My favorite part of watching a good dressage test is at the end after the Halt Salute, when the rider, beaming, reaches forward and pats her horse on the neck as they exit the arena. The horse sighs in relief and stretches out, glad to be done! I captured this moment in this small 8" x 10" oil painting of Tammy Lisi and her palomino horse, Gold Jess Cody. The lighting was an enjoyable challenge, as the sun made bluish braid shadows on the horse's golden neck.

Many years ago I saw the photo of this jumper, and it stayed in my mind. I just loved the way the light reflected on the horse and rider, and the determination on their faces. After several years of thinking about it, I tracked down the photographer and received permission to use the photo as a reference for this painting. This was my first large painting - it's 2 feet wide by 4 feet high, and the full-sized print is very striking.

A good friend of mine breeds and raises Irish Draught horses, and this is one of her fillies at three days old. This painting was juried into the Western States Horse Expo Art Show in 2005.

Several years ago the famous Clydesdales made an appearance at the Johnson County Fair. I loved how all that gentle power was controlled by one handler. This painting was juried into the Draft Horse Classic Art at the Classic show in 2005.

These two geldings were in adjoining outdoor stalls at a local pony club show. They were playing with each other over the fence much of the day, and making such a game of it, it was a riot to watch them. I truly enjoyed portraying one of these entertaining moments.

I started painting horses in my late teens using watercolor, which is actually a much more challenging medium than oil. This is one of my early watercolors.

This was my very first oil painting, and what a learning experience that was! I can look at it now and see how much I've learned about painting with oil, but I am still fond of this painting, especially the look on this stallion's face.

This is a portrait of a miniature horse stallion, Alpha Farms Black Russian and his young son, Missy‘s Ivan. Russian was inducted into the National Hall of Fame in 2006 and was also the 2006 National Grand Champion in Pleasure Driving. Ivan‘s conformation and remarkable action indicate that he will follow in his father's footsteps.

Painted Intimidator (Ernie) is a pinto American Saddlebred stallion here in Iowa who is making quite a name for himself all across the country. He is siring many champion (regional and national) half-Arabian pintos, and I now own two pinto part-draft sport horse fillies sired by him.

"Kador" is a purebred Arabian race horse stallion who has also sired some successful babies. Portraying him in this huge stride, with all the motion and reflected light was a welcome challenge.