Stallion Stampede for Charity in Scottsdale

By Delores Kuhlwein

If you’re headed to Scottsdale soon (and many of you are for Sun Circuit!), you might find some colorful, artistic, life sized stallions during your adventures around town.

The Stallion Stampede, presented by The Rotary Club of Scottsdale, is a fun and interactive fundraiser to benefit the arts and business communities and other nearby charities and scholarships.  The fiberglass stallion statues are painted by local artists; some are leased to businesses or individuals, and they’re on display in Scottsdale and neighboring communities from January 2023 to April 2023.

Sponsor names will appear on a plaque at the base of their chosen stallion as well as on the Official Stallion Stampede Community Art Project Website.

Just in time for Super Bowl LVII, the stallions named Spirit and Inspire, painted by Artist Vanessa Ortiz-Zapata, recently joined the collection and they’re on display in Old Town Scottsdale.  Spirit is situated in front of the Civic Center and Inspire can be found in front of the water fountain on 5^th Avenue and Marshall Way.

The stallions will be sold at the Stallion Stampede Gala Auction on April 15th at Royal Arabians.

Those interested in bidding on the horses can now do so online on the Stallion Stampede website:  Buy a Stallion! (stallionstampede.com)

50% of the proceeds from the Stallion’s sale at auction will be directed to a charity of the Stallion Sponsor’s choice.

One of the artists, Wendy Morris Tank of Scottsdale, painted two of the horses and she’s working on one more.  The artist made the bronze that’s the official trophy for The Run for A Million, and her next trophy for consideration by Taylor Sheridan is for The Cutting Run For A Million. If it’s approved, it will be unveiled at the Cactus Classic Reining in Scottsdale.  She’s also formerly the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show mural artist.

Her first fiberglass Stallion Stampede project is Desert Prince, a gray stallion sponsored by the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show. Proceeds from the auction of her second creation, Assad, a bay stallion, will support the Arabian Horsemen’s Distress Fund.

She explains she had total creative freedom on the first horse since it wasn’t modeled after a particular stallion, and it was a blast to paint. “I wanted people to see him and think of the modern Arabian show horse and think of the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show,” she says.  “I grew up in that world, and I tried to make it authentic with a Scottsdale flair.  Making the mold look realistic was so much fun after having experience doing it on canvas for so long.”

She was currently airbrushing the mold she still has in her studio as of February 9^th when she spoke to The Equine Chronicle.  “I just started using airbrushing as a technique – I painted the gray stallion by hand, but the other two molds are hand painted and then airbrushed for details like dapples, and to blend the legs and the face to make them flawless.  The stallions have been really fun to paint!”

Learn more about artist Wendy Morris Tank: Wendy Morris-Tank (bronzesmith.com).

 

Visit the website and learn more about the artists and the chosen charities here:  Stallion Stampede.

 

Download the map to find them all: Find the Stallions! (stallionstampede.com)

There are more being added, so check the website regularly for an updated map!