Iron Man: Remuda of Sculptures and Equine Art

Iron Man: Remuda of Sculptures and Equine Art

Unlike other herds, Dolan’s 39-head strong remuda is made of steel, 4,000-feet of frayed black rope, bed liner and blue paint.

Article From: John Deere Journal

Sporting a grey cowboy hat stained by the sweat of many hours of labor, Jim Dolan greets his horses like any other cowboy. After a quick pat on the neck, he immediately turns his attention to a knot tied intricately into the steed’s mane by the wind that whips through their hillside pasture overlooking Three Forks, Mont.

But instead of the normal sounds of stomping feet, swishing tails and fluttering snorts, only the sound of the wind and an occasional squeak of metal cuts the quiet. Unlike other herds, Dolan’s 39-head strong remuda is made of steel, 4,000-feet of frayed black rope, bed liner and blue paint. These Bleu Horses, as he calls them, are his gift to the people of Montana. A gift the sculptor, whose fanciful metal creatures have graced vistas around the world, felt he owed the Big Sky State after the California kid convinced a Montana State University board to grant him in-state tuition.

A Promise Kept

“I told them I would probably live in Montana my whole life and be an asset to the people,” Dolan says. That was nearly 50 years ago, and he’s made good on his promise. The equine art installations, 13 of which have bearings in them so they move with the wind and 24 that stand 7 feet tall at the shoulder, can be seen scattered about a hillside on Highway 287 just off the interstate. Some of the horses are laying down, some are grouped, some are grazing alone, just as they would be in a real herd, which they can be mistaken for when viewed from a distance.

“Horses are social characters. Sometimes they get along, some others don’t, so I tried to capture that with my positioning,” says the sculptor.

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