How to REALLY Draw a Donkey

Friends, it's time for a courageous conversation about abusive donkey drawing. No, not donkeys drawing cruelly heavy loads, but badly drawn donkeys and - gasp! - tutorials on how to badly draw a donkey. My recent online search clearly indicates there is a lot of interest in donkey drawing techniques. Unfortunately, the tutorials largely appear to be done by people who have never actually seen a donkey. Much like the early artists who drew fantastically weird New World animals, these samples of artistic splendor are chimeras of sorts: Goat-headed donkeys, and horse-necked donkeys, and donkeys with such weird proportions and oddly-placed features that even Picasso would be pained to see them.         

So here I am, not as an accomplished artist, but as a donkey owner who wants you, dear reader, to know the characteristics that distinguish a donkey from, say, a horse or a mule or a goat - what gives a donkey its donkeyness. With a little help from Odelia, my donkey-in-residence, I shall offer my best anatomical advice on donkey creation. I've patiently measured my very patient Odelia to provide actual proportions as a reference (see diagrams towards the end) so that you may have a quick reference for your future donkey creations. Using photo references is all well and good, but relying solely on those references won't give you a reliable sense of donkey perspective.

Donkeys aren't just horses with long ears. They aren't mules, either. Oh, what a dagger to my equine-loving heart to see writers and captioners of photographs and artists labeling something as a "donkey" when it is clearly a mule, and vice versa. Let's look at the differences.

Although there are several varieties and flavors of donkeys, ranging from adorable spotted Sicilian donkeys to mammoth jacks and onagers and woolly Poitou donkeys, I'll focus on the humble desert burro that is doubtless familiar to anyone who has read Brighty of the Grand Canyon or watched Treasure of the Sierra Madre or visited iconic Oatman, Arizona. Although the shade of their color varies, their basic shape and coat pattern is largely the same. Their most recognizable coat color is a basic grey. Odelia, our lovable Lady of the Bray here at Rancho Chupacabra, is all that: an adopted BLM donkey in the typical grey color. Donkeys also have what's called a "mealy" pattern: They're lighter on the underside of the belly and groin than they are above it. Note that they have thicker, coarser coats during the winter, and slicker, finer coats during the summer. 

Let's start at the head. Everyone knows donkeys have long ears! But donkeys don't have pointy ears like Arabians, folks. The tops of their ears are somewhat rounded. Quit drawing pointy-eared donkeys! The ears of a desert burro are rimmed with black. Their heads are generally shorter and heavier than a horse's or mule's. They don't have pointy little noses, either. I've seen a lot of artists drawing petite-nosed donkeys and you have to study the picture for a bit to realize it isn't intended to be a goat. Donkeys - in general - don't have dished faces, either, but rather straight, pragmatic-looking faces. If they do have a dish, it's going to be subtle, not concave Arabian profiles.

Donkeys have pronounced brow lines above the eyes, and generally there's adorable floof that drifts off the top of those ridges. Their eyes are set at a different angle from a horse, as well. And those eyes, which generally have either a mischievous twinkle or an Eeyore-esque woebegone pout, are surrounded by a markedly lighter shade than the rest of their face. Similarly, there's a distinct delineation between the top part of their face with its coarse, longer hair and the muzzle, which has a smoother, velvety texture.  Their nostrils are different from a horse's, as well, with a pronounced nasal ridge above the nostril. Don't forget to shade the area. Their mouths are generally shallow. Although they do sometimes have a bit of a star on the forehead - one of my donkey exes, Olivia, had that feature - it's not prevalent. However, there's a distinctive star-shaped whorl of hair on their forehead generally set just below the eyes.

Moving on to their neck: They don't have graceful, long, arched necks. Neither are they hamsters; they DO have necks, people. But the crest of the neck - that top line - is pretty darned straightish (and sometimes, in over-fed donkeys with "fat pads," the neck is concave or "crestfallen). And on top of that straightish neck is a short, erect mane. It doesn't grow like a horse's and flop over; it stands up in a scruffy mass like a zebra's. It's generally darker than the rest of the donkey. On your typical grey desert burro, it is a shade of sunburned black or burnt umber. The crest of the neck, from base of ear to withers, is twice as long as the underline of the neck, from jowels to chest.

The neck-bone is attached to the shoulder-bone, and that shoulder is straighter and shorter than a horse's. The withers - that arched protrusion between neck and back - is quite flat on a donkey, compared to a horse, and on burros, there's a dark linear marking that extends from the withers downward. In Christian lore, that line is said to be a cross bestowed upon the donkey for carrying Mary as she was seeking shelter just before the birth of Jesus. Why is it called a cross? Because it intersects their dorsal stripe, which extends from the top of the head down the center of the donkey all the way back to the end of the tail. You can see it in the photo of the donkey's tail, below. 

Donkey backs are fairly flat and proportionately longer than a horse's in comparison to front end and rumps. And the rumps? They aren't round and apple-butted and luscious examples of big booty. (Big ass ass? Don't get me started.) They're angular, narrow from the rear, and they slope downward in a flat line. And on the back end of them, there's a tail that is NOT a luxurious mass of long tail hair. They are scruffy tails with about as many bristles as an old man's ear until you get to the meager collection of slightly longer hair at the end. Don't draw a yak tail on your donkey! Donkey tails look like this. 

Moving down the donkey legs, now, note that your standard grey desert burro doesn't have white socks. They don't even have rear chestnuts. They don't have graceful long legs, but they reach the ground. And where they contact the ground are hooves that are more upright than a typical horse. The pasterns are not as sloped as a horse's, either. Don't put goat hooves on your donkeys, either. They aren't cloven, although sometimes donkeys will act like the devil.

Proportions

Just as in drawing people, knowing general or average proportions can be useful in evoking realism. Individuals obviously have variations in proportions; that's what make us unique. Knowing proportions can help you know what makes an animal look younger, or older, too. In the descriptions below I've tried to either avoid, or to explain, specific terminology on the parts of the equine to make it more accessible to non-horsey-people.

Head and Face:

From the front: The ears, as the most distinctive feature, are a useful point of reference. The ear is roughly 10% longer than the widest point of the face, which is just above the eyes. The ears are roughly half the length of the face. The widest point of the face is just slightly under half the length of the face. If you start with a kite-shaped diagram, as many of us were taught to draw horses long ago, the distance from the base of the ear extending diagonally to the top of the opposite eye is somewhat longer than half of the distance from the base of the ear to the top of the opposite nostril; the base of ear to top of opposite eye is just shy of the length of the ear. 

