"Mmmmmmmmmmm HORSES!"

Sep 12, 2021

~  Elizabeth Taylor in "National Velvet"

I was "horse-crazy" as a kid.  Well, my best friend and I didn't use that term. We called ourselves "Horse Fiends."  (Not a typo: "Fiends," as in, "a person who is very enthusiastic about something.")

Fellow Horse Fiends,
Let's take a sec and look at that GIF. We all know that when Violet inhales deeply and says, "Mmmmmmmm HORSES!" that the "Mmmmmmmmm" part of that isn't about how the flowers smell, Right?! Who are they trying to kid?! You and I know that any Card-Carrying Horse Fiend is positively IN LOVE with the smell of the barn, the hay, the tack, and the horses themselves.
By the stars, when I had the opportunity in organic chemistry lab to make an aldehyde or ketone (those are the chemicals you smell, like banana or vanilla), I didn't choose "Hyacinth" or "Rubber Tire." No, I chose "Horse Sweat." It was one of the longer formulations and I was the last one in the lab (well, honestly I was nearly always the last one in the lab), but it worked! And it was fantastic!
So, yeah... I'm sure we're on the same page on this.

 

Aaaaany-hoodles, this "Horse Affliction" was all-consuming. My friend and I tucked towels in the backs of our jeans (tail), combed our hair over the front of our faces (forelock), and ran around pretending to be horses. Horse Fiends.

We whinnied at each other—and at real horses. And we sounded like real horses. 

No, really: actual horses would actually whinny back at us. It was awesome.

Even as an adult, I still get all ridiculously "Mmmmmmm-HORSES," Violet-Brown-swoon-y-squishy inside if I see anything that has to do with a horse. I mean it. If I see a photo of a horse, a stuffed toy horse, a saddle, a bucket of oats, a t-shirt with a horse on it—ANYTHING remotely horse-related—my brain goes into horsey-la-la-land. May the stars help me if I see an actual horse. 

Soooo, when I find a horse among the branches of a tree, I get par-TIC-ularly amped. 

This is "Fire Horse." I looked at the sweeping branches of this ash tree silhouette and immediately saw Mane and Tail. Then I saw the horse's jawline and front legs. Can you imagine how exciting it is to see something so fantastic and then get to dive into creating an image so that you can see it, too? 

 

"Fire Horse" is one of several images of horses I've done. I just love the energy of this particular image! And the way this stallion (oh yes he's a stallion!) is tossing his mane? Oh *SIGH*...

I'm still a Horse Fiend. Hopelessly so.

Thanks for reading!

P.S. If you haven't seen "National Velvet," I recommend it. The character of Violet's Mom (Mrs. Brown) is phenomenal. Anne Revere played the role and won an Academy Award for her performance.