Jenny Horstman

Heart of Iron

Jenny Horstman creates sculptures from discarded metal

By Nancy Johnson

Most people look at a pile of discarded iron pieces and see junk. Jenny Horstman sees a horse.

“I find pieces that have a great shape; that I am attracted to,” she says. “It could be a manure spreader auger, a spring, or a little drill bit. And then it just kind of happens on its own.”

Perhaps her most impressive pieces are life-size sculptures crafted from reclaimed metal. “I have two horses under my apple tree on my little want you to see the scraps. For some people it’s maybe more about the shape of the scraps, but for me, I draw with the steel. I use it as negative space and positive, but you need a lot of it. Because what isn’t there is just as important as what is there,” she explains. Winters in Aiken Jenny has made a lot of smaller pieces as well, including many sheet metal horseheads that she crafted over the winter in a studio at Full Gallop farm, it’s the perfect place for them,” she says.

Jenny, an amateur event rider who winters in Aiken with her horse Roan Rooster, lives most of the year in Fort Ann, New York, about 45 minutes north of Saratoga. But you don’t have to go to upstate New York to see her spectacular iron horses; just take a stroll down Hayne Avenue in Aiken, where you can’t miss one of Jenny’s majestic equine sculptures in the window of Haus Studio.

“When we first opened in December we had one of Jenny’s life-size horses on the sidewalk in front of the studio,” says Christina Neuhaus Thieme, who is the owner and designer at Haus studio, a new interior design firm. “People were constantly outside admiring it, taking photos of themselves with it and quite frankly in awe of its beauty. It’s just so intricate and interesting with all of the parts and pieces within the sculpture. Most can be recognized by horse people, and for non horse people it is so much fun to explain it to them – chains from manure spreaders, horseshoes, tractor parts, farrier tools, and so on. I also will explain to admirers the years it took from concept to completion and how much love went into it. Jenny’s sculptures are like her children and she has a story to tell about each of them. I am very honored to have her work at the studio. It’s truly outstanding.”

It’s true that a project like one of Jenny’s life-size horses can easily take close to a year to complete. “You have to sift through so many items to find the exact right piece because I really want you to see a horse; I don’t Gallop Farm, a professional eventing facility in Aiken owned by Lara Anderson.

“I met Lara through friends and this is the second year that my horse and I have stayed at Full Gallop Farm. When I first told her I welded and made sculpture, she immediately offered me this big, old welding shop to work in. It’s so generous of her, but I don’t want to fill it up with all the pieces I collect and sift through for my sculptures of reclaimed metal. The sheet metal ones don’t take up nearly as much space and people really like these mid-sized sculptures,” she explains. A number of the horsehead sculptures, slightly smaller than life-size and each a bit different, are mounted on metal bases in the Aiken workshop.

“It’s something people can find room for somewhere in their home,” Jenny says, adding, “I price them all at the same very reasonable price. It pays for my time and material and it’s an affordable way for quite a few people to have a really nice piece of art.”

Growing up in an artistic family in the Adirondacks, Jenny determined early on that she wanted to be an artist. “I always carried around a sketch book and did a lot of drawing and some painting,” she says. When she was 15, Jenny fell in love with sculpture. With support from her mother, who pushed the school to allow a female to do so, she began taking welding in vocational school and made sculptures out of sheet metal. “They looked just like these,” she says indicating several stunning horsehead pieces in her Aiken workshop.

Jenny thought she had her life planned out, and at age 19 she headed to art school in California. When she found herself in need of money, she put art school on hold and took a job as a professional welder. She quickly proved her talent, and spent two years repairing drilling rigs in the San Francisco area. Then, for almost 20 years, she worked as a member of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union in various locations including New England, Alaska, South Dakota, and New Mexico.

Finally, in 2008, with vast welding experience behind her, Jenny determined it was time for her to recommit herself to sculpture. She left Alaska where she had been living, bought her small farm in Fort Ann and built her own welding studio for her art. A Different Kind of Model Horse Although Jenny rode as a child, she emphasizes that it was strictly for fun and she never had any lessons. When she found herself drawn to creating sculptures of horses, she needed a way to study the animals.

“I had been going out and drawing various horses, but I really needed more time alone with a horse; a live model,” she says. So she went to the racetrack, where she found and purchased Roan Rooster, a Thoroughbred who had just retired from racing. He hangs out in a two-acre paddock adjacent to Jenny’s art studio and is her model and companion. “I’m with him all the time. He puts his head in the window to see what I’m doing; he’s quite a character,” she says with a smile.

“It’s especially good to see all of his emotions,” she continues,

Crazy About the Cow Although horses are one of Jenny’s favorite subjects and certainly those sculptures sell well, her work has also featured other animals including dogs, moose, cows, and mules. In fact, when asked if she had an all-time favorite piece, Jenny shows no hesitation as she responds, “The cow.” In preparation for creating this life-size work, officially known as “A Cow Named Elsie”, Jenny spent several weeks at a neighbor’s farm sketching cows and familiarizing herself with their anatomy.

“I used two huge pipe cutters for the hips and these long springs that I stretched out so when she was done, the cow really looked like she was bones with fabric hanging over her. The springs create a type of passive tension,” she says. “Physically, it was so challenging. I was so wrapped up in it. I worked on it all day, every day. I couldn’t stop because I had never made a cow before and it was exciting!”

She finished the entire project in just a couple of weeks and then set it up on the side of a road. “I like them to go outside where everybody can experience them,” she says. “People would stop and take photographs with her all the time.” One day an art collector drove by and saw the cow, and she soon became a part of his collection in Hudson, New York. Although she sells some pieces through a gallery, she says that much of her art is purchased by people who don’t go to art galleries.

Jenny rarely does commissions and prefers working for herself as it gives her more creative freedom. “I like to create what inspires me and

April-May 2020 indicating four striking life-sized horseheads of reclaimed metal. “These are all his emotions, and actually I could make 10 more with the moods he has. It is just amazing how expressive he is.” When all lined up together, the sculptures are similar to a piece she created entitled, “Starting Gate.” In 2012, that sculpture of Thoroughbreds about to break from the gate was awarded sixth place at the international Equine Expressions Art Contest, among top artworks from around the world. The sculpture was then sold to a gallery.

Initially Jenny had no plans to ride Roan Rooster very much if at all, but that has all changed in the past few years. “Shortly after I got him, I started meeting people with horses and I learned from them. We do a lot of trail riding and belong to a club, the Adirondack Trail Riders,” Jenny says. “I began doing ground rails, then cross rails, and it’s just progressed from there,” she adds. In fact, she and Roan Rooster won their first blue ribbon together in the Beginner Novice division at Stable View in February. “I didn’t get him to compete, so this is just a bonus. I would never sell him to get a horse with more experience or one who is better at dressage. I am never going to part with him,” she confirms. I don’t control my creativity at all because it just happens.” A sculpture she made of a canal mule is an example of this freedom. One day while driving behind the Champlain Canal Locks in Upstate New York, Jenny noticed where rope ties had been for mules that were used in the canals many years ago. She was immediately inspired to recognize the historical role of these animals with a sculpture. The New York Arts Council helped her write a grant proposal and she received a grant for the project from the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council.

“Part of the grant was that people from the community would bring me parts and pieces to donate for the mule, which was really cool,” she says. The “Canal Tow Mule” was purchased by the New York State Canal System and is displayed in their new building with a backdrop of mules working on the canal.

Jenny, who is now back in New York, is already making plans for her and Roan Rooster’s return to Aiken in the fall. Despite keeping a low profile here in regards to her sculptures, word of her amazing artwork is definitely getting out.