Horse and rider
A portrait of a horse and rider together
Two subjects on one canvas, where the proportions, the saddle and the horse's ears decide whether it reads as a partnership or as a passenger.
A horse and rider is the one portrait where two subjects have to be drawn as a single object. The rider's weight sits on the horse, the horse's neck arches because of the rider's hands, and the two silhouettes merge at the saddle. Painted as a person on top of a horse, it looks like a photograph of two strangers at a bus stop. Painted as one shape, it looks like what it is.
The commonest failure is scale. A horse's head is around sixty centimetres long and a rider's torso roughly the same, so a painter working without measurements very easily produces a rider who is too large, which makes the horse look like a pony. Nobody measures this consciously, and everybody sees it: the horse stops being the horse they know and becomes a general horse.
The proportions are the whole thing
The working measurements are simple. From the ground to the top of a horse's withers is roughly three-quarters of the rider's seated height above the saddle, and the rider's head sits well above the horse's ears in most disciplines and level with them in others. Those relationships matter more than absolute size: the canvas has no ruler in it.
Then the connection points. The rider's seat is the deepest part of the saddle, the lower leg hangs under the knee with the heel below the toe, and the hands sit above the horse's withers with a straight line from elbow to bit. Those lines — elbow to bit, shoulder to hip to heel — are what riders look at first, and they are checked in the drawing stage before anything is painted.
Size follows from all this. A horse and rider as two subjects wants 24 × 36 in for a half-length composition, and 30 × 40 in or larger if you want the whole horse on the ground. At 20 × 24 in the rider's face drops to about three inches, which is the edge of what carries a likeness.
Legs, hands, and what the saddle hides
Most of the rider's leg is not visible. The saddle flap covers the thigh, the boot covers the calf, and what is actually painted is a knee, a length of leather, a boot and a stirrup. Painters who try to describe a whole leg under the flap produce a bulge where the saddle should be a flat plane. The saddle is a shape, not a suggestion of what is beneath it.
Hands and reins are the other place a portrait is lost. Rein contact is either there or it is not, and it is visible: a loose rein hangs in a curve, a contact rein is a straight line from the hand to the bit. Double bridles have two reins and two bits, which is why a close-up of the hands is worth asking for. We would rather paint four reins correctly than two reins approximately.
Boots, spurs, a stock tie, a hairnet, a body protector under a jacket: all of it is painted as it appears in the photograph rather than as it usually appears, because competition dress has rules that change.
Ears, expression, and what the horse is doing
A horse's ears are its face. Forward means listening to something in front, flicked back means listening to the rider, and flat back means something quite different — and a photograph taken in the ring often catches the second of those, because the horse is listening to the person on its back. That is fine to paint. Pinned ears are not, and we will say so rather than reproduce a moment the owner did not intend.
The eye is set on the side of the head, which means a front-on photograph shows almost no eye at all and a profile shows one eye and no expression. The angle that works is a three-quarter view, slightly from the near side, where the near eye is visible, the jaw has a shape and the muzzle is not foreshortened into a circle.
Finally, what the horse is doing. Standing at a show, mid-stride, jumping, grazing, being led in from the field: each is a different painting and each needs a photograph taken at that moment. We will not put a horse into a gallop from a standing photograph, and we will not invent a jump.
What it costs
Price is set by canvas size and the number of subjects — not by the occasion, the deadline, or how much detail you ask for. The table below is the same one used on every painting page, so there is no quote to wait for.
| Canvas | Metric | 1 subject | 2 subjects | 3 subjects | 4+ subjects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 in | 20 × 25 cm | $189 | $259 | — | — |
| 12 × 16 in | 30 × 41 cm | $289 | $379 | $459 | — |
| 16 × 20 in | 41 × 51 cm | $389 | $499 | $619 | $749 |
| 20 × 24 in | 51 × 61 cm | $549 | $699 | $849 | $1,029 |
| 24 × 36 in | 61 × 91 cm | $789 | $1,059 | $1,290 | $1,560 |
| 30 × 40 in | 76 × 102 cm | $1,090 | $1,449 | $1,749 | $2,090 |
| 36 × 48 in | 91 × 122 cm | $1,390 | $1,849 | $2,249 | $2,690 |
Shipping is free worldwide. Framing is optional and quoted separately — most customers have the canvas stretched by a local framer for $60–$120.
How it works
Send the photograph
One sharp phone photo is enough. Tell us the deadline, the wall it is going on, and anything that must or must not be in the picture.
See the mock-up within 24 hours
A digital composite at the exact canvas size and crop, so size and composition are settled before any paint is bought. Nothing is charged until you approve it.
Watch it being painted
Three to five weeks in real oil, with two progress photographs. You can raise a concern at either one — that is what they are for.
Approve, then it ships
You see the finished canvas first, with one free round of adjustments. Then it travels rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured, with the numbered certificate inside.
Real oil, not a print
Hand-painted on cotton canvas, varnished, signed. Brushwork you can see in raking light.
You approve before we paint
A digital mock-up at the exact size and crop, within 24 hours, included in the price.
Numbered certificate
Every painting ships with a signed COA stating artist, medium, size and year.
Free worldwide shipping
Rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured. No minimum, no distance surcharge.
Questions
Questions we actually get
Two subjects: $289 for 12 × 16 in, $389 for 16 × 20 in, $549 for 20 × 24 in and $789 for the 24 × 36 in that a half-length horse and rider really needs. Shipping is free worldwide, and framing and stretching are quoted separately.
Only with the photographer's permission. Competition photographs are usually the photographer's copyright, so ask them first — a single painting is normally an easy request. If permission is not possible, send a photograph taken by a friend at the same event and we will work from that instead. Ask before you send it, and we will wait for the reply.
We can, if you send another photograph showing the ears forward, because the ear shape has to come from somewhere. What we will not do is paint ears from imagination: the angle of the ear relative to the poll is one of the things that makes a horse look like itself, and an invented ear reads wrong.
Yes, if both were taken in similar light and at a similar angle to the viewer. It is $60–$70 for the composite. Legs, hands and the saddle are where mismatches show first, so we will usually ask for one photograph of the rider actually on a horse, even a different one.
Three to five weeks of painting plus three to five business days in transit, with a mock-up inside 24 hours and two progress photographs. Rush delivery is three weeks including painting for $90, and it is worth booking well before a show date you cannot move.
Send the photographs of horse and rider
One frame of the two of them together, plus close-ups of the hands, the saddle and the horse's head. We will tell you what size it needs.