The top of the donkey's eye is 1/3 of the way down the length of the head (from poll to lips). The ears are roughly 1/2 the length of the head. 

From the side: The widest part of the face, just below the eyes and extending from the front of the face to the jowels where they meet the neck, is just over half the length of the long part of the head, from behind the ears to the tip of the muzzle.

The ears, if measured from the side, are slightly longer than they are if measured from the inside. In other words, if you're measuring the ears at the center of the head, they're shorter than if you measured them from the side of the head.

Neck: The topline of the neck - the crest, or silhouette of it at top - is TWICE as long as the bottom line of the neck. This means that from the side, the entire length from where the neck meets the chest to the front of the face is just about the same length as the distance from the top of the neck from behind the ears to the withers. The neck where it joins the head is shorter from top to bottom than the neck where it joins the chest. 

Withers: The donkey's "cross" or dark shoulder stripe is at the withers. The shoulder itself is straighter than the horse's shoulder; the ideal horse has a 45 degree slope to the shoulders, while the donkey is not as sloped.

Back: The back is longer from withers to the high point of the rump than the neck is from ears to withers. Compared to horses, donkeys are long backed. 

Body: Visualize a line from the bottom of the muscle that's just above the front leg to the withers. This length is shorter than the distance from the hoof line to that same muscle. In other words, the legs are longer than the body mass from leg to withers. From the front of the chest (where it meets the neck) in a straight line to the rump, parallel to the ground, is a distance that's almost the same length as the total height of the donkey from ground to withers. They're long-bodied animals.

Let's Draw our Burro!

Okay, let's do a quick step-by-step!

Here's a fairly straightforward reference photo of Odelia. For this quick exercise, let's just do the head and neck. Make corrections as you go along to keep the proportions right. Remember to utilize negative space to see the lines and angles more accurately (focus on, for example, the shape formed outside the donkey, such as the slightly rounded area where the underside of the head meets the underside of the neck.) Pro-tip: You don't need to include extraneous objects, like halters, fence posts, and other items in the original photographs you use. Pet peeve: People who take a cute photo of a donkey sticking its head partly through two slats of wood, and draw it with the wood obscuring its cute little head. The joy of drawing is YOU can interpret what you're portraying. 

1. Draw your donkey's face and ears, remembering the proportions above. Use the ear length as a guide for the proportions to follow.

2. Draw in the muzzle and jowels (jaws).

3. Draw the eyes and accent the browline. 

4. Draw the delineation between the muzzle and the upper part of the face.

5. Add the nostril, remembering the deep shadowing around the side and lower end of it.

6. Fluff up the ears and draw in the dark border that extends around most of each ear.

7. Draw the underline where the head connects to the neck; draw the upper line of the neck, keeping it straight.

8. Add the upright, scruffy mane and forelock. Shade your drawing appropriately, going in the direction of the coat. Congratulations! You've done a donkey portrait.

Note: From this point forward are instructions on drawing the rest of the donkey.

9. Draw in the shoulder and the flat, low withers. Shade in the vertical cross at the withers.

10. Draw the back. Keep it fairly straight.

11. Draw the front legs. Remember: Donkeys have joints! The bone above the knee is longer than the bone below the knee (the cannon bone). At the bottom of the cannon bone is another joint, called the fetlock. Below the fetlock is a slightly angled distance connecting it to the hoof; this angled section is the pastern.

12. Draw the underbelly. It is longer than the length of the back.

13. Draw the hind legs. They, too, have joints. The hock is the large joint above the cannon bone and bends in the opposite direction from the front knees. Below the cannon is the fetlock, just as in the front legs, and below the fetlock is the pastern that attaches to the hoof.

14. Draw the scrawny rump. Don't forget to shade the point of the hip.

15. Draw the scrawny, scruffy excuse of a tail.

Voila! A whole donkey. Now add your shading to indicate the hair, making sure you go with the flow of the coat. 

Supplies

For the purpose of the illustrations included here, I used a Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth Progresso 6B woodless graphite pencil. I love these pencils! You can buy them here. Note: This is an affiliate link, meaning I may earn commissions from purchases made through this link (and for which I thank you tremendously for helping keep the donkeys in oats.) 

I also used a plastic eraser - in pastel, of course, because who can resist pretty erasers? You can buy them here (affiliate link). 

Now, go forth and create your own donkeys! If you'd like a mule tutorial, leave a comment. Also see this post for further info on drawing equines: What Horsemen Want Artists to Know

Copyright (c) 2024 Marcy J. Miller * All rights reserved * No part of this content may be reproduced without the express permission of the author * Thank you for stopping by!

Odelia's First Day Hitched to the Cart

 It's a big day here at Rancho Chupacabra, folks. After being laid up for a week with the joy that is kidney stones, I braved the blue skies and wonderfully mild mid-90s weather for another training session with Odelia. On her previous session, I fit her new harness to her and lowered the shafts of the cart into the tug loops, but did not attach the tugs to the singletree; I just oriented her to the lowering of the shafts, and the weight of them on her harness.

Today, I ground-drove her for a few minutes and then went straight to the cart. I lowered the shafts and she was perfectly at ease, so onward! I went ahead and hitched her up, and then began to lead her (using a halter over the bridle) with the cart in tow. She was outstanding, as I expected from such a willing, sweet-natured little donkey. 

Progress was, however, slow. She was hesitant, and I was challenged at leading her, holding the lines, and walking at the same time. Fortunately, the husband-person magically appeared at the perfect time and assisted by holding the lines while I led her. He then (very trustingly, I must note) hopped into the cart, took the lines and whip, and I led Odelia while he drove her. We then swapped places and he held the rope very loosely while I drove her, and after she'd proven herself capable and happy, he removed the lead rope. Odelia was just excellent. Not a lot of finesse, yet, but she is brave and shows no resistance or fear at all. 

On our next session, kidney stones and other factors permitting, I hope to move her outside of the confines of the round pen and to an open, flat area. I plan on hitching her, leading her to that site, and then hopping into the cart if she is at ease. Donkeys are truly incredible little worker bees, and I'm tickled at how happy Odelia is when she sees me coming with the halter. It's hard to believe this was the shy, adolescent BLM burro she once was. 

