Free Spirits at Noisy Water Hubbard Museum

Eight bronze horses run through a landscaped park at Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico, and the sculptor's own claim is that they are balanced on only nine hooves. The work is Free Spirits at Noisy Water by Dave McGary. John Rose wrote in Wild West in 2007, in an article republished by HistoryNet, that the Hubbards, who founded the museum, commissioned McGary in 1995, and called it one of the largest equine sculptures in the United States.

McGary's website says the bronzes and surrounding park were designed, sculpted and engineered by him. It names seven American breeds among the eight horses (Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse, Appaloosa, Paint with foal, Arabian, Morgan and Standardbred), gives a total length of 255 feet, says each horse weighs 3,000 to 5,000 pounds, and says the lead horse stands more than 36 feet high as it leaps from a man-made mountain. The site calls the Standardbred the lead horse.