Horses & Whiskey Don’t Mix

Horses and Whiskey Don’t Mix is an oil painting on canvas by William Robinson Leigh.

It’s about two feet wide and a little more than two feet tall.  For more about this painting style and the history of this painting, read the “About the Artwork” section above.

The painting captures in vivid detail the moment a cowboy is being bucked off his horse on the street of a western frontier town. Drawing our attention in the center foreground is the horse and rider. The horse is brown with a dark brown mane and white lower legs and hooves. It is mid-buck, head facing down toward the ground and twisted in movement, as its back hooves kick out into the air behind it. The reins have snapped and we see a portion of the broken reins in the rider’s right hand, as he raises both hands upward as he falls back.

The rider is flung horizontally across the horse’s back, his left foot still in its stirrup while his right foot has flown out of its stirrup high into the air above him.  We see the cowboy’s thick furry chaps worn over light brown pants, and his white cowboy hat falling in midair to the street beneath the horse’s raised rear legs. The area is shrouded in the cloud of gray dust kicked up by the bucking horse.

Also on the street, in the foreground of the painting, is an empty brown beer bottle, and a scattering of playing cards. Behind the horse a black dog cowers in fear. On the left in the background is another cowboy on horseback, turning to watch as he rides away from the scene. On the right three more men are watching from in front of two dusty brown buildings labeled “Grand Hotel J. H. O’Riley” and “Palace.” Two of the men peek their heads through the doorway, while another stands in front of the building and appears to shout while jumping backward. A bleached white skull that may be a steer or buffalo hangs over the door to the Palace where these three men are gathered.

As we look further down the street on the painting’s left, we see the continuation of light-colored store fronts, before the background rises into a dark brown mountain topped by a red rock formation.