I HEART HORSE began as a meditation on how society depicts little-girl horse obsessions. Although a girl’s fascination with horses is often depicted as cute or harmless, horses have a wild eroticism about them. By turning this obsession with the untamed into something adorable and sweet, society sanitizes burgeoning female sexuality and tosses aside any sexual interest that cannot be exploited by men. I also wanted to see how a child-like horse fixation would look if the little girl in question never grew out of her obsession. Although adults are capable of actualizing their interests in a way that children cannot, I thought it might be interesting to create an adult character who chooses to keep on doodling horses on her trapper keeper. Rather than doing something more mature with her horse interest (for instance, becoming a veterinarian, volunteering at a stable, buying a real horse, etc), this woman seeks solace in the solitary and the obsessive. Made with VHS imagery, painted film leader, and 16mm footage, the result is a short film that probes the reliability of perceived intimacy.