April 11 - Limousine Liberal

Happy Birthday to one of the coolest and most loved horses that I've had the pleasure to get to know: Limousine Liberal.

A couple of years ago, I received a call from Katherine (K.K.) Ball about painting "her" horse. As soon as she said Limousine Liberal, I was excited. He was one of those horses whose unusual name gave him a fan following and with Keeneland as his home base, I was already a fan of this racehorse.

There was a bit of a dilemma as the artist consulting with the client about the painting. What were we going to paint? I have an affinity for racing scenes, but my job is to bring the owner's vision to life. Mike Ball was thinking conformation and K.K. was leaning towards a racing scene; or was it the other way around? Either way, the best solution was to paint him twice. We went through his racing photos and selected one from Coady Photography at Churchill Downs. For the confirmation painting, we brought in Louise Reinagle for a photo session to come up with source material. She photographed him outside his stall at Keeneland, but I set him up at the Donamire Farm. This painting was a little smaller and became known as "Traveling Limo" because K.K. was able to take it with her to her home in Florida or up north.

The thing about any horse is the part you don't know and that is the relationship any given horse has with its "people".

Limo was loved, about as loved as any horse that I've witnessed with my own eyes and that became apparent after one conversation with K.K.

For a family that has been racing and even training their own horses for a lifetime, Limo was special. He was the horse that got the whole family excited again about racing. And you know, sometimes when you meet a horse you can just tell that he knows that he's the cock of the walk. He was a ham and a pussy cat, but on race day, he was an honest horse that showed up. I think it was because he was just trying to impress K.K. This was not a one-way love affair. Those two loved each other.

Limo suffered a training accident, and the Balls did everything possible for almost a month to save him, but equine injuries that linger cause other problems that only get worse, until forced to do the humane option and let him go. From the first time we talked, K.K. would talk about retiring him back to Donamire where he would be a pasture ornament. The heartbreak that comes from loving an animal is impossible to explain to those who have never had or witnessed such a relationship. There won't be another Limo, but K.K. has Traveling Limo that accompanies her as she travels. He kind of goes everywhere with her, still inseparable.