Veryl Goodnight’s Arabian/Quarter Horse-cross gelding, Matt Dillon, has inspired four of her sculptures, including Horseplay (shown). She says his near-perfect conformation makes him an ideal model.

Horses are Veryl Goodnight’s passion. They carry her over rugged trails and serve as subjects for her renowned sculptures and paintings. When she and her husband, Roger Brooks, moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, they built their horse barn before they built their home. There, her art studio was constructed to accommodate the live horses that model for her life-sized bronze sculptures.

“Horses are my first love,” Goodnight says. “I didn’t own a horse as a youngster. Instead, I sculpted horses in the snow, then cried in the spring when they melted. When I was young and loved horses, wildlife, and art, it was almost impossible to imagine that I could build a career around them. It just evolved. I was 26 years old when I produced my first sculpture.”

Today, after living in New Mexico for 18 years, the couple and their four-legged menagerie are moving back to Colorado, where they met. “In New Mexico, we’ve enjoyed galloping through the twisting arroyos, riding into the national forest and the high country, or simply cresting the ridgelines that surround our home to watch sunsets,” Goodnight says. “Our new property in Colorado allows us to explore the mountain trails of the San Juan National Forest and the canyon lands just a few miles west of Durango.”

Read on to meet Veryl Goodnight, noted sculptor, painter, and trailblazer.

Veryl Goodnight aboard her Missouri Fox Trotter, Toddy, her “free thinker with a big personality.”

Goodnight and her Arabian gelding, Gwalowa, competed in endurance and Ride ‘n’ Tie events, such as this one in Colorado.

 

TTR: What horse has been most important to you?

Goodnight: I’ve had several wonderful horses, but Gwalowa was very special to me. For 20 years, we shared life and many adventures. Originally, he belonged to my neighbors, and I coveted him — badly. I was simply crazy about him — and thrilled when they sold him to me.

Gwalowa and I explored trails, and competed in Ride ’n’ Tie and endurance events from Montana to Wyoming, New Mexico to Arizona. If he were a person, he would’ve been a general or an Indian chief, because he was a leader. He had a dominant personality and was high spirited, but sensible. His endurance and stamina were bottomless, and if I’d had the time, he could have excelled at distance events.

But my career intervened, so he became an integral part of my work. He was an inspiring model — I sculpted him countless times. He also helped me teach sculpting. He was always with me. When he died at 28, I lost a treasured member of my family.

Gwalowa also spent time in Goodnight’s Santa Fe studio, modeling for many of her equine sculptures.

TTR: What horses do you own today?

Goodnight: Two geldings, Matt Dillon, an Arabian/Quarter Horse cross, and Toddy, a Missouri Fox Trotter. Matt Dillon is my true partner, and we’ve taken Pat Parelli clinics together. Not only is he my trail buddy, he’s beautiful, too. Because his conformation is close to perfect, I use him frequently for my sculpting model.

The artist’s Arabian/Quarter Horse-cross gelding, Matt Dillon, and her barn cat, Tina, posed for this sculpture, Second Thoughts, now at the Mancos, Colorado, Visitor Center.

Toddy is my free thinker. He’s impressive looking: a beautiful gray, with a black mane and tail. And I love him in spite of his big, often obstinate personality. “Sweet” is not a word I’d use to describe him. But Toddy’s gaits are wonderfully smooth. I’ve done four 25-mile rides with him. He maintains good speed the entire time, and I’m never sore or tired afterward.

TTR: What’s your favorite riding trail?

Goodnight: I’ve loved riding around Chama, New Mexico. It has everything: mountains, meadows, and aspen — always aspen! However, now that we’re moving to Durango, I look forward to exploring new vistas on horseback, and finding new favorite places.

TTR: What was your most memorable trail ride?

Goodnight: Without a doubt, the ride I was on when I met my husband. I lived in Colorado, and a few miles from my home was a stable with access to 1,000s of acres with excellent trails to explore. I’d load Gwalowa — my gray, 14.3-hand Arabian gelding — into his trailer and head down the road.

Veryl Goodnight met her husband, Roger Brooks, while both were riding trails in Colorado. Here, they pause at a Pat Parelli clinic in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, in 2004.

One day on the trail, a movement uphill caught my eye. It was a handsome man on one very tall, 17.2-hand Trakehner. My first words to my future husband were, “I’ve never ridden a horse as tall as yours.” To which he replied, “I’ve never ridden a horse as small as yours!” So we traded horses.

I was very impressed by the way he handled my spunky horse, and I loved his horse, Kepler. In fact, it took me about a month to take my eyes off Kepler, and actually notice Roger!

Now that Kepler, 25, is retired, my husband has a fabulous young Holsteiner warmblood gelding named Chimayo that he’s training to fill Kepler’s sizable shoes.