Copyright (c) 2024 by Marcy J. Miller * All rights reserved * No part of this content, including photographs, may be used without the express permission of the author * Thank you for stopping by!

Harness Training Odelia the Donkey

 

Odelia in her custom pulling / work collar

Quite some time ago, I began training Odelia, my BLM burro, to harness. Despite not having any wheeled horse-drawn vehicles at hand, I nonetheless began training in the usual manner: bitting and ground driving. I then ordered a custom collar and hames for her along with a work singletree. Donkeys require a different fit to collars and hames than horses or ponies, and it's critical to properly measure and order the right fit for their safety and comfort. Once Odelia's collar set arrived, I began driving her in full harness, letting her learn resistance by initially putting my own pressure on the traces using a string to pull back, then adding the singletree, and finally letting her drag a tire. She was an absolute ace throughout all of the training and, consistent with her happy, willing nature, never showed the least resistance.

I worked her in the poles (meaning, a PVC pipe to simulate the shaft of a cart) as well, so she could become accustomed to a shaft-like object pushing against her side. Doing such work also helps the driver by familiarizing them with the turning radius, the need to keep distance from obstacles that might catch upon the ends of the "shafts," and the like. Once she was coming along well, I was ready to add a wheeled vehicle. Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to get a proper cart right away. I wasn't pleased with the more affordable options on Amazon. I did my research on carriage shops, picked one out, and went into a  holding pattern. Last month, though, my other half was making a sudden road trip to Pennsylvania. Aha! Opportunity! The savings on shipping enticed me to act. I asked him if he'd be willing to pick up a cart from the heart of Amish country, and he agreed to do so. With just days to arrange it, I ordered a beautiful wooden cart from the good folks at Pequea Carriage Shop, put down a deposit, and sent him along his way with directions to Narvon, Pennsylvania. I was just about giddy with anticipation.

I followed along the journey by phone and email as eagerly as a child follows Santa's path on the NASA site on Christmas Eve. R. gave me updates: "I picked up your thing." "I'm backed into the parking space at the motel so I am only a few feet from your thing." "Your thing is still fine!" And on one glorious morning, R. and My Thing arrived ... and it is a Thing of Beauty.

The cart is an easy-entry cart from Pequea, in the proper size for both Odelia and my sweet pony, Gracie, with upgraded puncture-proof tires because just about everything out here is stabby as hell. Here's a link to  Pequea Carriage Shop. Melvin Beiler is a pleasure to do business with, and I'm just thrilled with the cart.

Now, Odelia has her beautiful collar, but collars aren't as comfortable for light loads with a higher line of draft as a breast-collar style harness is. In addition, the breast-collar harness that would fit Odelia would also fit Gracie the pony, whereas Gracie can't use the same collar. I opted to order a harness from Chimacum Tack (where I'd previously purchased Odelia's collar, hames, and singletree). I chose Chimacum's Pleasure Harness for Donkeys, Ponies, and Mules. Mindy at Chimacum is terrific to work with and, given proper measurements, always ensures that harnesses fit your animal and the job you'll be doing with it. Here's a link for Chimacum Tack. Note that Chimacum does not carry leather harnesses. As a die-hard leather traditionalist and leather-crafter, I must admit the Biothane / Brahma Web harnesses are just outstanding. They're durable, easy to clean, and have several benefits over leather. I can't believe I said that, but there you are.

My beautiful new harness arrived a week ago. Thanks to medical appointments, monsoon storms, and trips to the veterinarian, it wasn't until yesterday I was finally able to get out there and introduce Odelia to it. This pleasure harness is a complete set, including everything from half-cheek snaffle driving bit to overcheck, traces, breeching, and crupper. Best of all, it is entirely custom and fit for the unique proportions of a donkey. I chose Royal Blue for the padded breast collar and saddle.

Yesterday's session was lengthier than is ideal in training, but it included fitting the harness to Odelia (the initial fitting takes quite a while - there are a lot of buckles and Conways to attend to!) Please note that I snapped these pictures throughout the process and they are in no way a depiction of proper fit. I was also careful to trim the whiskers beneath Odelia's eyes to avoid the irritation of her blinkers continually bumping them.  Odelia was perfectly happy being fitted, soaking up the attention, and stood like a champ despite the temptation of having green weeds nearby.

After fitting the harness, we proceeded through the initial phases of harness training to re-orient Odelia. She has been a lady of leisure for a few months so I need to assess her attitude and emotional state at each step of the way. I harnessed her, then walked her in the round pen for a while before moving to ground-driving. (She's so well-behaved it's hard to take things in small increments, but I am forcing myself.) I had already brought the cart into the round pen and stood it up (shafts upward) in a safe position so she could see it and become visually accustomed to it. After some ground-driving, I attached a piece of baling twine to the traces and applied pressure to them as I ground-drove. She was fine with this slight resistance, so I attached a small (ATV) tire she could drag. She was perfectly happy. Onto the poles! It was as if we'd just been working in them last week. She aced it. Sweet, willing Odelia. 

Please note that while ground-driving - or, for that matter, even when actually pulling a cart - at this stage of training, you do NOT want your draft animal to know how to back up in harness. Actively discourage it! This is all new to them and should they be frightened or resistant at any part of training or external activity, they may back up to try to avoid the pressure of pulling and they will quickly learn a very, very bad habit. Work them in a forward-only direction for at least a couple of months before you add the reverse gear. They need to learn to pull, not evade. (This is also one reason I prefer to teach them to use a pulling collar and to drag items - a sledge or tire won't easily roll backward! Instead, they get consistent work in pulling weight against a collar.)

Odelia with PVC training poles attached through the shaft loops. Please note that I have not used shaft wraps on the poles, nor are they necessary for this exercise. The holdback strap is not attached, either; it is looped and tucked into the back strap to keep it out of the way.

After refreshing Odelia's memory in the poles, I removed them and led her up to the new cart several times and walked her around it. She is a brave little donkey and unphased by it. I had already pulled the cart around in her presence so she could hear and see it in motion. I then positioned her in front of it and slowly lowered the shafts onto either side of her. I did not hitch her to it but repeated the lowering and raising of the shafts a few times. I then inserted the shafts into the shaft loops very briefly, but did not attach the traces to the singletree. She wore her blinkers throughout. (This is an essential safety element.)

