The Mustangs of Las Colinas

The Mustangs of Las Colinas are a staple of the city of Irving, Texas and the smaller neighborhood of Las Colinas. It is an art piece that features nine bronze horses seemingly running through a water feature and is one of the largest equestrian sculptures in the world with horses that are one and a half times to scale.¹ The water makes the mustangs appear as though they are splashing through a stream. The sculpture is located in a pink granite square in the middle of three office buildings.² One of these buildings includes The Mustangs of Las Colinas Museum, which features the process of creating the sculpture and other pieces by artist, Robert Glen.³ This piece was made to commemorate the wild mustangs that used to run freely on the Texas plains and the “pioneering spirit” that inevitably created the state of Texas.⁴

The creation of this enormous sculpture was to memorialize the transition and evolution of North America. It represents the spirit of Texas as a whole-- it being a place where people are committed to taking action, initiative, and expression.⁵ Commissioned by Ben H. Carpenter, who desired to turn his ranch into a residential and business development, this piece is a good representation of his actions and the actions of people all over the United States.⁶ His ranch was originally named “El Ranchito de Las Colinas”, which translates to Little Ranch of the Hills.⁷ This installation reflects how they manipulated the untamed and wild terrain to create the cities and suburbs of today. While the piece was commissioned in 1976, it was not installed until 1984 due to the long and detailed process of creating such intricate bronze sculptures.⁸

Robert Glen is the architect who created The Mustangs of Las Colinas.⁹ Glen modeled these horses on a breed found in Spain that had genetic ties to the mustangs found in Texas as a result of Spanish colonization and exploration in the 17th century.¹⁰ Robert Glen made the initial models for this sculpture in his studio in Africa, where he did most of his work.¹¹

Robert Glen grew up in Nairobi, Kenya’s Capital City which is where most of his inspiration came from.¹² He originally studied the animals of the African wilderness, using them to influence his world-revered sculptures.¹³ Eventually he grew tired of the distance between him and his animal subjects. In 1987, he traveled with Somali nomads and their camels for two years throughout Kenya’s northeast region.¹⁴ During this trip, he created bronzes of both the nomadic people he lived with as well as their camels.¹⁵ After this experience, he decided to live solely in tents and travel around Africa, using the different wildlife he saw as the inspiration for his bronze pieces.¹⁶ Glen has been working like this for the past 20 years and had been creating art using the essences of life around him.¹⁷