Dutch Warmblood, ‘Get Rowdy’ (Traditional 1:9 by Breyer)

Review and images by Harecraft Horses; edited by bmathison1972

A very beautiful and exciting arrival to introduce, first – one of the 2022 ‘mid year’ releases, although that term is a little bit laughable when they arrive right at the end of the year (or sometimes into the following year) in my country! But this is one I’ve been looking forward to ever since I first saw it!

This Dutch Warmblood’s official name is Get Rowdy, and its inspired by a real horse of the same name that was named the United States Equestrian Federation’s High Performance Horse of the Year for 2019 and 2020. He is a portrait model of a horse who started out as an eventer then switched to hunter classes (which are nothing to do with actual hunting, although we don’t have it over here I gather it’s more like a combination of showing and showjumping, with judging as well as jumping score counting toward who wins).

The sculpt is a really beautiful and technically impressive one, with really great anatomical correctness in a tricky but dynamic pose, and a realistic art style. I especially like the flick of the tail, and the way the whole thing looks so harmonious and balanced. He was sculpted by Morgen Kilbourn, who did the recent ‘Erren’ criollo for WIA, although that wasn’t a factor in deciding to buy him – I either didn’t know at all, or knew once but had completely forgotten, cos I only just now went to find out so I could write the artist in this post.

I wasn’t sure if I preferred the photos with a bit of landscape behind him, or against only sky, so I took a few of each. Of course in real life a horse would only be jumping like this with tack and a rider on, so no photo is ever going to be realistic as such, but from an aesthetic point of view, does he look better with open sky, or a bit of the horizon and field too? I’m still undecided.

One fun thing I could do with a plain-sky picture, though, was edit out the stand so he looks like he’s really floating in mid air…