The horse may have been derived from a print by Paulus Potter (dated 1652). This painting was once falsely signed as the work of Potter, but cleaning in 1953 revealed that the signature covered Verbeeck's original.

Verbeeck, a native of Haarlem, worked in Alkmaar and Utrecht before returning to Haarlem in 1643. He was influenced by the Italianate landscape painters in Utrecht as well as Paulus Potter (1625 - 1654) and Isack van Ostade (1621 - 1649). Apart from a few battle scenes, he mainly painted pictures of horses alone or with riders.