Do you sell wholesale? What if you don't have a design? Can we get special occasion shirts? What payment methods are accepted? What shipping methods are used? Do you ship international? Are these designs copyrighted? What is your return policy? Are the shirts printed on front or back? Do you share my personal info?

Tommy and Sharon dated briefly as teenagers back in 1971, while in high school in the small northern California Sierra Nevada foothill town of Grass Valley. After a 3 week romance, the youngsters went their separate ways.

25 years later, when Tommy lived in Texas and Sharon lived in Oregon, they made contact via a simple postcard at the suggestion of Sharon's oldest brother, Dennis. Tommy and Sharon were both divorced parents of grown daughters (Charity, Maiya, Jessica) at the time and they were reflecting on what they wanted to do with the next chapter of their lives. Tommy had many careers since being in Cuba serving with the US Navy... including managing a Texas dairy farm and full time caregiving to critical care patients. He was also a mechanic and electrician (his passions). But he was ready for a change. Sharon was living in northern Oregon, restoring an isolated horse farm in Estacada for her California parents, John "Pat" and Claire O'Brien, and commuting to Portland for her job at an Exhibit House (trade show displays). She was enjoying her life but knew it would have to change once the property sold.

Soon after receiving that life-interrupting postcard in Texas, Tommy called Sharon and what they thought would be a renewed acquaintance gradually turned out to be falling in love. They began a telephone and greeting card courtship (this was before the internet) and were on the David Brenner radio show numerous times. The comical Brenner broadcast from New York but with their phone bill reaching the thousands talking to each other so much, they used Brenner's toll free number to broadcast messages to each other. So many greeting cards filled each others PO Boxes at their respective small towns that they became an item with the postal employees in both little towns in Oregon and Texas. So familiar were their correspondences that they tried sending each other cars with just a name and zip code and both of them were delivered! They found themselves buying and sending the same identical cards, too. After 3 months of this, Tommy proposed to Sharon over the telephone (of course). In a very romantic next step, he packed up and drove from Texas to Oregon to marry Sharon. They had not seen each other in person for 25 years till the day he arrived to marry her!

Tommy and Sharon's
wedding Day.. April 7, 1996

Once together, and after the Oregon property sold, they traveled the west coast in a motorhome for a year... from Astoria to Santa Barbara and living in both Oregon and southern Nevada, doing contract graphics for large corporations at high tech trade shows. Tommy sold his home in Texas, and they became working vagabonds during this time, traveling along the Pacific Ocean coastline and throughout the West with just their cat (who loved motorhome life!) creating custom trade show graphics and selling their Keiko (Free Willy) coloring book to gift shops along the Pacific Coast.

At left is Tommy in front of a 16' graphic he and Sharon made at the Las Vegas Convention Center to simulate a giant speaker. At right is Sharon holding up their Keiko coloring book at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in front of Keiko (he really DID look at it!) just before he was moved to the Norwegian Fjord where sadly, he did not survive.

Whenever Tommy and Sharon found free time while working in southern Nevada, they headed for the remote desert, hoping to glimpse some wild horses and burros. They spent many long hours quietly waiting amidst sagebrush and cactus for one or more to appear. The result was a special collection of photos to forever remind them of their brief but memorable encounters during that time in their lives, some of which are pictured below...

A bay stallion, mare and foal, and two donkeys
photographed by Sharon in the Nevada wilds

Eventually, Tommy and Sharon grew aware that it was time to plant themselves and grow roots. They yearned to return to their their childhood home town of Grass Valley, California, so Sharon could be near her family and have horses again. It had been too long and she couldn't stand it anymore! Tommy also had family in the area. So they returned to Grass Valley and commuted to Las Vegas 4-6 times a year for trade show work to sustain themselves financially.

In the meantime, Sharon had been drawing horses since she was a child as they are her lifelong passion (honest people call it an obsession). One day in 1997, while still in Nevada, she had created a small painting and poem inspired by an aged wild palomino mustang stallion she and Tommy had met up close one day in the desert by chance. This stunning old horse had survived the most extreme of elements for many years and Sharon was compelled to put his spirit to words and image. She printed the result on a shirt and it sold. Following that, she made a humorous donkey design inspired by wild burros and it sold, too. At this time, the internet was coming to life fast and furious and Sharon struggled to learn how to put her designs on the web. Once online, she began to discover the huge community of fellow horse lovers who were joining the world wide web, too. Encouraged by the positive response met with her first two designs, she began this journey of intense creativity, which eventually became HorseDesigns.Com.

