Left: Sold. Right: Available for purchase.
Over the last couple of days, we’ve been looking at small incarnations of traditional animal spirits, manifest in the warm colors of the desert earth and sun: first Bear; then Buffalo. Today, we have a third animal spirit for, another one classically associated with many of our Native cultures: Horse.
But these are not just any horses, and certainly not the pampered domesticated versions found grazing in fenced paddocks. These are the wild mustangs that once roamed these lands in large numbers, members of complex herd societies of their own who, on occasion, permitted our ancestors to borrow their power and strength, if not necessarily to tame them, precisely — at least as we understand that word today.
And, indeed, it was in part that untamed and untameable quality that made them so attractive: it gave them not merely speed, but the added grace of swiftness; not merely strength, but an added sense of spiritedness. These were ponies at home on the land, whatever its topography, confident, sure-footed, possessed of an inherent power unmatched by other animals.
A few remain, but not many. We’re fortunate to have one of our own, rescued more than a year ago from starvation and dehydration, abandonment and what would turn out to be a near-fatal case of sand colic that had been forming during all those years of deprivation. Ours is white, with a blue roan underticking, and while he’s learning to trust, he has not lost that wild essential spirit that is so fundamentally a part of his identity.
We have a couple of smaller versions, too, mustangs in miniature: in this case, little red roan Indian ponies. Rendered in local rough pink sandstone, they’ve been coaxed carefully, patiently, into showing their sturdy and skittish bodies. The stone from which they’ve emerged really does look like the shade of a red roan, warm pink, with undertones of maroon and hints of coral color on the surface. And true to the material’s silicate properties, it gives off the tiniest gleam in the sunlight, just a slight shimmer backlit by the warmer glow of the stone, just as a roan’s brick red undercoat warms the gleaming silver surface spots. From their description in the Other Artists: Sculpture gallery here on the site:
Vintage-style wild mustangs race across the mesa. Each is 4″-5″ in size, rough-hewn the old-fashioned way, straight from the stone, by Randy Roughface (Ponca) in his signature style. Three two still available.
Pink sandstone on pink sandstone base
$35-$55 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Left: Sold. Right: Available for purchase.
These ponies are carved in Randy’s trademark style, simple, spare, with little detail, but with a powerful sense of speed and motion coming from deep within such small stationary blocks of stone. It’s a popular style, and one that sells regularly; we’re now down to two in our inventory (in each photo, the horse on the right remains available for purchase). They’re unusually modestly priced for Native-made sculpture, and they embody the spirits of their archetypes with power and grace.
For anyone looking for a bit of the wild mustang spirit, of a kind and size that’s acceptable in any apartment or office, these little Indian ponies bring that feeling home.
~ Aji
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