Back From The Brink portrays Mary Ann Goodnight with buffalo calves. In the 1800s, the wife of the artist’s distant cousin, Charles Goodnight, encouraged her husband to establish a herd.

TTR: What was your scariest moment on the trail?

Goodnight: On Chimayo’s first trail ride, Roger inadvertently rode onto a bog and started to sink into the mud. As they began to disappear right in front of my eyes, I felt completely helpless. Bogs are like quicksand. They’re deceptive, because they may be covered with grass, and if you’re not paying close attention, you don’t realize that you’re about to walk onto them until it’s too late. Suddenly, your firm footing is gone, and you’re sinking into deep, deep mud.

Roger uses Pat Parelli’s training methods with Chimayo, which I believe helped such a young, inexperienced horse stay calm — even while he was sucked into mud up to his girth. Finally, Chimayo’s feet found bottom — fortunately, he’s tall — and he and Roger managed to scramble out, both completely covered with mud. What relief! Here’s some advice: Avoid bogs.

TTR: How did your trail-riding group, the Goodnight Girls, come about?

Goodnight: In 35 years of riding, I’ve always had a group of girlfriends to ride with. It’s an important part of my life’s social structure. While the group evolves as lives evolve, many of my trail-riding companions have become lasting friends. The core remains the same: Gabe Burke in New Mexico, Pam Jones in Colorado, and Kathy Swan in Arizona. I always keep at least two horses at home, so there’s one in the barn for a visiting friend. Gabe brings the Goodnight Girls together for an annual “girls only” overnight party at her ranch in Santa Fe. We enjoy her arena and explore the beautiful trails that adjoin her property.

Veryl Goodnight with two trail-riding buddies, Carole Cooke and Patsy Davis. “I love endurance and Ride ’n’ Tie, because I like to boogie down the trail,” Goodnight says. “But with work and our busy lives, I rarely compete today.”

TTR: How did the group get its name?

Goodnight: My last name just happened to be a good one for the group, so we became the Goodnight Girls. That my distant cousin, Charles Goodnight, forged the Goodnight-Loving Trail in the 1860s was fun, too. The trail was used to drive Texas Longhorn cattle to points throughout the Southwest.

TTR: What was your most memorable Goodnight Girls get-together?

Goodnight: I’ll never forget the year the Goodnight Girls were joined by The Hats On Gang, a group of women riders from Texas. They were organized around an incredible lady named Connie Reeves. For 66 years, she taught thousands of young people to ride at Waldemar Camp in Hunt, Texas.

The Hats On Gang was comprised of  her former students. Connie, a Cowgirl Hall of Fame inductee, was over 98 years old at the time she and her group came to Santa Fe. Connie led the ride—and I don’t mean at a slow walk. She had us galloping up those arroyos! So full of life — we all wanted to be just like her. [Editor’s note: Connie Reeves continued to teach and lead trail rides up until her death at age 102.]

TTR: Do you still compete in endurance rides?

Goodnight: I love endurance and Ride ’n’ Tie, because I like to boogie down the trail. But with work and our busy lives, I rarely compete today. However, my best trail ride with Toddy was like an endurance ride. Roger and I went with our friend, Lothar Rowe, for a five-day ride in Monument Valley, Arizona. Lothar breeds Fox Trotters near Scottsdale. Roger and some friends were aboard Lothar’s horses, and I rode Toddy.

With our Navajo guide, we covered 15 to 20 miles per day through a spectacular landscape of sand dunes, rock monoliths, and red dirt. Toddy and the Fox Trotters maintained good speed the entire time, and I wasn’t sore or tired at the end of the day. That ride opened my eyes to what he could do! Later, I competed in two limited-distance 25-mile endurance rides with Toddy, and he finished in the top-10 in great condition.

TTR: Who are your horse-world mentors? 

Goodnight: Lisa Kaufman, who was my neighbor in Denver many years ago when I purchased my first horse. I knew nothing, and she taught me everything. Fast-forward to the present — Pat and Linda Parelli have caused me to rethink almost everything about training horses. Roger and I have gone through two of their courses, and the lessons have been invaluable to us. I’ve also sculpted Pat and his horse, Casper. I’ll tell you a secret: As great a horseman as Pat is, all of his enormous energy and his hectic schedule make it impossible for him to sit still — he’s a terrible model!

TTR: Is there a particular Parelli technique that’s helped you on the trail?