After that brief, positive, initial introduction to the cart, I quit for the day. We'd covered a lot of ground. I ground-drove Odelia back to her stall and into it, and only then removed her bridle and switched to the halter.

I'd hoped to do further today, but although Odelia is up to it, I managed to get upper back spasms from yesterday's effort. Gah! I am pretty much laid up today. When I have recovered and made further progress with Odelia, I will make an effort to post updates. 

For further reading: 

I highly, highly recommend this book on harness and hitch by Marlen Steward and the late Steve Bowers. (This is an affiliate link and I may receive commissions on your purchase - for which I thank you for the support!) Driving Horses: How to Harness, Align, and Hitch Your Horse for Work or Play. I just can't rave about this book enough; it covers harness types, line of draft, driving techniques for teams, trouble-shooting, harness storage, and so much more, and all of it with top-drawer photographs and easily understandable instructions. I bought this book when I was briefly driving a two-in-hand stagecoach in Tombstone and it helped me tremendously with heavy-harness and team harness elements. Driving and harnessing (particularly team driving) is far more technical than today's typical horseman might recognize; this book is a bible for the modern teamster. It focuses more on harness and hitch than on actual driving and training of stock, though - for a great all-around guide to basic harness training, you'll want this book by Doris Ganton (another affiliate link): Breaking & Training the Driving Horse. It's an easy-to-understand, well-illustrated guide to starting your driving horse, and includes the "how-to" goods on ground-driving, making and using poles, accustoming your horse to cart and buggy, and onward. I've relied on it for many years and still dust it off to refresh my memory every time I start a horse between lines.

Questions or comments?  I am experiencing technical issues in promptly seeing / replying to comments (probably operator error, but anyway!) but I welcome you to leave them. If you need to reach me directly, please email me through my website Marcy's Website. While you're at it, please check out my donkey and equine art! Here's a sample: Olivia Painting.

Copyright (c) 2024 by Marcy J. Miller * All rights reserved * No part of this content, including photographs, may be reproduced without the written permission of the author * Links to this page may be freely shared, and thank you for doing so! * Most of all, thank you for stopping by.

Horses and Donkeys and Mules and More

 

My molly mule, Delta Dawn

If you don't occupy the world where a "frog" is found in a horse's hoof or "brain surgery" means castration of a male horse, you might not know the ins and outs of horse hybrid terminology. Most people know a mule is a cross between a horse and a donkey, but it's not exactly that simple. Let's dive into the lexicon of horse hybridization.

The humble, utilitarian donkey goes by a few different names. There's the humble burro, a donkey with a Spanish accent: small, tough little critters brought to North America as beasts of burden for prospectors. The burro is the long-eared equine that runs feral in many parts of the southwestern US. 

My sweet burro, Odelia. Note the white markings on the side of her neck. This is her BLM freeze brand, identifying her as having been adopted from feral BLM herds.

There are other types of donkeys. There are onagers, the wild asses of Asia (aka the Asiatic ass); mammoth jacks, which are large donkeys often used as bloodstock for mule-production or as riding donkeys; Sicilian donkeys from Italy, also known as miniature donkeys; the Baudet du Poitou, which is a fancy-sounding name for a type of donkey with a distinctive long coat; Corsican donkeys; and plenty of other donkeys, each with their own unique history and type. Donkeys are all equines, but they aren't horses. They have long ears, short manes, fairly straight backs, distinctive angles to their shoulders and hips, and tails that can't decide if they're long haired or short. 

A female donkey is referred to as a "jenny" and a male donkey is a "jack," (hence the name "jackass.") Now, if you take a jenny donkey and cross her with a male horse (stallion), do you get a mule? Nope. You get a hinny. It's a horse-donkey hybrid, and has plenty of the benefits of hybrid vigor, but it's not a mule, and in many ways it differs from a mule physically. A hinny is smaller than the mule equivalent would be, and sports the limbs and head of a horse and the body and torso of a donkey. It still has long ears and a generally mule-like appearance, but an experienced mulero will be able to tell the difference. 

Take a jackass, though, and cross him with a female horse (mare), and you'll get a mule. Its head and legs will look more donkey-like, but its body will favor the horse. Mules are generally preferred to hinnies, and are much more common (not only because of that preference, but because breeding a larger and more - ahem! - well-endowed stallion to a small jenny is not without risk to the jenny). Mules and hinnies, being hybrids, are rarely fertile, and (officially, at least) there have been documented (but exceedingly rare) cases of female mules producing foals but not of male mules fathering any. (This all doesn't preclude mules and hinnies from having the parts AND the inclination to breed unless neutered, but it does prevent them from being successful.)

Now, your female mule (and hinny, too) is referred to as a molly mule, and the male mule / hinny is a john mule. 

Jasper, of uncertain parentage. Although sold to me as a mule, based on his full mane and tail, the clean lines of his legs, his short neck and his facial features, I suspect him to be a hinny. Either way, Jasper's a john.

Often I’ll run across historical photos depicting mules that are mis-captioned as donkeys or burros, and similarly, uninformed writers will too often refer to mules as donkeys. If you are writing about one or the other, it behooves you (yes, I did that on purpose) to know the difference. For the record, the Democrat mascot is the donkey, not a mule, and sloppy PR and marketing people get the images confused. 

In addition to mules and hinnies, horses can be crossed with zebras to produce get called "zorses." Although they are interesting looking and tough, and *sometimes* trainable, they're often dangerous and challenging even for the most experienced mule trainer. They don't have the benefit of fully-domesticated parentage on both sides. If they are the product of a female horse and a male zebra, they will have the advantage of being raised by a domestic mother, who will pass on much of her general attitude about humans to the foal, whereas a zebra mother will pass on her own wild inclinations to the baby. 

A zebra can also be bred to a donkey, and the resulting foal will be - you guessed it - a zonkey. Calmer and more pragmatic than a zorse, they can still be a handful. Zebras themselves are notoriously cantankerous souls, even if raised in captivity, and if not handled consistently and regularly they can revert back to wild very easily. This time last year, tragically, a zebra in Ohio bit its owner's arm nearly completely off. They're quick to bite and quick to kick, and savage when they do either. Remember - these are the creatures that fight off lions and hyenas and other predators in their native lands. 

