienna four hours late because of an ice storm in Washington, D.C. When I reached the station to catch my train to Lipica, via the capital Ljubljana, I saw the train pulling out in the distance. I asked the ticket agent when the next train was scheduled, and he explained that the next train was in 2