JENNY LUPTON PICTURES 

A PROPER RACEHORSE TO RIDING HORSE! 

 I was very chuffed to be asked to do a portrait of the lovely Harry, the horse that started Hannah’s eventing career. 

Harry ran as Celtic Sage for about three seasons, winning a PTP at Southwell (that’s how long ago!). He retired from racing in 1995, and throughout his life has generally been an all-round good egg. His post-race, pre-Hannah tasks included foal-nanny surrogacy and and acting as lead horse for youngsters. He was Hannah’s first horse and they were both 12 years old when he went to her! 

Teenager’s horses in the right homes have the best life, and he did side saddle, riding club camps, dressage and eventing. He jumped like a stag (Celtic Cone as his sire probably having a say in that) and competed up to open PC eventing. 
When he retired from competition, he then had a couple of loan homes; leading kids and ponies out hunting, with his last job as a happy hacker. Harry retired properly when he was 25/26. You’ll (hopefully) see from the portrait what great shape he was in for a 29 year old horse.

His longevity is testament to not only Hannah’s watching after him all these years, but to the TB horse as a breed. Correctly turned around after racing, they make fantastic horses. I managed to break my camera just before I finished this portrait, so I don’t unfortunately have a decent photo of it. This fairly poor one from my phone will have to suffice.

Possibly the most amusing response from a client ever is detailed below! 

Me: Can't wait for you to see it! 
Hannah: So excited .... Just need to move house as I know EXACTLY where it's going! 

Me: I do love a client that moves house to hang a picture ! 😂😂