And those by renowned artists will often grow in value over the years.

The website-based London company Equestrian Fine Art (http://www.equestrianfineart.com/) presents a showcase for some of Britain’s leading equestrian artists and features innovative and exciting contemporary painters of horses and racing scenes, as well as polo and hunting.

Among them is Darren Baker, one of Britain’s finest young realist painters, who specialises in equestrian art. Since graduating from Bradford College in 1998, Darren has received many prestigious commission and exhibition opportunities. At the age of just 23, he was invited to exhibit at a UK Millennium Show in New York and he has since exhibited widely throughout North America, Japan and Europe. He has received commissions from many blue-chip galleries, companies and leading personalities, and his paintings hang in private and public collections at home and abroad. His portraits of Prince Charles and Tony Blair hang in St James’ Palace and 10 Downing Street respectively.

Lancashire-born Jo Taylor is another of Britain’s most exciting new equestrian artists. Since studying at Leeds University, she has concentrated on works drawn from life. Much time is spent watching and drawing the horse at rest and at work - on the gallops, racecourse and in stud. This gives her paintings a sense of immediacy, energy and understanding.

Times arts writer Jane Wheatley recently wrote: “There is something extraordinary about Jo Taylor's horse paintings. No matter how bold or sketchy the brush strokes or how impressionistic the rendering, she always manages to capture the truth of how a horse looks and moves. The lift of a hoof, the curved line of muscle in a hindquarter, the stretched-out neck of an animal at full gallop - each piece provides a thrill of recognition, of knowing she's got it exactly right.

“Such verisimilitude is no happy accident; Taylor spends much of her life looking at horses. She works in ink, watercolour, acrylic, wax and oil, which she frequently mixes to create rich, luscious, often textural and vibrant surfaces.”

Jo has shown work in many exhibitions around the UK including Christie’s (1992-97), Manchester Academy (1996), RA Summer Exhibition (1997), and Beaux Arts, Bath (1998). Her work is in private collections including the Duke of Windsor and the Marquis and Marchioness of Tavistock.