Goodnight: He has a great solution for horses that crowd the horse in front of them. First, he puts the slowest horse in front. Then, when a horse tailgates the horse in front, the rider of the front horse stops his horse, and backs into the face of the offending horse. The rider of the crowding horse keeps him from sidestepping to avoid the “punishment.” It takes about three of these back-up games for the crowding horse to get the message: Back off! It’s brilliant. The horse stops crowding, and the rider can stop constantly picking and pulling at the horse’s mouth to slow him down.

TTR: We heard you raised a buffalo — how did that come about?

Goodnight: In the late 1870s, Charles Goodnight and his wife, Mary Ann, realized that the huge herds of wild buffalo that once populated the West Texas prairies had nearly been exterminated. Mary Ann persuaded him to bring home a few survivors, and they formed the foundation for the Goodnight herd. Their stock was vital in bringing the buffalo back from the edge of extinction across the country.

I wanted to honor their efforts with a sculpture, so I sent letters to several buffalo ranches, hoping to acquire an orphan calf to care for and use as a model. I intended to return him to his herd. I was prepared, and previously, I’d had licenses to rehabilitate wildlife.

We got a call from Idaho: Someone had an abandoned newborn for us. Immediately, we went to Idaho in our turbo-prop Conquest plane — Roger is a retired airline captain — and Charlie the buffalo winged his way to a new home with us. We bottle-fed him until he was 7 months old, weaned him, then placed him in an enclosure with two other weanling bison. On his first night, something frightened him, and he ran straight into the steel corral. Charlie was paralyzed.

The artist with pal Charlie the buffalo. Charlie lives on in works that he inspired, including Prairie Contender (shown).

Two 1 and 1/4-life-sized castings exist: One in Berlin, Germany, and one at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in Texas.

TTR: Did Charlie recover?

Goodnight: After a month at Colorado State University, he recovered enough to walk, but not enough to interact and roughhouse with a herd. So he came home to us, and Roger became his best friend. They went on countless hikes together. Hundreds of visitors came to meet Charlie and learn more about the American bison. Sadly, before his fourth birthday, his earlier injuries contributed to an untimely death from pneumonia. I like to think that his memory lives on through my bronze, Back From the Brink. And a book, The Gift of Charlie Buffalo, is due to be published soon.  

TTR: Tell us about Calamity the coyote.

Goodnight: In Colorado, I had a wildlife rehabilitation license. When a tame coyote used for movie work had pups, I was offered Calamity, just 6 weeks old, to raise and imprint, so that she could potentially be used in film, too, but I ended up releasing her. She inspired one of my favorite sculptures, and taught me about wild creatures and freedom.

TTR: Your sculpture, The Day the Wall Came Down, features galloping horses. What do the horses represent?

Goodnight: In 1989, I was working on a small sculpture of five horses running. Then one November evening, I sat mesmerized by news accounts of the Berlin Wall coming down and watching crowds of people surge across the rubble to freedom. That night, I dreamed of horses joyfully galloping over the fallen wall. That dream became a sculpture of five horses, one stallion and four mares, running over the collapsed wall. It represents the triumph of the human spirit over all oppression.

There were two seven-ton bronze castings made of the sculpture. In 1998, when the U.S. Air Force delivered one of the sculptures to Berlin, Roger and I were thrilled to accompany it onboard the C-17 airplane. It was installed by the German Army, and unveiled by President George H. W. Bush. The second casting resides at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library in Texas.

TTR: Why is sculpting “from life” so vital to you?

Goodnight: If you work only from photographs, you miss a great deal. No camera can capture all the dimension we see with our eyes, or what we hear, or smell, or feel.  

TTR: Finish this sentence: People would be surprised to know…

Goodnight: …that Roger and I are moving to Colorado. Like almost everything else we do in life, it’s for our horses. They’ll have a huge pasture, and we’ll be near a terrific horse and ranching community.    

TTR: What living person do you most admire?

Goodnight: We have a new friend in Durango, whom I greatly admire — Kathy L’Amour, Louis L’Amour’s widow, who’s beautiful both inside and out. We met her as a result of donating a sculpture to the Mesa Verde Foundation. Kathy embraces all of the world’s cultures, in their uniqueness and variety. She has purchased ranches in the valley and has restored them impeccably, true to their historic heritage. Actually, she’s very much like one of her husband’s beautiful, spirited heroines!  

TTR: What’s your idea of perfect happiness?

Goodnight:  I have a clear vision of standing on the deck of our future home in Colorado, looking out on our horses grazing in the beautiful meadow below, with Mesa Verde in the background. The sun is setting, and Roger and I are smiling. And why not — that is perfect happiness.

For more of Veryl Goodnight’s art and vision, visit www.verylgoodnight.com. For information on Parelli Natural Horsemanship, call (800) 642-3335, or visit www.parelli.com. For more on the Mesa Verde Foundation, call (303) 321-3120, or visit www.mesaverdefoundation.org.