Art in the field

Being able to study her subjects as she races alongside them has informed Belinda Sillars work, as she explains to Janet Menzies

- Belinda Sillars

EVERY artist needs a muse and for Belinda Sillars that muse was a racehorse called Brambledown, or Bramble, who inspired her as a sculptor to move to the next level. Sillars explains: “I had always had a burning ambition to ride in point-to-points, but pointing is not an easy thing to get into – particularly finding money to buy a suitable horse – so I didn’t really think it could happen.” All the same, she went off to Ireland to see if she could find something within her budget, which turned out to be a little three-year-old bay filly.

It was a pivotal moment: “She became a soulmate and the other half of my ambition to go at high speed over fences. We clicked and she shared my feelings.” Success was rapid, as Sillars remembers: “She was a missile over any obstacle. She had huge scope and a huge heart. I took her bloodhounding with the Coakham in Kent to begin with and I would almost be touching her tail hailing a cab over some of the scary drop hedges. Then, when she turned five, we had our first race at Charing. We were the longest odds because on paper we had nothing. But all my friends put money on us and she won by so far, and I couldn’t pull up for a circuit.”