This sculpture of a Clydesdale Horse has become one of the best known artworks in Scotland.  Sited beside the M8 motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh, it stands 4.5 metres tall at the head and is made of galvanised steel round bars.

The huge Clydesdale has become synonymous with the city and has been taken to the hearts of the local people. In keeping with many of Andy Scott’s commissions, it offers numerous levels of interpretation: heavy goods transport, agriculture, the steel industry once prevalent in the area and even the Clydesdale breed itself, which was originally bred in Lanarkshire.

The true inspiration for this sculpture was as a metaphor for the city of Glasgow. Once a proud industrial manufacturing centre, the city has now refashioned itself for the 21st century as a show city of culture. The horse was once a beast of burden but the sculpture stands free of the bridles of work and has its mane and tail in pleats and ribbons for exhibition, yet is magnificently reminiscent of its hard working ancestry.

The Heavy Horse was followed a couple of years later by another Clydesdale, which is now sited in Boonah, Queensland.

This sculpture is now an official monument to the role the breed played in the building of modern Australia.

The Heavy Horse project was the first of many equine commissions now in the portfolio which are sited around the globe.

These include White Horse and Chiron in Sydney; Equus Aqua at Casuarina Sculpture Walk, New South Wales; Whistlejacket in Ibiza; and Drumchapel Pegasus much closer to home in Glasgow.

Sydney Olympic Stadium Complex, New South Wales

Prize winning sculpture from the Casuarina Sculpture Walk, New South Wales

Private Commission, Ibiza, Spain

Commissioned by local residents’ associations, this sculpture is based on the Gaelic meaning of Drumchapel, “ridge of the horse”.