For comparison's sake, here's Julie, a horse. Compare ear length, tail, angle of hip and shoulder, brow prominence, legs, neck length, and arch of the crest. 

So there you have it: mollies and johns and hinnies and jennies and jacks and mules and more. 

Copyright (c) 2024 by Marcy J. Miller * All rights reserved * No part of this content, including photographs, may be copied or published without the express written permission of the author * Links to this page, however, may be freely shared * Thank you for linking, liking, sharing, emailing, and otherwise helping grow my readership, and most of all, thanks for stopping by!

What Horsemen Want Artists to Know About Horses

 

"Draw me like one of your French mules"

Since primitive men first scratched on the walls of caves, they’ve been inspired to draw and paint horses. These beautiful, spirited, useful beasts have occupied our creative inclinations ever since. Whether rendered in ink, paint, charcoal, marble, or wood, they graze in pastoral scenes, carry cowboys across western canvases, and ignite the dreams of little girls in children’s books. Walk into a “decorator outlet” and you’re sure to see huge paintings of horses, or just parts of them. Some are lovely. Some are perfectly appropriate for hanging on the wall behind the sofa. Some are downright scary.

Now, perhaps more than ever in the history of man-painting-horses, a lot of the artists producing horses have spent little time around them. The average urbanite might not notice the cowboy on a horse without a cinch to hold the saddle in place, or with a shanked bit and no curb strap, but your average horse person will immediately zone in on that little detail and be either amused, aghast, or annoyed. Some of us even take pictures of the offending piece and share them with our fellow horsey friends. I’m here to help you avoid being the target of our mockery.

Creative license is all well and good, but authenticity matters. Paint your horse blue and fuchsia, that’s creative license. Paint your horse with exaggerated features and ridiculously long manes and tails, and you’re the typical Arabian horse artist. Paint them blue, give them human eyes, and remove their leg joints and give them bodacious blue horse booty, and you might be Marc Chagall. But try to paint a realistic horse and put its eye on the front of its face, or give it a too-short back and too-long legs and a neck the length of a hamster’s, and you’re going to be in the “Point and Laugh” school of painting.

So, speaking here as a lifelong horsewoman, I want to share a few tips with you, my tenderfoot artist friends, that may help you out. Although I do dabble in watercolor and pencil, I’m neither a trained artist nor an art teacher; however, I’m confident in my knowledge of things horsey, and I share this in hopes it will be useful information to other dabblers. 

Study great horse illustrators. Some of my favorite artists as a child were breathtakingly skillful - and wonderfully authentic - illustrators. Take a look at the work of Wesley Dennis, Sam Savitt, Robert Lougheed. All of them illustrated books by Marguerite Henry, that gifted and versatile writer whose horse books so many of us grew up on. The illustrations were reliably correct in their depiction of horses, ponies, and donkeys. Another illustrator I loved, Ross Santee, is of an entirely different type. His pen and ink work was minimalistic, sparse, and yet so perfectly captured the horse or, perhaps more often, Indian pony - and he knew, and could convey, the difference. For detailed, exquisitely rendered authenticity, look at the simplest sketches or the most elaborate paintings of Frederic Remington. Arguably, no one can compete with his ability to capture type and form-to-function of the western horse. Look at the horses done by Olaf Wieghorst, Charles M. Russell, and Charlie Dye. I look back happily at my childhood memories of the thrill of seeing those perfectly-painted western horses. Wieghorst was, for a time, a mounted police officer (as I was) and his horses were among the most expressive of the western artists. 

Choose an appealing angle. My mother was an artist, though not a horsewoman, and in the few paintings she did with horses present, she handled them capably. One thing she told me when I was a child was “Horses aren’t attractive when painted directly head-on.” There are, of course, many exceptions, but overall it has proven true: it’s particularly difficult to attractively render a horse facing directly at the viewer. Tilt the head slightly, and you’ll get a much more attractive angle. Compositionally, they’re much more attractive from the side or at an angle. Challenge yourself, of course, but choose a pose that is attractive. 

Know the importance of Eadward Muybridge. Muybridge, a 19th century photographer, changed the way horses were portrayed in art. Look at early - say, revolutionary-era paintings of horses on the battlefield, and British sporting prints of horses and hounds - and you’ll see a couple of dominant poses. You’ll soon recognize the traditional galloping horse with front legs sprawling forward and rear legs sprawling just as far to the rear, or combat scenes with the hero on a horse that is balanced on one hind leg with both forelegs extended grandly above the battlefield. Horses don’t move that way. Muybridge was the first to debunk, as it were, the old myths of horse motion. In 1878 he completed a series of photographs of a racehorse in motion. The publication of those images was controversial; people were shocked to see that horses didn’t move as they’d always believed they did. For the first time, people understood gait and equine locomotion. Equestrian art would never be the same.

The impossibly leggy, impossibly posed, ubiquitous horse from British hunt scenes prior to Muybridge.

Know basic horse conformation. When horsemen assess horses, they look at the way the horse is put together. It’s an art and a skill. They develop an eye for good, straight legs that won’t break down under stress. They look at the height of the withers, and the angle of the shoulder, and the angle of the hip. All these things, and so many more, comprise conformation. If I could offer one helpful concept to the burgeoning equine artist, it’d be the concept of the trapezoid. Performance horsemen know the best horses have a good trapezoid: a long underline (the line between front and hind legs); a shorter top line (the line between the point of the shoulders and the upper point of the hip); and equal slope to the shoulder and hip. A third of the trapezoid will be in front of the girth line (armpit!); a third in the middle; and a third from the flank (rear armpit!) to the lower point of the butt. It’s best to look at the diagram here and start applying the trapezoid to horses you depict from the side. If you have a horse with a too-straight shoulder, it will be uncomfortable to ride and its front legs will often be set under its body too much. Now, you’re not going to ride the horse you paint, but a horseman will recognize the faults. Worse, if you depict a horse with a too-long back or a too-short hip, it will look off. You might find it easier to draw a horse by sketching out the trapezoid first, and then fleshing out the rest of it. Note: Mules and donkeys have significantly different conformation than horses, with different angles to the shoulder and hip.

