I make sculptures out of scrapped horseshoes, says polo horse trainer

A POLO horse trainer from Shiplake has been creating artworks out of old horseshoes.

Sam Gravestock, 28, who works at the Black Bears Polo Club at Lower Bolney Farm, makes sculptures and household items using the metal horseshoes that would otherwise go to scrap.

He recently finished a large sculpture of a red kite inspired by his passion for nature and the birds of prey that often visit the polo field.

Mr Gravestock said: “We have about 200 horses in a season so there are a lot of horseshoes.

“I have always collected them, thinking one day I would make something out of them.

“I started making small things like candle holders and bits and bobs before Christmas and put them on Etsy.

“Then I thought, ‘If I am putting all my time into making these things why not put time into making something bigger?

“I’m really glad how the red kite came out after putting it on the stand.”

Before making the kite, Mr Gravestock experimented by making a range of household items such as a wine rack and a plant pot holder as well as a garden fire pit.

All his creations are made using recycled materials apart from a small amount of welding wire.

Mr Gravestock works at the club six days a week training young horses and worked on his red kite sculpture in a shed at his family’s home in Guildford on his days off.

He said: “My dad has a gas forge and he has been tinkering away, making his own things. We have a bit of competition going on.”

The red kite took him about a week in total, working one day a week since before Christmas.

It is made from more than 70 horseshoes and the bird’s wingspan measures about 175cm (5ft 7in).

Mr Gravestock said: “We have loads of horseshoes at the farm and I could picture a way of making them into feathers. It came out pretty good in the end. I’m not good at drawing things but I could see it in my head.

“I would cut the shoes in half, heat them and then straighten them out one at a time. I would have buckets of straightened shoes.

“I laid them all out to give me a rough idea of what it would look like and I slowly started to weld them together. The head was the trickiest part.”

Mr Gravestock said his ultimate aim was make a sculpture of a horse.

He said: “If I do make more animals I was thinking about giving part of the sale price to the relevant animal charity, so if it was a horse, to an equine charity. I want to gauge the interest first and see if people like it.” Mr Gravestock has worked for the Black Bears, one the country’s top polo clubs for more than seven years.

When he is not training the horses, he is driving the polo ponies to tournaments or carrying out maintenance work at the farm.

He first became interested in horses as a teenager.

Mr Gravestock said: “I live on site and my job is to train the young horses. They start at about two years old and we get them used to playing polo, so getting used to the stick, being around other horses and stopping and starting.

“It started when I was about 15 when I thought polo was just the Ralph Lauren logo.

“I was working as a groundsman for a family whose son played polo and I started getting more involved. This was when I was at school, so I worked on the weekends and in the holidays.”

After leaving college in Guildford, Mr Gravestock travelled to Australia where he got more involved in polo and started playing.

He said: “I play now because when you train the horses you have to play them at the lower levels before they can play at the top level. Some of the horses playing at the highest level I have had since they were babies.

“The job is very interesting and very rewarding.”

For more information, email Mr Gravstock at sgravestock@
outlook.com

• The Black Bears are owned by Swiss financier Urs Schwarzenbach, who lives in Shiplake and owns the Culden Faw estate.