Well, I tried to work as many suggestions into overhauling this image as I could, and even added a few changes I thought of on my own. Someone mentioned a palomino, so now the horse is a palomino. :^) This will be the final entry version 'cause I'm tired and we don't get to vote this month anywho. :^) So do you like it now?

Stunning! The prints in the snow is a great touch. Great image.

Beautiful!

Liked the first one but this one is 10 times better. :)

This version is much better than the old one. Great work. Josselin

Nice work, really like the texture on the trees.

Whoohoo, I think you've got it! Stellar work!

Maybe you should... just kidding :) Great image!!

I think the palamino does look better than the darker house. Terrific picture! Lin

The mane and tail are excellent. Could you do something similar for the body, so it doesn't look plastic? Raise the bump value or something? Otherwise, excellent. I especially like the snow-spray where he's (she's?) diggin.

Erlik: Check my gallery. There's a 1024 size there. The horse's bump map almost disappeared when I downsized it to 800. You're the first to realize (at least to write about it), that the horse is digging. This is behavior I noticed in horses when the snow covers the ground in winter. Even if they are well-fed, some horses will still dig holes in the snow, looking for grass (dead or still green) to eat.

Also, Erlik, here's a photo I was using for reference for the horse. Not a lot of texture shows up, I guess because of the shortness of the fur.

Yeah, I see what it looks like, but there's something bothering me about the texture on the horse texture. Too much specularity? The light reflecting from too small area? But even on the big render it looks unnatural. See how you get just a hint of texture on the photo? And the areas of reflecting light are more spread out. And you're talking to somebody who wanted to be a biologist at one point. :-) I've read tons of books and see many films on animals and animal behaviour

Erlik: Odd you mention Biology. I have a Bachelor of Science in Biology that I've had since 1975 (not joking). I agree to disagree about the horse's texture but will remind you that the sun in my render is lying very low in the sky (thus the long shadows). In this kind of lighting the highlights will look very different than they do in the reference photo where the sun is almost directly overhead. Seriously, thank you very much for you interest in my artwork. It's very gratifying to have someone spend some of their precious time to help me. Sincere thanks, Tjohn

I'm not sure if you did a general specularity or if you used a map but I'd suggest to use the bump map for the texture as a specularity map as well. It may add just that much more texture if you'd like. Just a suggestion, otherwise it looks good.