This is the first in a series of four paintings showing a horse being attacked and killed by a lion. The setting is Cresswell Crags on the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border.

Stubbs used the cliffs to evoke a pre-historic setting. He claimed to have painted the Crags 'on the spot' and clearly knew something of the primeval remains of bison and wooly rhinos found on the floors of the caves. But although Stubbs was keen to evoke an image of ancient Britain, this subject was inspired by a classical sculpture he had seen in Rome.