Location: Esher, UK

Status: Completed, October 2023

Collaborators: The Community Brain, Studio LEGGE & South Western Railway

The horses are modelled on the famous series of photographs taken in 1878 by pioneering local photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who proved that at a certain point when a horse is running, all four legs are off the ground. The photographs were commissioned by former governor of California Leland Stanford, a businessman and race-horse owner who wanted to prove his belief. The pictures did show that all four feet were indeed off the ground simultaneously. But this was not, as previously thought when the horse’s legs were extended to the front and back. It was when the horse’s legs were collected beneath its body. Until then, the belief was that horses in mid-stride had all four legs stretched in the ‘flying gallop’ as represented in visual culture in paintings such as Theodore Gericault’s Derby at Epsom. Muybridge’s pictures created international attention, leading him to tour Europe and the States and earning him respect and notoriety in both artistic and scientific communities. Most other racecourses evolved from misty, Medieval origins, but Sandown Park was the first purpose-built racecourse with enclosures, designed to be a leisure destination. In the words of a contemporary diarist, it was ‘a place where a man could take his ladies without any fear of their hearing coarse language or witnessing uncouth behaviour.’South Western Railways actively encourages their stations to be places of bio-diversity, sustainability and community pride. At Esher, these horses provide planting spaces for a variety of plants that will increase the opportunities for wildlife locally and encourage the railway tracks to be green corridors of nature. The horses were pre-fabricated by Studio LEGGE using mild steel to be easily assembled on-site, and before they arrived at their permanent home on the unused island platform at Esher station, they were exhibited at the Hampton Court Garden Festival 2023.