My Little Workhorse (The Cowboy)

My solo show, My Little Workhorse, runs from March 30th to April 20th at Beinart Gallery.

Opening reception: Saturday, March 29th, 5 – 8pm.

My Little Workhorse

My Little Workhorse takes the 1980s toy line of My Little Pony and sets them in a re-imaged alternative history. Rather than inhabiting the serene and idyllic world of Dream Valley, with its lush meadows and rainbows, these ponies have been transported to a very real world and used as beasts of burden. From carrying cowboys, enlisted as pit ponies to pull loads in underground coal mines, to transporting heavy loads across mountain ranges, or relegated to transporting seemingly impossible loads of logs through the ice and snow, these workhorses lead very different lives.

Horses have been domesticated for thousands of years. There’s evidence from c. 2000 BCE of horses being used to pull chariots, and some evidence points to the domestication of horses from at least 3000 BCE. Draught horses were indispensable to pre-industrialisation farmers, and their use continues to the modern day. These horses were bred to be large and muscular, so the substitution of fantasy ponies is incongruous, absurd and a little cruel. It’s also kind of funny.