Greetings, Your shadows on figure and ground are black, which is the default. This is a convention from dungeon-games which are very dark to hide the minimal polygons. If you have an outdoors setting, you should make your ambient color a bit brighter because of all the bounced light. (I use reddish-mauve, about 10-20% in value for skin, other materials treated similarly.) This way you won't need an extra spotlight on his backside unless you have a nearby source (rock?) to do the reflecting. I like your basic concept. Bloodsong and others have done horse tack, and I believe that Greylight has created western clothes, so if you like the "cowboy" genre, you can get more props to fill out your scenes. :) Have fun! Poser is a great tool, and you'll find that the community of users is very helpful Carolly