Dealers in equestrian feed, medicine and tack used large pottery horses, such as the present example, in their display windows to draw in customers. England has a long history of equestrian culture and in first half of the 19th century this culture was at its peak. Before the proliferation of railways and the steam engine, horses were the main mode of transport and the primary power source for key industries, including agriculture and mining. The Leeds pearlware models, described as `amongst the most striking figures ever made' (see Pat Halfpenny, English Earthenware Figures, 1740-1840, Woodbridge, 1991, p. 127), undoubtedly must have charmed the dealers’ clientele. Today these works represent a bygone era in which the horse ownership and care was essential to ‘modern’ life.

Traditionally all called ‘Leeds Horses’, now only pearlware models are thought to have been made by the Leeds factory itself. Examples can be found in the Leeds City Museum, the Yorkshire Museum and the Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum.