Meet Kim McElroy

Equesse is very excited to spotlight world renowned equine artist, Kim McElroy.Through this feature, Kim answers questions in her own words about her life with horses and how the spirit of these beautiful animals comes to all of us through her art.  For more about Kim, please visit www.spiritofhorse.com Also, be sure to view the trailer for Kim’s new DVD entitled “The Secret to Drawing Horses” by clicking on the video at the end of this article.

Equesse: What was your childhood experience with horses?Family structure?Access?Location?

Kim: I didn’t have access to horses as a child, but I drew them from the moment I could hold a crayon. I look back at those drawings and it is amazing to me that I always drew Bay horses, and a Bay horse was my first horse, Darma. I believe I knew in my soul that I would meet her someday.

I grew up in an upscale area near the beach in Long Beach, California, so there weren’t any horses in my life except for early childhood experiences with ponies at the school fair. Some friends we knew in nearby Palm Springs would take us horseback riding on rental horses, and when I was 8 my parents responded to my continued requests to have a horse, by signing me up for riding lessons at a stable they found about an hour away.

My legs weren’t long enough for the stirrups, and my feet were always coming out of the stirrups. I was supposed to keep my heels down – but that seemed impossible.Riding around in circles… at those times the horses didn’t seem like horses to me but rather a task I had to endure.

My parents were supportive of my artistic endeavors and allowed me to take classes in every hobby I pursued. But my wishes for a horse of my own didn’t materialize. Interestingly I wonder if I had become an avid rider in competitions, with goals – perhaps having a horse would have seemed to have a purpose and they might have gotten one for me.

In looking back I realized that I didn’t really want to be a rider, I just wanted to be among horses, and there was no other place to do that. My favorite times were just being with the horses in their stalls, brushing them and braiding their manes. They were very patient with me, and sweet. I think they enjoyed my company.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a place where children could just be with horses, instead of having them always in a school type environment where they and the horses are put into pre-determined boxes of “what we do with horses”?

Equesse: You mentioned that you actually believed you were a horse at times when you were little. Can you describe this feeling?

Kim: My sister and brother were out of the home by the time I was born – being 15 or more years older than me, so I was on my own a lot as a child. I was a sensitive child and spent a lot of time playing by myself because I didn’t find many friends who were like me who loved animals. From the time I can remember I would run around on my hands and knees through the house. I would sometimes get rug burns on my knees! I imagined myself as a wild horse that couldn’t be tamed.

Unlike many girls who played horse with other girls, I only had one or two friends in my childhood who liked horses, so I didn’t play being a horse as much with other kids. I also played with my Breyer model horses, and those horses were real and alive in my imagination to me too.

Sometimes I played these games at school with small toy animals with a friend, and the other kids would make fun of us because it was a make-believe world we created and they were only interested in playing on the bars and jumping rope. Looking back there wasn’t much nature around. Concrete sidewalks and asphalt streets everywhere, and homes with landscaping but not nature. Even the beach was surrounded by a breakwater so it wasn’t like a real beach with waves and shells and marine life.

Equesse: When and how did you first discover your connection to horses?

Kim: That is a really good question. I guess it was so natural to me to love horses that I always had the connection. When I wasn’t playing horse I was drawing them, and I continued doing that all through my life. Then when I was 20 I had an epiphany about how being connected to horses had a purpose in my life. I was in Art College at the time. During Spring break I was visiting the home of a family friend who had Arabian horses, and I was attempting to draw them but they were napping in the stalls and the sketches I did of them weren’t very inspiring. Our friend offered to let them out into the arena. I had my sketchpad ready and the horses came running out, snorting and pawing, and they were completely transformed into the magical beings I envisioned they could be. In looking back I realized this was the first time I had seen horses at liberty. Previously the only horses I’d seen were at stables – being ridden or lunged, but never free. I was very excited by their dynamic energy, but as I tried to sketch them at first I was very frustrated because I couldn’t record their spontaneity on my paper in time to see what they were doing with their bodies. Then I remembered a technique I had learned in school called “Gesture Drawing” where we would sketch a model in poses of a few seconds, and so I started drawing lines rather than forms, and things began to flow and I felt more in sync with the horses, and I lost track of trying to draw a certain way. It all happened in a matter of maybe 10 minutes, but it was magical. When the horse’s energy calmed I looked at my sketches and I realized the drawings that had emerged looked very different from anything I had done before. Then our friend who was an artist admired the drawings as very innovative and she even recognized one of her horses in the abstract sketch. That was the beginning of my shift from pursuing becoming an illustrator of other’s ideas of what subjects to paint, to becoming a fine artist creating what was meaningful for me.

Equesse: When and how did you first realize your artistic talent? When did you realize that you were going to pursue your passion as a career?Was there a conscious decision making point?

Kim: I always drew and painted and my parents were very supportive of my talent. Interestingly I think in being a good artist, I was given the most positive attention in school and fortunately I had really great art teachers, especially Mr. Connelly in Jr. High who helped me submit a portfolio and I was accepted into an accelerated art program in high school where I was transported to another school for art. That was so wonderful for me and I was studying with students older than me and we did advanced art like silk screening and acrylic painting, and more conceptual art.

After my parents separated when I was 13, she and I moved to Washington State. My mom continued to be supportive of my art talent, and for my schooling after high school a perfect opportunity presented itself when a local Art School started only 15 minutes away. When I realized my dream of painting horses, my mom was also enthusiastic and she and I decided to go into business together and called our business, “The Fire Horse” after my birth sign in Chinese astrology – to be born under this sign can indicate a person with great artistic talent who achieves success at a young age

Equesse: What have been some of your biggest challenges in your life with horses?

Kim: Within my art the biggest challenges have been to stay true to painting what is in my soul rather than what I feel are expectations from others. To not “sell myself short” when I feel the need to make a living doing my art. When I would compromise my heart and soul’s needs in painting what wasn’t my true inspiration for money – I paid the price emotionally much more than the financial gain was worth. Every time I have come back to my true purpose, and have found the courage in stating this truth to others, my pursuits are rewarded and the people who resonate with what I am creating are drawn to my work.

With my horses, I took on some big challenges.When I did finally realize my dream of owning a horse, it was when I fell in love with a thoroughbred racehorse filly named Darma. Darma was injured on the track and she became mine, and thus began many joyful and painful lessons on horse behaviors and in my own self-awareness. Darma’s huge presence and profound needs for her own physical, spiritual, and emotional healing, required me over time, to mature from being a dreamy horse loving girl, to becoming an empowered woman, capable of making my own decisions for our mutual benefit, rather than following the advice of others. I had to learn how to advocate for her and trust her, and how to trust in the wisdom guiding me, and not allowing others who had an agenda to influence me in my decisions for her. Among the hardest lessons were when I was seeking spiritual and emotional healing, was not to collapse myself into putting a healer or someone with psychic gifts on a pedestal, thinking that someone I visualized as more spiritually evolved than me – had better answers or even Darma’s or my well being at heart.

This has it had been the case with one other of my horses, Mystico, a Paso Fino Gelding.I rescued him as a very troubled 4 yr. old stallion, whose ultra sensitive nature and mismanagement from humans had created an emotional crisis in him. I was very daunted at the prospect of trying to help him, but my heart and soul was drawn to him and when I met him he responded to me more than any other human, as if he knew we could communicate, and that gave me hope that I could help him heal.

My first impression of him was that he looked exactly like a painting I had done 15 years before called “Mystic” . I named him Mystico after the painting. So again I followed my faith and it was a long and sometimes bumpy road, but the vision of who he was in his heart became a reality once he released the anger and fear that had become his way of being in the world.

Kim: In my art career, my biggest joy is when someone finds in one of my own compositions a deep personal meaning as if it was created just for them. With my commissioned portraits it is the feeling I get when someone witnesses their portrait for the first time. When the painting takes their breath away and they can’t believe that their beloved animal is right there on the paper.

Equesse: What are some of the biggest ways that horses have enriched your life?

Kim: Horses have changed my life so profoundly. When I stepped up to the challenge of creating a life for Darma, my mare, that I hoped would give her the happiness she deserved, I ended up created that same life for myself and my husband. We bought property, and created a farm, and began giving homes to various animals that came our way. Because of my belief that all animals need their own kind, led to us giving homes to many animals. I felt that especially the horses needed companionship, and over time and circumstance I met certain horses that I felt strongly drawn to. Some we knew we were the best hope for, like our gelding Patches who came to us foundered and blind, and our mare Meadow who had never been ridden regularly and at the age of 21 her previous owners considered donating her to 4-H kids. At our peak year we had a total of 21 animals including 7 horses, three llamas, four goats, two pot-bellied pigs, two dogs, two guinea pigs, and a cat.

In 2002 I began attending workshops hosted by Linda Kohanov and some of her instructors, and those experiential healing workshops with horses changed my entire life. I healed emotional issues that I had been carrying that were hindering me from my happiness. I began to learn what it was like to trust myself and listen to my own inner guidance. I became more self confident and empowered in making decisions. The horses at these workshops all were so generous and wise, and I learned to understand more about myself from the ways they interacted with me.

These experiences made all my dreams of who horses are and what amazing healing gifts they offer a reality, and gave me even more purpose in my art.

Equesse: Can you describe your personal process of creating a horse-related work of art?

I also do Soul Essence paintings, which are created from a meditation with the horse in which I ask for imagery to convey their special message for their person. In this process I experience complex and vivid imagery which I then create in a work of art.

I have thought a lot about the process of creating. I just released a dvd called The Secrets of Drawing Horses, to share the process I discovered of how to feel what you are drawing rather than merely seeing it. I believe the secret to my art is that my feelings are in every stroke of the pastel, and therefore those who see it receive those feelings at a level beyond our conscious understanding.

My paintings have a life of their own. I feel very humble because my art is created from a process which is guided by my love and my desire to communicate. My artistic skill is linked to my desire to perceive. My paintings not merely decorative, they are intended to connect to the viewer with the horse itself.

Equesse: What is your goal/mission with Spirit of Horse?

Kim: The goal of all my art is to bring awareness to humans of the sentience of horses. To bring healing energy to people who seek the horse as their guide. To help others like me who feel there is something about horses, to remember what it was they were looking for.

Equesse: What is some advice for women who love horses?

Kim: For women who own horses or who have horses in their lives, I would invite them to consider what would happen if in your relationship with a horse, if you began to perceive that the horse is always right. One of the best things I ever learned was that misbehavior is a form of communication.

For others who are drawn to horses but don’t have them in their physical vicinity ~ I would invite them to seek ways of experiencing horses in your daily life either through experiencing them in art, or drawing them yourself. Find ways to be with horses. There is a reason horses are in your heart, and the quest to understand that reason is a wonderful journey of discovery. But remember it is not about seeking answers, it is about asking more questions.

Meet Tami Hoag

As a writer and rider, author Tami Hoag has all the “write stuff.” When she’s not astride one of her grand prix dressage horses, she can most likely be found buried behind a keyboard working on her next mystery. She is world renowned as a New York Times best selling author and the Chicago Tribune called Tami, “One of the most intense suspense writers around.” In her horse life, Tami is a top adult amateur dressage rider competing internationally. Equesse spoke with Tami, to find out more about her intriguing life and her love and involvement with horses.

Equesse: You have written 14 mysteries that have landed on the New York Times bestselling list and two of them revolve around horses. Tell us about those.

Tami: Dark Horse and The Alibi Man take place amidst the horse world in Wellington, Florida, which is part of the Palm Beaches. Every winter I spend a couple of months in Florida competing and it is certainly a world unto itself. In my earlier books I kept my riding separate, but in these novels I let the two converge. My heroine in both books is Elena Estes, a very complex character with a privileged upbringing. She has a falling out with her family and goes to work for the sheriff’s office. People always ask me if I am Elena, and I am not. I did, however, enjoy incorporating the horse world into these books. It was natural for me, as horses have been my life since I was a child.

Equesse: Were you a typical horse-crazy child growing up?

Tami: I grew up in a non-horse family, but that didn’t stop me from dreaming of having a pony of my own. I asked my parents for a pony every chance I got, and my dream became a reality when they bought me a Shetland Pony named Dan. Dan was a wise old soul, and would never do anything he believed was beyond my capability as a rider. For the first year I had him, he would NOT canter. No matter how I tried to coax him, irritate him, beg him, bribe him, he absolutely would not canter — until I became a better rider with better balance and was in no danger of just falling off. He really was my best friend and constant companion.

I didn’t own a saddle for Dan at first, but I did have a cart and I learned to hitch Dan up myself and drove him all over town. I drove him in parades and hung advertising for local businesses on my cart, which earned me money to save up for a new saddle. When I had saved up almost a hundred dollars — a fortune to a nine-year-old — I became obsessed with the idea of the new saddle. My oldest brother was getting married around that time, and one weekend my mother was going to go shopping with his fiancé to look for a dress. When I overheard them planning to go to a bridal shop, I got all excited and asked, ‘Do you think they might have saddles, too?’ Typical horse-crazy little girl, that was all I could think about.

