On my recent trip to Moscow, Russia, I was able to combine my iconographical studies with tours of several places of interest to horse and art lovers. This was my fourth visit to the Ukraine and Russia and my iconographical studies were at a studio in Moscow. My immersion in the studio allowed me to feel the presence of God in all His warmth being surrounded by the icons and the sweetness exhibited in the humbleness of the iconographers in painting the canonical images.

This visit offered insights to authentic Russian life. My favorite times were spent with Anna, who was my host. My presence allowed her to visit the Bolshoi Ballet for the first time, and she had not eaten in a restaurant for five years. She radiated strength and we always held each other's arm everywhere we went.

I was able to visit with the children of Maloyaroslavetz orphanage an hour outside of Moscow. The visit to the orphanage was a most inspiring and blessed event. The director of the orphanage, Sergei Mashin, knew of my love for horses and arranged for several tours of horse destinations.

At the Moscow Agricultural Academy Museum of Horse Breeding, Sergei and I viewed the largest collection of masterpieces of equine art anywhere in the world. I was granted a private escorted tour by the director of the Moscow Museum, David Ya Gurevitch. Gurevitch, a veterinarian for the Russian Calvary and Major in the Russian Calvary during WW II received us with open arms.

My eyes could not believe the scope of the art at the museum. He lead us to see many masterpieces painted by such masters as Sverchkov, Vrubel, Orlovsky, Serov, and many others. Russia exceeded the per capita of horses anywhere else in the world in 1912, and laid claim to the greatest number of breeds.These statistics correlate with the reality that Russian painters contributed much to the successful development of equine art.

I could sense Dr. Gurevitch's genuine kindness and love for the horse by the way he so gently helped us to know and discover the spirit of the horse and beauty of the art in each and every painting. Lovers of fine art and horses have seen these paintings on exhibit in Moscow, Helsinki, Paris, and Lexington, Kentucky, at the exhibit "The Imperial Russian Horse: Equine Art from the Reign of the Czars."

Sergei Mashin accompanied me on a visit to the Central Moscow Hippodrome. There I met Vladimir Zhukovskiy who is Acting Director of the Hippodrome and racing activities and Colonel of the Russian Calvary. He kindly gifted me with a picture that showed him riding Biotop, the late Dr. Reiner Klimke's Russian Trakkener Olympic mount. The Director of the Institute of Russian Sport Horse Breeding, Dr. Mikkail Alexeev took me to tour the horse barn and meet the horses. I was in awe - speechless. I was introduced to the gorgeous Troika horses and their carriages, a dream!

I am in the preliminary stages of organizing a tour to Russia for horse enthusiasts perhaps in the Fall 2003 or Spring 2004. The tour will meet with people in the horse industry, such as Elana Petuchkova, Gold medalist with her mount Pepel on the Olympic dressage team. To revel in the magnificent splendor and beauty that is Russia, the Russians would say, "Come and see."