George Garrard was a pupil of Sawrey Gilpin (1733-1807) and a successful painter and sculptor, specialising in genre scenes and animals. In 1793 he was paid the considerable sum of 600 guineas for seven paintings of horses for the Prince of Wales, later George IV. The horses were kept and the paintings executed (in 1792) at Aston Clinton, the country seat of George IV's equerry and stable manager, Gerard Lake, later Lord Lake (1744-1808). This is the only one of the set to have survived. Saltram was foaled in 1780 and belonged to General John Parker (c. 1732-88); the horse was named after Parker's country seat near Plymouth, Saltram House. He won the Derby in 1783 and was sold to the Prince of Wales soon after, who used him for stud. During 1792, the year this portrait was painted, the Prince of Wales won 7000 guineas with Saltram's progeny, Whiskey, who was portrayed in another of the paintings in the set (now lost).