Ever since I was a small child, I have loved horses. My grandfather worked at Calumet Farm in Kentucky and introduced me to my first horses when I was three years old. I can still remember seeing the horses looking out of their stalls. Igrew up in New Jersey where there was no place to keep a horse, so I had to content myself with drawing pictures of them and reading horse stories. My favorite book was Black Beauty.
When I was in my late thirties, my husband, son and I moved to the family farm in Kentucky, and one of the first things we did was acquire some horses. Getting to know these beautiful animals has been a high points in my life. We now have seven of them—two Arabians, two Belgian draft horses, a paint horse and two small Shetland ponies. I love watching them—whether they are galloping through a field or just quietly grazing and swishing their tails. They are some of my favorite subjects to paint.