A sample trapezoid showing its application to shoulder and hip lengths and angles.

Understand the vast variation in horses based on breed and type. Horses have been bred for hundreds of years to meet certain performance standards. Draft horses are bred to be powerful, large, and patient. Warmbloods - a type of horse with some blood and qualities from draft horse stock, and some blood and characteristics from “hot” blood horses of Arabian descent - were bred to be war horses, and now are largely bred to be capable sport horses. Light horses - from thoroughbreds to American Quarter Horses - are bred for just about every function. Within these three basic types are hundreds of breeds that are more specific in form and function. Then, of course, we can add in the ponies and donkeys and the lovable, utilitarian hybrids, the mules and hinnies. There’s a lot to know. If you’re painting a horse in a specific role or setting, know what type or breed you’re depicting. A Shetland pony, bred to work in the mines, might be appropriate wearing a harness and hauling coal. A showy Arabian or a Clydesdale or an Akhal-Teke? Not so much! A jockey in his brightly-colored silks is not going to be on a draft horse, but the outrider next to him leading his horse to the gate might be on an Appaloosa or a Quarter Horse or any calm, reliable, confident mount. A rider can certainly run barrels on an Arabian horse, but it’s not common in the more competitive events, and a bronc rider in a rodeo won’t be on one. You don’t have to be an expert, but you have to know what you are painting. Again, I refer you to Frederic Remington, or Guericault, or Wesley Dennis. When Wesley Dennis painted Misty of Chincoteague, you knew he was painting a pony with its short legs, longer coat, and shorter, heavier head than, say, a thoroughbred. 

Use negative space to your advantage. Art is about seeing, but often what we see is overridden by the pre-determined context we have in our head. I used to see this in witnesses to crime scenes. They’d sometimes mentally fill in the blanks based on past experience / perception rather than be an objective witness. Our minds just do that. If you show someone an inverted “V” instead of an “A” in, say, the word “RAT”, they’ll read it as an “A.” It’s a mental auto-correct function of sorts. Similarly, when we look at an image, our minds do these amazing acrobatics and yield things we don’t actually see. So, to circumvent and foil this process, learn to look at negative space - the space outside the image you’re actually drawing. Your mind’s eye might see a horse a certain way; but it may not be accurate. When looking at an actual horse or a photo reference of a horse, look at the lines outside and around the horse itself. You’ll be better able to capture the lines of the ears, or the legs, or the tail carriage. Pay particular attention to the shape of the negative space between the ears, the throatlatch (the narrow point the cuts in where the horse’s neck connects to the head), the shape between the horse’s legs. This will help you get the proportions and angles correct.

Note the guidelines I added between the ears, where the ears attach to the neck and face, under the chin (throatlatch), and where the neck meets the chest. These, like the legs, are areas where focusing on negative space will help you out.

Know something about tack. If you’re painting a horse under saddle, or in harness, or wearing a pack, either study a bit about tack or artistically obscure it, or you may end up failing much as AI currently does when depicting tack. Honestly, I’ve seen artists who have painted weirdly-attached reins or saddle strings capable of competing with even the weirdest AI renditions, and let’s not forget the ridiculous journalists who were outraged over the image of the Border Patrol rider whose reins were flying in the air because they interpreted it as a “whip” being used on illegal immigrants. I’ve seen paintings where artists stuck bits or brow bands on halters, or left off critical pieces of bridles, and lord, some of you people get creative with where reins are attached. Harnesses? They can be complicated even to the savviest horsemen, because like horses themselves, harnesses are built form-to-function. A driving horse might have a breast-collar type harness or one with a collar. A wheel horse in a six-horse team will have different rigging than the lead horses, and a single horse pulling a simple cart will be harnessed completely differently than half of a two-horse hitch. Use your photo references! Also: in general, riders hold the reins in their LEFT hand, people!

AI (this one courtesy of Bing) has gotten better in recent weeks, but this is an example of the hot mess that is still AI-generated tack. A non-horseman might think this is all copacetic, but it's not even close. AI also doesn't understand horse gaits. This horse is pacing (legs on each side moving in unison).

Understand horse condition. By this I mean know how a young horse differs from an old horse, and how a skinny, unhealthy horse looks different from one in peak show condition. If you want your horse to look tired, broken-down, or old, like Don Quixote’s Rosinante, give it a concave neck (the crest, meaning the topline of the neck - hence the word “crestfallen”); a depression above the eye; a lowered, dejected headset; swollen fetlocks and pasterns in the hind legs; lower lip jutting out; a swayed back; a dejected pose - such as standing with front legs slightly under, and resting one hind leg on its toe; lack of muscle definition; a low tail position; and a lackluster coat. To give your horse vitality and youth, show it with an arched neck (the degree varies based on breed); a high or moderately-high head; well-defined legs; sinewy, defined musculature; a high, proud, tail position; and a glossy coat. You can convey a certain amount of energy in your painted or sculpted horse by understanding the horse’s emotional state and condition. 

Finally, let’s look at everyone’s favorite subject: anatomical correctness. Stallions have balls and a penis. Geldings have no balls, but still have a penis.The latter is discreetly tucked into its sheath unless it’s in a state of arousal, or is peeing, or is doped up, or - in rare situations - is suffering a health disorder. This saves you, gentle artist, from having to depict Wilbur’s Johnson. However, you must often still depict Wilbur’s sheath if the horse is positioned thusly. Yes, you will have the inevitable adolescent viewer comment on it, but a gelding or a stallion will have a visible sheath. It is shaped something like a somewhat rounded square-root symbol, or an inverted asymmetrical mound. Mares, which are female horses, have two teats, but unless they are about to give birth or are nursing their foal, these will not be visible from the side. So if you are squeamish about making your horses anatomically correct, you can always choose to paint mares. 

The sheath in all its glory. Do not fear the sheath. 

So there you have it: a few things I wish more artists would understand about horses. This is much longer than I’d intended, and could perhaps end up being a booklet or book, but may it help you in your quest to paint, or sculpt, or otherwise depict a lovely, lifelike horse. Reach out to me if you have a specific question about this content. (No, I will not evaluate your own artistic efforts!)

