Robert M. Miller

Fred Stone—Horse artist supreme

One of my many suburban clients, for many years, was the Fred Stone family of Agoura, CA. Fred and Norma Stone and their daughter Laura, a thoroughbred horse trainer, lived in a modest home and kept a few horses in their backyard. Fred told me once that he was in business selling chemical toilets for RVs and boats. One day, after I had retired from practice, I stopped by the Calabasas Saddlery. On the wall was a portrait of jockey Willie Shoemaker. The artist was named Fred Stone. John, the store proprietor, came up to me, and as I studied the painting, he said, “It’s good, isn’t it?” “You know,” I responded, “I have admired this artist’s horse paintings for many years. He can capture the personality of a horse better than any artist in history, in my opinion; and, I have often wondered if he could capture that of a human being as well. Now, I can see that he can.” “Yes,” said John. “His work is recognized all over the world. He’s quite the celebrity in Europe, and in Japan. His paintings, especially of famous race horses, are in great demand. Oh, by the way! I’m glad you mentioned him. He came in a few days ago and said he needed to make a painting of a mule and wondered if I knew anybody who had a nice looking mule. I said, “Sure! The vet, Doctor Miller, has a world champion mule.” I looked at him. “Fred Stone was here in your store?” “Sure! Don’t you know him? He comes in all the time!” “Fred Stone? Comes in here all the time? What is he doing here? I thought he lived in Kentucky. He mostly paints famous thoroughbreds.” John looked at me curiously. “He lives in Agoura. You must know him. He has horses.” “That’s ‘the’ Fred Stone?” I was amazed. “The Stones who live in that little house on Colodny Drive? He’s the horse artist?” That evening I called Fred and told him how surprised I was to learn that he was the horse painter that I admired the most. I explained that I loved art depicting horses and looked at it critically. I had seen the works of Da Vinci, Russell, Remington, and so many artists of past and present, but I had never seen anybody who could capture the personality of a horse like he could. I told him that I could just look at one of his paintings and I knew what the horse was like. “Really?” he said, “Why don’t you come over to my studio, and I’ll show you some of the things I’m working on, and you tell me what the horse is like.” A few days later we met the Stones for dinner and afterwards went to his studio in the back of his house. He showed me a nearly finished head study of a horse. “Tell me what this one is like,” he challenged. “Okay,” I said, “a well bred thoroughbred mare, about twelve years of age, and she’s a sweetheart. Gentle, kind and loves people. Easy to work around. Very sensible and honest.” Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. 0737-0806/02/2212-0002

Equine dermatological practice tips

35.00/0 doi:10.1053/jevs.2002.37489 Figure 1. Fred Stone (front) with the greatest jockeys: (left to right) Johnny Longden, Warren Mehrtens, and Eddie Arcaro.

Desensitization to frightening stimuli

Equine Sarcoid A number of efficacious treatments are now available to treat the common, dry, flat, verrucous sarcoids. These gray skin tumors must be differentiated from papillomas, and mycotic lesions. They respond to cryosurgery, to heat (the Thermaprobe ® instrument), to topical podophyllin, and to injections of mycobacterial emulsions, an immunogenic agent (Ribigen ®, Ribi Immuno Chem Research). However, for many years I have prescribed topical fluorouracil cream (Efudx 0.5 % topical cream, Ciba Pharmaceuticals) with consistent success. The treatment is simple and relatively inexpensive, although slow. The owner must be warned to wear disposable surgical gloves because this anti-cancer drug is irritating to the skin. A small amount of the cream is applied to the sarcoid, once daily, without rubbing it in, for 30 days. There will be an inflammatory reaction. I examine the lesion 60 days after the initial visit. If any islands of tumor tissue are still visible, I prescribe re-treatment of those areas for an additional 2 weeks. Once healed, there is no evidence of the original lesion, but the site will be hairless. If this is of cosmetic concern in show horses, the hairless area may be excised surgically without the risk of recurrence of explosive granulomatous sarcoid, which so often follows excision of an untreated tumor.