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Thursday, May 8, 2008

Bettina Drummond: The Artist as Rider
By Lynndee Kemmet

Bettina Drummond’s Art Inspires Other Artists

As an artist, Bettina Drummond measures her success by the feelings her riding evokes in others and other artists in particular have always been attracted to her, both for the inspiration her riding gives them as artists and as fellow riders.

"A work of art always insinuates the soul of the artist who created it. I recognized instantly in Bettina someone who could educate me in the art of riding. Owning horses and not being the sportive type, a door had opened! I was stunned one day as I watcher her ride when I learned the horse she was riding that day had only recently arrived at her barn. Watching the ride I wondered, would horses respond to an artistic touch?," asked Gerald Incandela, a renowned photographer whose work hangs in galleries around the world. "The knowledge of one art form is a useful tool to understand another art form. Perhaps because all art forms have in common a good composition, balance, rhythm or underlying 'drawing,' whether music, architecture, painting, dance or riding."

Two years ago, actor and author Tab Hunter had an opportunity to witness Drummond's riding when Incandela invited him to watch her ride one of his Lusitano stallions. Hunter, perhaps best known as a movie actor, has himself been involved with horses since the age of 12.

"The first thought that came to my mind when I saw her ride was, what a 'sympathetic rider' she is. I first heard the expression, 'sympathetic rider' many years ago in Spain while riding at the Club de Campo. “Paco” Goyoaga’s wife, Paula, used the phrase and I have never forgotten it. Riding is an art, no matter what the discipline, and with dedication the 'sympathetic rider' takes the art of riding to the next step. Bettina creates magic," Hunter said.

Any work of art, Drummond said, should not only move people but also serve as a catalyst that inspires more art. Her riding has certainly done that. The image of her on horseback has inspired other artists, who have used that image to create their own art. For example, Incandela has created a number of pieces of art from watching Drummond ride.

"The first time I saw Bettina, she was on a horse. I saw a beautiful 'drawing' in the sense that the lines of her body and the horse she was riding were fluidly and graciously linked. My eye could travel on these two bodies as if it was one. The result was a picture of balance, harmony and peace. Beauty is the word that comes to mind, and a beauty that is internal as well since it must have involved a psychic connection between horse and rider," Incandela said.

One image in particular, of Drummond in a moment of complete joy while riding Boccanegra, an Andalusian stallion owned by her sister, Fiona Drummond, has become a widely-regarded piece of photographic art. In describing the photo, Incandela said he sought to capture "a very happy moment when there was such a beautiful combination of power and joy."

Bettina Drummond Brings Art to Riding and Riding to Artists