Living in the Southern Highlands of NSW, we are completely surrounded by horses—big, beautiful, graceful beasts. I know almost nothing about them except that they are pretty, huge, gentle and somehow also terrifying. Also, fun fact: they’re ridiculously hard to paint.

We’re lucky to have over 100 horses around our property—none of which are ours, thankfully. Our neighbours take care of all the feeding, grooming, vetting, mucking out, and we get to just sit back and enjoy the equine parade. It’s like having all the perks of horse ownership without any of the, you know, responsibility. It’s a win-win… for us, at least.

Our dear friend Lori got into Dressage just a few years ago with her first horse, “Duke Kahanamoku”—yes, named after the legendary Hawaiian surfer—and he’s an ex-racehorse gelding (which I now understand means he’s a male horse who… well… no longer needs to buy boxer briefs, if you catch my drift).

Before Lori, I thought Dressage was either a fancy salad or a type of Renaissance fencing. Turns out, it’s a kind of horse ballet. The rider (not a jockey, apparently—this isn’t the Melbourne Cup) dresses like they’re about to perform a Mozart concerto, and the horse looks like it’s headed to its first ballet recital, complete with fancy braids and a tail that says, “I’m here to pirouette.”

Then the performance begins, and the horse walks, trots, canters—sometimes with a bit of a Beyoncé strut—between what looks like giant Scrabble tiles placed around the arena. Each routine has a sequence of movements choreographed to these letters. I don’t know if the horse is spelling anything (maybe “SEND HAY”), but it’s mesmerizing. A good Dressage performance lasts 5–7 minutes and, done right, is like watching poetry in motion. Poetry written with very large, very expensive, very dignified legs.

Naturally, I was inspired. The beauty of horse and rider in sync, the quiet intensity of the sport, and the sheer absurdity of not knowing what the horse is trying to spell—it all moved me. So, I decided to paint Duke Kahanamoku as Lori was retiring him for a much younger model with an easier name to spell “Dom Pasquale”.

Duke was my and Lori’s first so he will always have a special place in our hearts. I hope I did him justice.

Spoiler: horses are still hard to paint. Lori was much easier.