The aged wild stallion who became Sharon's first horse t-shirt design

"All I've ever wanted to do, since as far back as I can remember," says Sharon, "is to be with horses and if I couldn't be with them, I consoled myself by drawing them while in their absence. I have hundreds of designs still inside waiting to get out, as I will never tire of expressing the love that I and others have, for these wonderful equines. Being with a horse is as close as I can come to feeling the essense of all that is good, real and natural in this Divine gift of life." A very real side benefit Sharon also enjoys are the many wonderful people from all over whom she's felt privileged to meet due to the internet.

Tommy and Sharon enjoy the passions of patriotism and on 9/11, they transformed their sorrow to a series of designs that promoted unity and endurance by connecting the deep love of our country with the passion of horses. They also lost their business contracts in Las Vegas due to widespread corporate losses in the tech companies, generated by the attack, and saw it as an invitation to change direction. They committed themselves to promoting the love of horses for their full time work. They also expanded into a line of firefighter air attack shirts, too, inspired by Sharon's brother, Tim O'Brien, and his detailed art plus his love of aircraft and respect for airtanker pilots who risk (and sometimes lose) their lives saving ours while attacking fires from above.

Sharon did rediscover her dream of having horses again. Here are pictures of some of the cherished horse and mule pals who have entered their lives...

Above: Sis, Sunny and Sydney became one of the HorseDesigns.Com logos and this is "big Sarah," their belgian draft mule mare who will be starring in some of the new mule designs

While Tommy and Sharon work together in the production of shirts, Tommy has rekindled some of his own favorite activities in life, too, like the old Massey-Ferguson tractor he named Mr. Fred. Sharon referrs to Tommy as a "Truck Whisperer" because of his mechanical prowess. "Our work is not the corporate buzz it once was," she says, "but the peace we get returning to our original roots, being close to family again, involved in our hobbies and with each other, enriches us meaningfully."

Sadly, both of Sharon's parents passed away within a few years of their moving back. But they are eternally grateful that they had some wonderful years with them and decided to stay in the area, to be closer to her beloved brothers (Dennis, Sean, Tim and Brian) and their children. Tommy built a small home on 5 acres in Penn Valley, California, a quiet rural town in the Sierra Nevada foothills only 5 miles from Grass Valley. Here, they have wonderful neighbors all around, a horse community and are never far from family.

You can come home again... and even marry your childhood sweetheart!

Mr. Fred and Tommy

return to Frequently Asked Questions

Our designs are born of true inspiration and often personally created due to input we receive from people like you. We will personalize any of our items if desired... with a name, a phrase or anything else... for no additional cost to you. There are no minimum orders or set up fees.

Sharon will also create shirts with your original artwork. As detailed as you make it... or she will enhance and beautify it for you for a very small fee. See our custom shirt page for more info. The same applies to all our products.

We've all seen the third party companies that offer to print your designs on shirts, mugs, etc. You send them the file, they print it and ship it when they get around to it. But do they take your images, remove the clutter in the background or replace the background with a spectacular new one? Or do they make a ho hum photograph suddenly look like a lovely painting and add stylish custom colorful text? Sharon specializes in seeing and creating one of a kind meaningful designs, whether it's her own images or yours.See our unsolicited comments from customers. These are real people, writing after they receive their orders... with no prompting. Their comments are deeply appreciated because they reflect the fact that Tommy and Sharon love their customers and enjoy pleasing them.

Because we do our own inhouse printing and shipping and not rely on third parties for these very important parts of quality control and customer service, you can be assured of timely and individual attention to your order.

We print with waterproof, fadeproof inks (no inkjet or laser prints!) to ensure the best quality and longest lasting image we can provide. They are applied with a commercial grade heat press. You will be amazed at how detailed the designs are and how well they hold up.

We have abuse tested them and are happy to report they hold up excellent. Our repeat customers have reported the same to us.

We have a strong commitment to getting your order to you as fast as possible because we know that when we order something ourselves, we can't wait to receive it and we assume you are the same!

The majority of orders are shipped the day after you place and pay for your order. Some orders take longer, due to different factors. If we are extremely busy, it may take up to three days to process and ship your order, or if your order is large or includes a high degree of customization, it may take a bit longer. We pride ourselves in not missing holidays. During the Christmas season, we work 7 days a week, printing and shipping orders very quickly to ensure the best possible chance for the order to be delivered before the holiday.

When your order ships you will receive an emailed confirmation from the post office so that you will know when your order left our facility.

YES, we have many customers in the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Canada and elsewhere. We ship via global priority to all these countries except Canada. We use US Airmail for Canadian shipments.

We do not ship to China, Indonesia or Africa.