Exuberant
Exuberant
Verde Guatemala Marble on Granite18 1/2 x 8 x 8 inches
Photo by Mel Schockner
© Ellen Woodbury
Every aspect of a horse’s existence is based on movement. They
graze to eat and walk to digest, they see in perspective only when they
move their heads from side to side as in walking, their hooves are
little pumps that circulate blood in their legs as hoof impacts ground. They live to move, and move to live.
“Exuberant” was inspired by my dressage horse, Amarretto. In his youth he was tall and slender, an honest 16.3 hands high, with attractive uphill confirmation and pretty gaits. He loved to move and he loved to play. I discovered his enthusiasm for inventing and playing games during a lay-up after an injury that required stall rest. He was hand-walked for several weeks and then brought back slowly into work. During
that time, we did ground driving and de-sensitizing exercises with
scary objects like cardboard boxes and the dreaded blue tarp. He
was fascinated with the mazes and obstacle courses I guided him
through, and eventually ended up wearing the tarp and carrying a box in
his teeth that held his treats as he negotiated the course. (The
first time I put the treats in the box I could see from his facial
expressions that his brain was racing to determine the possibilities of
what I had just done!)
Here’s another story: Amarretto had an enormous safety cone in the turn-out paddock that was a favorite toy during his daily personal playtimes. He would throw the safety cone into the neighboring turn-out hoping the horse relaxing there would throw the cone back to him. Nobody ever did. One
of his horse buddies, Magoo, was on stall-rest for several weeks and
would continually observe this one-sided game from his stall. When
Magoo was finally well enough to have a turn-out, he knew how to play
the game and was the only horse who returned the thrown safety cone. That totally warmed my heart!
Amarretto’s joi de vivre was not confined to his turn-outs, and riding with him was often an adventure in movement. Exuberant is the best word to describe his philosophy of life. I take that feeling forward with every sculpture I create. This one is for him.
The stone is Verde Guatemala Marble, originally quarried in Guatemala, as you might expect. The
quarry ran out of stone some time ago, but a new strain of the same
marble was found in India, so this particular block is Verde Guatemala
from India. (Geology is fascinating!) The stone is extremely hard, and certainly the hardest marble I have ever carved. The
friction from cutting this stone was burning off the nickel plating on
my diamond blade and I had to switch to a sintered blade, used for
cutting granite. Slow going, but it did the trick.
Filing and sanding were extreme finger-busting efforts. Each
stage in the progression from raw stone to 600-grit sandpaper had to be
done perfectly—all scratches and tool marks had to be obliterated with
each successive tool in order for the final “skin” to be flawless. The next-higher grit was not effective in removing flaws missed by the previous sand paper. Deep and rich color almost always comes with a price, and Guatemala Verde is no exception. However, the end justifies the means for this color freak.
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