Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies

[1]The basket was to be decorated by local artists with designs of people, leaping salmon, and running deer, "a sort of futuristic Noah's Ark", as Govedare said in 1988.

The 15 life-size horses which comprise the sculpture (as of 2014) are made from half-inch-thick panels of COR-TEN steel, a special iron alloy that rusts on the surface but still retains its structural integrity.

The horses, now colored a rich red from oxidation and each weighing approximately 1000 pounds, are welded to four-foot-long metal poles set into the ridge on which the sculpture stands.

A ridge above the Columbia River near Vantage Bridge was proposed as the site because the last great roundup of Washington's wild horses took place in the area in 1906.

Over the years Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies has become one of the most-seen public art installations in the state according to the Seattle Times, with 100 million vehicles having driven past it between 1990 and 2008 alone.

[1] Visible for miles in all directions, the sculpture can be accessed via a rough footpath which leads from the east-bound side of Interstate 90 near Vantage to the top of the ridge.