I’m delving through the photo archives on the hunt for equestrian images for an upcoming project. I’ve put effort into maintaining a bit of distance from the equine world the past few years after a former professional career in the world of the horse.
Fond memories crop up as I sort through images, from rising at 0500 to shovel stalls before competing in a show, long nights spent with a fevered horse and hot summer days coaching a group lesson in the Montana sun. By the time the thought occurred to me to look at equine sport through the lens, I was well and truly removed from the daily riding aspect of the industry. My first real “horsey” assignment was covering the Spruce Meadows Masters in Calgary. The images are still some of my favorites, despite my neophyte status as a photographer at the time. Something about the timelessness of classic equestrian sport is just… awesome.
Montana is rightly known as the land of the cowboy, and English saddles (yeah, those little “pancake” saddles) are few and far between. Now that I’ve landed myself in the Pacific Northwest, I’m looking to exploring the world of equine photography all over again. Old habits die hard (very hard, in this case) and I still find myself looking at the conformation of a horse in a field, judging the slope of the croup, the measure of the balance onto the forehand and the curve of the neck. Would he have talent over a fence? What about collection and impulsion for dressage? Driving through a park this morning, looking to frame a scenic shot of the Sound through the trees, I saw a fallen log and immediately started thinking about the approach to the “jump” and how it would make a pretty damn fantastic cross-country course.
Yep. Old habits die hard. And it will be fun to see if this old habit revives.
Tags: Equestrian
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I totally read the title wrong. I thought it said “flies” at first. I expected some nightmare post about horse flies. I hate those damn things!
Kev, there could definitely be a nightmare post about horse flies… but let’s not go there! 😉 I loathe them.
You remind me of my wife. She too worked in horses, as a competition show jumper and trainer, in her younger years. When she had had enough, she didn’t want anything else to do with horses.
Me, I grew up riding horses bareback more often than not, doing it just for fun. Now we live next door to a horse stable, so it’s nice to feel like they are around without the work and expense of owning them ourselves. I’d love to be around them more, though.
Thanks, Chris. Interesting your wife wanted to get away from them too… I’m dipping back into that area for business, but have little desire to be in the saddle again. Maybe for a good, hard gallop now and again, but it’s a lot bigger world now than it was then, seems like.
Imagine it’s very nice to be close and have them around but still have the freedom to travel!