Sculpted by renowned sculptor, Judy Boyt, the ten horses stand just over a metre tall with each one telling the story of a different aspect of the charity’s work improving horses’ lives – from Mr Melvin Andrews the pony found in an urban back yard who is now flourishing, to Gitana, a working horse in Nicaragua who supports her owner’s extensive family and livelihood. Adults and children alike will be able to follow the trail by downloading the World Horse Trail app (from 19th April) or by picking up a map from Windsor Tourist Information, the Windsor & Royal Borough Museum, Guildhall which will take them on a tour of the Royal towns and bring the sculptures’ inspiring stories to life.
The muse for the sculptures in the trail is rehomed competition horse, World Horse Welfare Lucas, who was rescued as a youngster from a frozen field with his mother, both of whom were fighting to survive the harsh winter weather. Lucas is now transformed and regularly competes at British Eventing with his rehomer Colleen in Fife, Scotland. Judy travelled to meet Lucas and live-sculpt him late last year before creating an 11hh sculpture back home in her Wiltshire studio which was then used to create the mould for production of the fibreglass sculptures.
Ten of the 11hh (111cm) sculptures will form the ‘Borough Trail’ which will be displayed throughout the towns of Windsor and Eton until the end of July and will then travel to Kensington and Chelsea for the rest of the summer. Ten additional sculptures form the ‘Show Trail’ which will be exhibited at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, where World Horse Welfare is the show’s supported charity, and will then travel to a number of other events during the year. 20 miniature 35cm high horse sculptures will also feature across World Horse Welfare’s four Rescue and Rehoming Centres in Norfolk, Somerset, Lancashire and Aberdeenshire.
“Following the success of our 2016 Invisible Horse Trail, we wanted to create something even bigger this year as a positive and engaging way of sharing our work with a much wider audience. The horse sculptures are a fantastic visual way to show all the different aspects of how we help horses both in the UK and around the world, as well as celebrating some of the inspiring stories of rescued and rehomed equines.
“We’re delighted to be working with Judy Boyt again and so grateful to her and all the artists, celebrities and sponsors who are helping us with the sculpture trail this year. We can’t wait to see many people enjoying the trail across Windsor and Eton this weekend and over the coming months.”
Emma Williams, World Horse Welfare Director of Fundraising
The app will be available to download from the App Store or Google Play from 19th April.
World Horse Welfare would like to thank The Beaverbrook Foundation for their kind support of the World Horse Trail.
World Horse Welfare would like to thank all of the artists involved in the Borough Trail including: Gillian Higgins, Alan Titchmarsh, Jamie Osborne, Judy Boyt, Julian Seaman, Martin Clunes, Jennifer Bell, Cheryl Johnson, Rob Williams, Lee McKenzie and Sara Cox. Thank you also to everyone who has sponsored or supported the trail: Alpha Card Compact Media, Amalgam, Daylesford Organic, Horse & Hound, HPower, Interaction Marketing & PR, The Jockey Club, Lincoln Horse Care, TCS Media and Wimbledon Village Stables.
