The need for polo

Zhu Xingxin / China Daily

A history of horses

A taste of British luxury

He's also eager to educate visitors about the history of horsemanship in China.

While Britain and Persia, now Iran, are steeped in polo tradition, horses are nothing new in China, though competition horses bred in China are now generally sired from imported stock.

Xia eagerly shows visitors a Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) painting of cavorting horses and their riders, a scene he has re-created in sculpture. Xia took up the art as one way to promote the culture of the horse, and his artworks range from tabletop animals with imperial topknots to life-size models of contemporary breeds.

For the past two years, he has been sculpting horses with the same passion he has for the animals themselves.

"Horses are like my children," he says, clicking his tongue as he takes visitors on a stroll to an expansive corral for nursing mares and their foals. The young horses stir as he approaches, several trotting to the fence to arrive at the same moment he does.

"I have watched the birth of most of the horses here, maybe all of them," he says, smiling. As we return to the main building where he has his office and sculpting studio, we watch as trainers pace two horses around a cantering ring.

"It's like music," he says of the gentle rhythm of the hooves.

If he has his way, a lot more Chinese will get to hear it.

Liu Xiangrui contributed to this story.