"On grey days my subject was by the shallow edge of the mill stream, where farm horses watered. Seeing the ponies there, drinking, started me off afresh. Not satisfied with day work, I began a large evening picture, the sun setting almost opposite. This should have been a work of importance. The water bright gold, with long, striped reflections; the white ponies mauve against the gold, the others in darker mass." (Sir Alfred Munnings, An Artist's Life, Bungay, 1950, p.239).

Munnings painted a number of pictures of horses and ponies watering, particularly using Shrimp and the white pony as the central figures of the compostion. He was fascinted by the reflections of the ripples which were made by the current and by the horses' movements.