For further reading:

Reference book on horse anatomy (affiliate link)

Copyright (c) 2024 by Marcy J. Miller * All rights reserved * No part of this content, including pictures, may be used without the written permission of the author * Links to this post, however, may be freely shared, and are appreciated * Thank you for linking, liking, sharing, and otherwise helping grow my readership * Most of all, thank you for stopping by!

We Need to Talk About Horse Rescues

 Can we talk? Here goes my unpopular opinion: Animal rescues are fertile territory for scammers and hoarders. A few weeks back, a person and her dog whom I knew from Twitter made local news for the dozens of special-needs dogs she was hoarding in horrific conditions and using to gain social media clout and money via her "rescue." As the owner of a special needs dog myself, many people sent me links to the woman's videos of Clyde, her wobbly husky, who has (like my Little Chevy dog) a neurological condition. Those videos, promptly picked up by the Dodo and other large accounts, made her famous. She parlayed that into one of those famous "raising awareness" careers, which soon fulfilled whatever was missing in her life so fully that she began bringing home more and more unfortunate dogs with mobility issues - wheelie dogs. Soon her small home on the east side of the Phoenix metropolitan area was filled with these dogs - dogs in crates, dogs in their own feces, dogs in misery, dead dogs in her freezer - all while her "rescue" pages were filled with lies about them being adopted, and while her stroke-ridden elderly mother slept on a couch in air so filthy hazmat suits were donned by responders. The people who kept sending these dogs (and money) to the woman were ... other rescues. They bought into her excuses as to why they weren't allowed in the home to see her dogs and the conditions they were in. There's no excuse for any of this. 

This week, another rescue made the news. A horse rescue also on the east side of the valley is seeking more donations, but there's a twist. The woman who founded and ran this ill-fated rescue died recently, and she left the entire set-up to another woman, who is now having to deal with the utter mess. When she inherited the property, it included sixty (SIXTY!) horses on a ... get this ... 2.5 acre property. SIXTY horses on a two and a half acre property. People have been funding this debacle for years. There's simply no excuse for this. It's no more humane to rescue an aging, crippled, neglected horse from slaughter only to send them to a cramped, manure-filled, run-down postage-stamp of a stable than it is to euthanize it. The stalls are bent, mismatched, damaged pipe tied together - literally - with baling twine. How can a horse run, or so much as trot around, when packed together as tightly as a trailer full of beef cattle on their way to market? How can they get any of the care they need? 

The heiress of this shambolic "rescue" is, to her credit, openly addressing the issues. She's acknowledged that the deceased owner was hoarding horses, and that two dozen horses need immediate placement, and that the entire "facility" needs immediate repair and a makeover. The city where this mess resides is working with her (to their credit) as she tries to resolve the issues, but there's the threat of dozens of code citations hanging over her head. She has spent $13,000 in veterinary bills in the past five weeks since taking over. Gee, thanks for remembering me in your will, lady. I can't imagine the stress and worry she will contend with as she makes some very difficult-but-necessary decisions on behalf of the animals on the property. On the rescue website (which predates the new owner), numerous horses are listed as "not available for adoption" because they are either A) "sponsored", B) "in training", or C) "rescue ambassador." Sixty horses, but no one is allowed to adopt most of them because the owner had opted to remove that option.

I don't think the majority of people get into the "rescue" business because they intend to scam or hoard. They start out with genuine compassion, in most cases. I think they, like Munchausen by Proxy parents, happen upon the attention it generates for them initially and thrive on it. They become addicted to it. They stand in front of cameras wailing about the cruelty perpetrated upon a certain animal, and the attention - and money - flows their way. Too often they're middle-aged blue-eyed women who are missing the attention they once had when young - let's face it, middle-aged femaleness is a time when most of lose the attention and influence we once enjoyed - and they use their "rescues" as a means of exerting control over their on self-image. They feel needed, they feel useful, and they have the fringe benefits of having someone else fund their horse ownership. 

Yes, this is harsh, and admittedly so. I'm not, obviously, talking about everyone in the rescue business, and in no way do I want to diminish the efforts of those who run good, practical, sensible, humane rescues. There are many such good people and reliable rescues and I've known several absolute saints in the business. But again and again I see the Munchausen by Rescue profile pop up - and every damned time, the animals suffer as much, or more, than they did in their original neglectful conditions. Worse, the second-time-around for these second-chance animals is exploited for the material and emotional needs of humans who, themselves, need rescue of sorts. 

For every one of these Munchausen by Rescue owners, there are dozens if not hundreds of kindhearted "useful idiots" enabling them. These are the people bringing animals to them; volunteering to clean the stalls; donating dollars; training the horses; donating items for the big annual fundraising party; running the social media accounts, or amplifying the bandwidth of them; or otherwise allowing themselves to be exploited for the benefit of animal exploitation. And they're good people, and they're being taken advantage of.

So how do we determine if a rescue is legitimate? How do we avoid being used, manipulated, and exploited? How do we know if our dollars are helping a legitimate cause? How do we know, most of all, that the animals are being provided safe, compassionate, and reasonable shelter and care?

First, SEE the facility. Look at their social media pages and website. Tour the facility. So what if they don't want to let you, because (pick an excuse)? There are humane societies and shelters just about everywhere. It's not hard to find one that will let you see the conditions the animals are kept in. Heck, it's impossible to avoid getting those nice address stickers from a lot of them. 

Second, do some background on the owners. The gal who was reaping a living off her exploitation of special needs dogs was using many, many different names. Why? You don't need to dox someone, or publicly shame them - just do a little basic web sleuthing and find out what you can, and make an informed decision. You can check to see how much litigation a person has been involved in on some county sites. If everyone is suing a particular rescue owner, or they've been arrested dozens of times for fraud schemes, can you trust your donations of time or money are going to the intended purpose? 

Third, ask about local reputation. Does the "rescue" pay its bills? Do the horseshoers donate their time? How long have they been shoeing for the rescue? Does the hay broker on the corner have a long list of unpaid deliveries? One "rescue" I knew of had the kindest old hay seller deliver and stack hundreds of dollars of feed, only to go unpaid. If the rescue isn't kind to the people who serve them, are they kind to the voiceless animals? Another "rescue" I knew was owned by a man who cursed out the employees of a local business in front of me because the line was too long at checkout. He humiliated them, yelled profanities, obstructed business, and then drove away in his "horse sanctuary" truck. No way in hell I'd donate money to a rescue where the owner treats other human beings that way. 

