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The horseshoes of fame that have been coming to Newmarket High Street since 2014
Quite a few more arrived in 2016, the year of Newmarket 350 celebrations
HORSE ABOUT NEWMARKET 2011
Reviewed by ANDRE BEAUMONT
Sometimes something ephemeral needs recording because it captures part of the spirit of a place and just in case too few others archive the event.
Ten Winners in Blue by artist Jilly Cunningham at the National Horseracing Museum
The arrival in Newmarket in mid-2011 of thirteen lifesize painted and lacquered fibreglass horses and sixteen smaller horses, handsome creatures all for moulded fibreglass, and which remained present there for many months, was a cause of much joy around the town.
Sea The Stars by Stuart Roy at the Jockey Club
In spare moments people searched them out around the town, sometimes milling around them but always politely stepping out of the way to let other look at the detail.
Shadeed by Kirsty Sharman looking through the Jockey Club railings at Sea The Stars
These photographs, hurriedly taken when no one else was in shot on a cloudy day, with no intention of publication, do no real justice to the detail in the art. (For example, in the waves of Rachel Drury's horse below are five horses I've watched win the Guineas: Mark of Esteem, Zafonic, Mystiko, Nashwan and Doyoun.)
Esther Albone's Wizard (left) and Rachel Drury's Sea The Stars with two small horses.
For that, search out internet photographs and accounts or, better still, the souvenir brochure, Horse About Newmarket 2011, that accurately and widely apportions credit for this town-wide effort in creating community art.
Interpreter by Emily Jarvis in the Guineas shopping arcade
Newmarket has never been a siloed town where everyone retreats into their own lives - the shared culture of the horse is too strong - and this art just proved it all the more.
Cockney Rebel by Chris Winch. Looking for a trough by the drinking fountain?
The brainchild of a town councillor and brought to fruition by the town council's events manager, the event held a competition for designs to go on the horses based on the names of 2000 Guineas winners.
Jeremy Tree trained Only For Life by artist Jac Butt with a tree of life growing up him
The local artists whose designs won became the painters of the thirteen horses.
Jacquie Jones' Atlantic
The sixteen small horses were painted in local schools and by youth organizations and charities. Some of these ended up in unusual places and they moved around the town during the summer. The first pair I saw were in the window of wine merchants, Corney & Barrow.
Kevin Yarrow's Nectar just off the heath and mystified how to cross a roundabout
The horses went to the Guineas Festival, then to a Gala Evening on the Severals on Thursday 16th June where the overall winner Interpreter by artist Emily Jarvis, the first runner up Sea The Stars by Frances Wray (one of three entries called Sea The Stars), and second runner up Wizard by Esther Albone, were selected.
Moulton CEVC Primary School horse looking large in a shop window close up
The small horses also had a trip on the back of a float at the annual Newmarket Festival's Carnival on Saturday 11th June.
In 2012 there will be horses still for sale both at Tattersalls and here in Sun Lane
The big horses were anchored down at various places around the town for the summer before most of the horses were auctioned at Tattersalls in October for the charities, Racing Welfare and St Nicholas Hospice Care. International readers of worldreviews.com should still be able to see a few of the horses about town if they come racing in 2012.
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2012
Note the two bronze frogs holding the reins of the horse above. On a rather fuzzy video recording hear and see the Newmarket Bronze Frog Fountain Orchestra play awaiting the arrival of the London 2012 Olympic torch on 7 July 2012.
The frog orchestra was ephemeral in this location and was removed after the Olympic torch passed through.
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2014
Where are they now?
Quite a few of the horses are still around the town.
Some have made an appearance in The Guineas shopping precinct:
A pair of ponies lived for a long time in the windows of a wine merchant.
Another in the window of a bloodstock agency:
Others may have taken up talent spotting themselves:
Sea the Stars has positioned himself where he can see the stars, equine and celestial