The public is being given the chance to own one of a series of unique horse sculptures specially designed by riders and celebrities for the charity World Horse Welfare.
The 20 large sculptures, standing at 10.2hh, and 21 small maquettes, standing at 3.4hh, originally formed part of the charity’s World Horse Trail, which was on display this year at venues including Royal Windsor and Ascot Racecourse.
Each has been individually decorated to represent aspects of World Horse Welfare’s work; with famous names from both equestrian and broadcasting worlds coming on board to input their designs.
Contributing their ideas were riders Zara Tindall, Nick Skelton and Pippa Funnell along with actors and TV and radio personalities Sara Cox, Alan Titchmarsh, Martin Clunes, Alex Hammond, Jonathan Agnew, Deborah Meaden, Lee McKenzie, milliner David Shilling and sculptor Judy Boyt.
The 20 large sculptures include a representation of individual Olympic gold medal-winning showjumper Big Star, highlighting World Horse Welfare’s support for the responsible use of horses in sport. Zara Tindall’s former eventing world champion Toytown also has a statue in his honour, representing World Horse Welfare’s role as a welfare advisor to the FEI.
Other horses include Patience, who works as a tourist taxi in Haiti, Raju, who works in a brick kiln in Nepal, and Chela, who collects rubbish in Honduras, as well as UK rescues Sinbad, Clippy and Lucas.
Pre-bidding has opened online with large sculptures starting at £1,000 and small ones at £300. The highest bid will go through to the final auction night at Kensington Palace on 27 November.
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Also featuring in the auction will be a “showpiece” bronze maquette replica of the national monument of Poppy the war horse, which was unveiled in Ascot last year. The bronze is one of a limited edition of 100 copies, crafted by sculpture and artist Susan Leyland.
Limited edition number one was gifted to The Queen while number 10 is on display in Downing Street. World Horse Welfare will be auctioning edition 27, chosen to represent the year the charity was established.
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