Veronica Stewart was destined to be horseback. Her parents met through horses, and they have been a part of her life since birth. Art, however, is something she craved all on her own, and with the support of her family, she has pursued it alongside a traditional degree and career. Today, Stewart has a Ph.D. and teaches at Florida Atlantic University, adeptly juggling all of her pursuits with passion, south Florida style, and purpose.
“My parents met through horses; I think my mom saw my dad at a horse show when she was 19 and said she was going to marry him,” laughs Stewart. “They met in Fort Worth through the trainer I have now, at the Appaloosa World Show. Appaloosas and Florida have been constants for me.”
The born-and-raised Floridian is at home lecturing, in the saddle, or on the beach, but her social media followers know her more as an artist that creates from her living room floor. The 29-year-old’s paintings of horses, dogs, musical artists and more has made her a sought-after artist.
The road the Davie, Fla., resident took to her current career path wasn’t always easy, but she credits horses as a guiding light that has kept her on track.
A True Horse Girl
With both her father and mother showing reining horses before she was born, it was inevitable that Stewart would find her way into the saddle. She recalls being at the barn at a young age.
“As soon as my mom thought it safe, I was on a horse,” she recalls. “They had a little property, five acres, that they purchased the day after I was born. When they settled down, got married and had me, they needed their horses closer than Texas or farther south in Florida. My dad has been reining since he was 16, then when they got married, my mom did the Green Reiner. My mom showed until she had my youngest brother when I was 10, but my dad kept at it. My dad and I went all around the country doing walk-trot and the all-around events.”
Her mother rode with Dave Moore, a trainer based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who Stewart now rides with. Her father trained with Terry Thompson, based in Aubrey, Texas. Thompson mentored Moore. It is a full circle of reining connections with the Stewart family.
In Appaloosa breed competition, youth are not allowed in a loping class until 12 years old, so Stewart competed in walk-trot and lead line events. As soon as she could lope, though, she and her father were sharing a reining horse.
“He was the best horse ever and gave me the confidence to lope,” she says. “My dad has always loved the reining, and once I got older and veered away from the all-around stuff, my dad and I continued to share horses or go back and forth as to who showed who. I got my own horse, Neverthoughtiwould, called ‘Craig,’ who I have now. But my dad still shares that horse with me!”
Purchasing Craig was a turning point in Stewart’s horsemanship career. She began to take lessons with Moore and competing at a higher level. Two years in a row, she and Craig earned a personal high score at the Tulsa, Okla.-based show, National Reining Breeders Classic, and the Rookie class shootout.
“That was really cool for me, even though I don’t go in with a specific goal, only to be better than I was the year before,” Stewart says. “I wanted to go in and run a clean pattern, but now, I want to kick it up a notch and add some pizazz to it. I want to keep improving.”
Precocious Pursuit
Though today she has created art that has been showcased in Miami, Fla., and London, England, an art career wasn’t always the goal for Stewart. Her desire to create was so strong, though, that as a young girl, her parents got her an art bench. Her first taste of creating, sitting on the bench or on the floor, is reminiscent of how she continues to create from a mobile position today.
“Horses and art happened simultaneously with me,” says Stewart. “After school, my mom would either take us to the barn to be with the horses and watch my dad ride, or I would go home and straight to my art bench to make as big a mess as I could. There are pictures and videos of me painting my brother when I was little, so my parents gave me a designated space. I had a bench I covered in paint and glitter, cut out pieces of paper, and all sorts of stuff.”
Her elementary and junior high school art teacher encouraged her interest, and in college at Florida State University, she continued to create as a therapeutic form of expression following the death of her grandmother. However, her parents pointed her to a more traditional degree and career path. That is, until she presented her grandpa with a painting she did of her grandparents’ wedding portrait in 2015.
“My mom was the one who suggested taking art seriously, along with my degree,” explains Stewart. “Being from South Florida and so close to Miami and Wynwood was helpful. She had a connection to an artist, William Braemer, who did Art Basel and had studios, and he has been a wonderful art mentor for me. I was in his gallery for my first Art Basel at 20 years old.”
After graduating with dual degrees and an M.S. in communication and media studies at Florida State University, Stewart obtained a Ph.D. in comparative studies: culture, society and politics, focusing on communication and visual studies, specifically cybercrime. Painting and horses became a way to lighten the load she carried from her studies.
Today, her social media followers can expect to see Stewart sitting on her floor, now in front of an easel instead of a stack of shoe boxes, creating a vibrantly colored, realistic paintings that will speak to the commissioner and average viewer.
Jeni Brunner is one of those commissioners. She sought an artist that could paint her three horses in one piece. Brunner, a photographer, wanted a painting that didn’t look just like a photograph.
“Over the years, I found a few artists whose work I loved, but I never felt ready to commit to the commission until I met Veronica in January of 2024,” says Brunner. “Veronica’s personality is what officially sealed my decision to choose her for this project. This painting took several weeks with a ton of communication between us, so having an artist that I enjoy as a person was really important! A couple of key points that make me love Veronica’s artwork are that she’s a horse girl—she knows horses so well that I knew I could trust she’d get every little detail perfect, and I love her style and how her horse paintings look more ‘pop art’ rather than realistic.”
Juggling Jobs
With commissions from fellow reining horse riders like Taylor Zimmerman, who recently rode to the National Reining Horse Association Non-Pro Derby Co-Champion title, and fellow horse lovers, like Brunner, Stewart is making a name for herself in both the art world and the horse industry. It’s doubly rewarding for a longtime horse lover.
“It’s hard for me to fully articulate what capturing someone’s horse in art means to me,” Stewart says. “I know what it’s like to truly be a horse girl, so I feel like I’m paying tribute to not only their love for their horse but my love for horses, too. It’s humbling when the painting brings someone to tears, and that gratitude takes up so much space for me emotionally. I know that love, too, and the least I can do is try and memorialize that for people.”
If you can’t find Stewart at a reining horse show, she might be working out at the gym, or behind her easel. Her mother always advised Stewart to have interests that stimulate her mentally, creatively, and physically, and Stewart has taken that to heart as she builds her lifestyle.
“I love to work out and go to the gym, and horses are part of that, too. For creativity, it’s the art, and for the mind, its teaching, because you are never done learning, or when I’m teaching public speaking and helping a student get over their fear,” Stewart says. “The horses and art are like returning to an inner child for me, so they will always be in my life, to some degree. They all balance and help me become who I am.”
Follow Veronica Stewart on Instagram @vstew_ and @artvts.
This article about Veronica Stewart appeared in the August 2025 issue of Western Life Today magazine. Click here to subscribe!
