Horses hold a powerful mystery to me. They can, and will, do almost anything they are asked to do—if they trust you. At the same time, they can be terrified to walk through a puddle. They will startle at the sound of a leaf, or rain on a roof. They may leave you in the dust if they see a squirrel or anything that looks like it might hurt them. These massive beasts, love to play, and they will win a race and collapse on the track because their heart has ruptured, just because they love to run.
Secretariat had a heart many times the normal size for his breed. It was estimated to be 22 pounds, according to Dr. Thomas Swerczek, the head pathologist at the University of Kentucky. He made that determination after finding the second-largest heart in Sham (Secretariat’s Triple Crown rival) when his weighed in at 18 pounds. Sham truly was a miracle horse, and what may have driven them both to succeed, was the size of their heart. Secretariat’s heart was approximately three times the size of the average thoroughbred heart and almost another third larger than his fierce competitor, Sham.
In order to capture the grace of the “heart”, as it relates to humanity, I photographed a number of horses. The chest of this horse, who was known as Ace, at his barn, seemed to stand out above the rest, and so I started to draw his features. This fierce, powerful, strong and beautiful horse, was also a ham. He would run around the horse ring while looking backwards at a photographer, so his photo would be taken “face on”. On this day, he let me take a shot that showed his chest, without staring into the camera, a rare reality for him.
I started creating him at the Mayors gala for the arts, in Clarington, Ontario, assisted by guests and dignitaries present that evening. Then I brought him back home to share a few weeks together on my easel. I needed to learn why I chose this horse and what my intuitive focus on the “heart” was all about. Looking at the canvass one day with friends, I was asked what I was going to call this one. I shared my reflections on the heart of the horse and explained that this one would be about having heart, about the ability to turn our heart, our head and our neck, as we seek change in our lives. That many of us are blessed to have the grace of time and the grace of God in our lives. A Grace which allows us to become something in one decade of life, that we were not in another. Added time, and opportunity, can transform or expand our strengths or the great frailties of our human hearts. As I was turning over possible names in my head which would encompass the word “heart”, my daughter asked, “Are you going to use his show name? Change of Heart?”. You can imagine my surprise when I realized that I had forgotten that his registered name was "Change of Heart"—Ace was his barn name. Yes, Change of Heart, that was perfect, the glamour horse was turning his head, representing for us, the potential we have to turn toward Grace, to make mid-course corrections, and to see our lives express the expansive and extraordinary heart of love that we need, that our homes need and that our communities need. Young or old, wherever we are on the earth, we can all benefit from an ongoing Change of Heart.