Fourth, are the owners making a living off the rescue? Are they driving a shiny new truck with the rescue name and logo emblazoned on the side - as their own personal vehicle? Are they paying themselves a salary from donations? Because if they are, they aren't volunteers, they're staff and / or business owners. And if they're staff, are they paying the stall cleaners and horse trainers and people who come groom the animals? Or are THOSE people expected to work for free? 

Fifth, HOW BIG IS THE FACILITY? If it's a horse rescue and it's on less than five acres, reconsider your donations. Horses are large animals and they need room to move around. If they're locked into tiny stalls with tarps for shade and have no turnout space, move on. Do not enable the people who bring horses home from auction only to live in soul-stifling mind-numbing warehouse conditions.

Sixth, how controlling is the owner? Look at the "adoption" application. Are they asking for thousands of dollars to adopt a horse? Are they mandating that you feed what they tell you to, or that - if you must re-home the horse - that you have to bring it back to them? Are they denying adoption to people based on overly-restrictive criteria? Are they denying adoption of many of the animals because the animal is "sponsored," or "in training," or "an ambassador" for the rescue? If it's a rescue, and not a sanctuary where animals are intentionally kept for the duration of their natural lives, they should be adopting out animals. Not selling them for thousands; not denying them to owners; not keeping them as ambassadors - but finding them good, loving homes. And once the animal goes to the home, that owner - if they're a loving owner - should have the right to make decisions for the animal from that point forward. 

Many years ago, I would donate money regularly to a certain small animal rescue near my home at the time. I toured the facility; I met the owner; I followed their efforts in the news and through their newsletter. I stopped my support the day I found out they denied adopting animals out to senior citizens. Why? Because the adoptive owner might die. Well, none of us come with warranties or expiration dates. How awful to deny an elderly man the joy of a companion animal because he's elderly. How horrible to keep animals in CAGES at a shelter because they wouldn't let an elderly person take those animals home. At the time, 43,000 dogs and cats were being euthanized annually at the county pound, yet ... they denied adoption to a person based on age. Hideous. 

Another rescue - a horse rescue - I was familiar with was wrapped up in litigation over ownership of one of the rescue's horses. The money spent on lawyers could have done so much for more animal care, but nah. Two of the people involved with control of the rescue were vying for the ownership of one horse. They were too interested in fighting for control of the animal rather than in seeing the stall open up to potentially care for another horse. Hey, if you own a rescue and someone is willing to take and provide care for one of the horses - absent allegations / suspicion of cruelty - let the animal go! If the rescue owner is that committed to keeping an animal, aren't you really just funding their private animal ownership? 

Seventh, HOW MANY ANIMALS ARE ON SITE? Are animals actually being moved out to homes? Are there documents to show records of adoption, deaths, veterinary care, and so on? There were so many red flags involved in the case of the woman running the special-needs dog rescue, it's absurd she wasn't found out. Posting "adopted!" on the animal's profile on her website was apparently a euphemism for "dead and in the freezer" or "living in a tiny cage on a stack of other cages in my storage room." 

Eighth, how is your donated money being used? How transparent is the rescue, and can you see their financial statements? Are you funding a new truck for the rescue chairman to drive as his POV? Is the rescue sending unsolicited "gifts" to try to recruit donors? (It's okay if they do - but is that how you want your money spent?) Are you paying for salaries of staffers? (Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing - but shouldn't you know?) 

Ninth, are animals who've suffered great cruelty being kept alive for the sake of news broadcasts that lead to more donations, when the compassionate thing to do would be to euthanize them? Is it kinder to keep an animal alive in great pain while healthy, adoptable animals are being euthanized? I can't really answer this one; I just encourage donors to think about it. Certainly animals have a survival instinct and the fact they have pain doesn't mean they should be put down. Giving an animal a chance at a joyful life after they've suffered is an honorable and kind thing. But there are sometimes animals displayed on news / social media that are truly suffering - but they're worth their weight in gold to the rescue / shelter. Those sad faces of horribly abused animals on the mailers sent to potential donors are cruelty porn. I quit donating to any facility that engages in cruelty porn. I don't need to see photos of abused animals to know that abuse exists. I'm not judging you for choosing to donate every time you see a story of a grossly abused animal; that's compassionate. I'm not saying I'm right here. I'm just encouraging you to think about whether it's kind or fair to keep a suffering animal alive to exploit the public's compassion for sure-fire donations. 

Tenth, is the rescue a registered non-profit? And if they claim to be, have you checked it out to be sure? Being registered as such offers certain compliance requirements - and it also allows you to write off your donations. If they claim non-profit status, and they are NOT a registered non-profit, realize you are not accurately claiming your deduction - and the IRS doesn't like that. 

In summation ... I think it's amazing and wonderful that people want to donate to help the animals. None of this is intended to discourage you from doing so - or to discourage you from wanting to run your own animal rescue. I'm just encouraging you to make informed decisions and, if you're a rescuer, to make ethical ones. If you're an animal hoarder, contact your local humane society and seek their help. There's no shame in realizing you have an issue and in addressing it. If, however, you're hoarding animals because you make a lot of money in donated funds - well, rot in hell.

A final point: A lot of times I hear people say, "Someone abused this animal and people just suck. People are awful. I hate the world!" Think about this: Let's say you've just read an article about a person abusing an animal in a horrifying way, and the animal is rescued by the local humane society. There was, indeed, a horrible human being who did the abuse - but look at the dozens, hundreds, even thousands of people involved in rescuing the animal. The person who made the initial call; the law enforcement officers responding; the humane society who sent out a team to pick up the animal/s; the veterinarians at the shelter; the volunteers who care for the animal as it recovers; the thousands of people who - like you - saw the article and are horrified and want to help with their donations of time or money - all these people grossly outnumber the sick twist who abused the animal. There are more caring people than there are abusive people. Go walk the aisles at Petsmart and look at the everyday people buying toys and treats and silly sweaters for their animals. Look at the people in the lobby of your local veterinary clinic, getting the best of care for their beloved companion - or sobbing as they say goodbye in the most compassionate possible way. There are more caring people than there are abusive people. And this is certainly true of animal rescuers. But informed is forewarned; help keep the rescues honest and compassionate by making your own informed decisions.

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