The Horse in Art and Long Island History will be the subject of the Reboli Center’s Third Friday program on Friday, September 21 from 6 – 8 PM. From the late 1800’s until the years after World War II, Long Island had a wide range of equestrian activities: polo, instruction, pleasure riding, fox hunting, and horse shows. These activities were a major part of the Long Island economy, employing hundreds of people, including horse dealers, saddlers and harness makers, equestrian tailors, trainers, stablemen, and kennel-men, whose work supported these activities. The Third Friday panel will discuss the horse in art and two important Long Island equestrian organizations: Old Field Farm, built in 1931, and the Smithtown Hunt, founded in 1900. The panel of four has a variety of expertise on these subjects.
Sally Lynch created and serves as the President of the Old Field Farm Foundation, a nonprofit organization. She has presided over the continuing restoration of the farm show grounds and hosts a broad range of events at the site. She is motivated in her work by her concerns about disappearing farm land and horse properties. Old Field Farm again is home to visiting horses who come to compete in events.
Dr. Edmund Stewart is a retired orthopedic surgeon who was a member of the Hunt for over 40 years. He was a member of the Hunt Committee for many years, and for seven years, he was Master of the Hunt. He served as the physician for the North Shore Horse Show Grounds in the late 60’s and 70s. His stories of the Hunt and its traditions and importance are of interest to those who live in the area.
Leighton Coleman III is the appointed Historian for the Villages of Head of The Harbor & Nissequogue, the President of The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, a trustee of New York City Marble Cemetery at 2nd Ave and 2nd Street, as well a past trustee of The Governor William Owsley House Museum in Lancaster, KY. In 1994 he published the long lost manuscript written by his great aunt, Daisy Corning Stone Spedden, a Titanic survivor, called “Polar, The Titanic Bear”. This true children's tale, about an American family surviving the famous disaster, told from the perspective of a toy Steiff bear, went on to sell over a million copies in five languages, worldwide, and garnered numerous awards.
Elena Hull Cournot is a painter, designer, and creative arts therapist with a private practice in the west Village and a studio in Brooklyn. Elena grew up in East Setauket and received her MFA from Boston College, concentrating in Studio and Art History. Elena works mainly by commission, doing large format portraits of horses accompanied by symbolic references. She endeavors to meet each horse she paints, to feel their presence which in turn inspires her composition. Elena began a series of soulful horse paintings on which she continues to build during her artist in residence at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland.