Equesse: Now you are a top adult amateur dressage rider, how did that come about?

Tami: For 30 years I tried a variety of equestrian disciplines, before settling on dressage. I love the precision, accuracy, beauty and elegance of dressage and for me it really is a fabulous sport. My first partner, D’Artagnon and I made our debut as a team in the show ring in June of 1999 and I haven’t looked back since. I started training with Betsy Steiner then, and I still train with her today.

Equesse: Tell us about your horses.

Tami: I have an 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding named Rush Hour 4 and a 10-year-old Westfalen gelding named Fhilosopher. Rush Hour and I are competing at the grand prix level. By nature Rush Hour is a very high-strung horse, and in the past he has been very tense in the ring. This is his first season at grand prix, and he has limited show experience to begin with. So we are working at his coping with the stress, and I am really pleased with his progress. It is a process with him and I am finding it very rewarding. Fhilosopher has grand prix potential and is a very elegant horse with a tremendous amount of charisma and talent.

Equesse: You obviously have to do a lot of research for your books, how do you accomplish that?

Tami: There’s nothing like hands-on research. I always learn something, and often pick up some unexpected detail that will later prove important in a book. Over the years, I have done a lot of hands-on research with various law enforcement agencies — from homicide detectives to sex crimes detectives to the FBI. I recently went to a fundraising auction and bid on and won the chance to ride with the Palm Beach Sheriff for a day. It’s great research for future books.

Equesse: What would you say to women who want to ride but because of family, time or financial obligations can’t fit it into their schedules.

Tami: It isn’t always easy to squeeze in time for our needs, but as women we truly need to. For me, horses are my passion away from my work; they are my joy, refuge, therapy, salvation and comfort. Several years ago I was thrown from a sale horse and broke my back in five places. While I was recuperating, I didn’t know if I would ever be able to ride again, and certainly didn’t know if I would be able to ride at the Grand Prix level. I discovered that it wasn’t the excitement of competition, or the thrill of winning a big class, that I would have missed if the accident had kept me from getting back in the saddle. What I would have missed the most would have been the partnership with my horses. The day-in-day-out work with a horse that builds an understanding and trust between you. As women, we need that.

Equesse: Your horse life has had a few upsets, including losing your wonderful mare Coco Channel.

Tami: Sadly, Coco Channel was humanely eunthanized from a devastating spinal cord injury that occurred in a freak accident during the summer of 2007. Betsy Steiner helped me find Coco Channel in Germany, and even though I still mourn her loss I have beautiful memories of the mare that I call a “lady” and a “special one.” Every day with Coco was a joy. She could be very exuberant, and expressed herself with a sudden squeal and by springing with all four feet straight up off the ground — usually when I had her on the buckle!  When she landed, I would gather the reins, scold her a little, and she would walk on with the sweetest look on her face, as if she hadn’t done a thing wrong. Coco had never done a freestyle when I got her and at first she had reservations about it. When the music was added, Coco seemed to “get it” and I count riding freestyles on her as a highlight of our career together. My favorite memory will always be of our Pas De Deux with Betsy and Feliki (my other grand prix mare) at the Challenge of the Americas. Coco loved nothing more than the spotlight and a big audience — and Feliki is the same. It was such a blast to go out on that field and really let her shine. She was in her glory with a standing ovation.

Equesse: Your fans are eagerly awaiting your next thrilling and heart-stopping book, Deeper Than The Dead. Tell us about this next novel that is sure to keep us all on the edge of our seats.

Tami: Deeper Than The Dead, will arrive in bookstores on December 28, 2009. Set in 1985 in an idyllic California college town, Deeper Than The Dead opens with four children running through the woods and literally falling upon the body of a murder victim. The investigation is headed by hotshot young detective Tony Mendez, and joined by one of the FBI’s pioneers of criminal profiling, still a fledgling science at the time. Also drawn into the investigation is the children’s fifth grade teacher, Anne Navarre, who must protect her students and at the same time try to delve through family secrets that run Deeper Than The Dead.

For more information on Tami Hoag, or to see a list of her novels, visit her website at www.tamihoag.com.