Horses, Dinosaurs, and Turnip Carts

The draft horses at the farm have their full winter coats, and I'm hoping Lenny will be hitching them up soon to pull the sleigh. 

Watching the draft horses working in harness always impresses me.  The horses have to respond to so many voice commands. Each horse has to recognize whether Lenny is talking to both of them, or just one of them. And they have to know the commands for forward, back, stop, right, left, and step sideways right and step sideways left. 

The experience of seeing how a driver communicates with draft horses inspired me when I painted this image of a Triceratops pulling a turnip cart. You'll note that there are no reins; the driver (and Bix) are using voice signals entirely to communicate with the Triceratops. The painting originally appeared in Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara and later in Imaginative Realism. 

You can own this original painting. It is currently available for sale at the Daniel Maghen Gallery in Paris.

Previous posts on GurneyJourney:
Spokewheeling (compositional principle using this painting)
Ground Driving (me walking behind two of the Belgians)

Thanks, Damian