A year or so ago I discovered this great little renegade art project in Portland, OR called The Horse Project. An artist named Scott Wayne Indiana noticed all the old horse rings, used to tie horse reigns back in the day, still secured to sidewalks all over the city. He thought it would be cool to tie toy horse to the rings — a sort of playful and lighthearted way to recall the bygone days. The project took root, and soon people all over the city were tying toy horses to the rings, increasing the moments of playfulness all over town.
Our vision is for people to adopt this project and make it their own, deploying horses in their neighborhoods, wherever there are horse rings. We’d also love to see these horses decorated and cared for in interesting and unique ways. We’d like to make this project one of those quirky Portland things that people remember and talk about…
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Little unsanctioned efforts like these, especially that involve kids, seem to make a big difference in how a city engages with the street and how new ideas get hatched. I’d love to see a project like this take shape in Dallas. Maybe we could overrun half-populated parking lots with little Tonka trucks or mad-crazy menageries of plastic ponies and cowboys. Just an idea…
