My wife Patty just adores her horse Cocoa
This was a picture that I took of Patty and Cocoa just after Patty shocked Cocoa when she touched him and the electric fence at the same time. You can see Patty saying things like “Oh you poor thing, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that to you.” Of course Cocoa was just soaking it all in and I was able to capture the moment creating one of Patty’s favorite portraits of her with her horse. Although I can do at liberty and under sadle equine shoots, and even though I can do conformation poses, the thing that I find more fun and challenging is to capture the relationship in the eyes of the horse owner and their cherished equine companion. This was taken at an endurance ride called the Salomonie Sizzle. Patty enjoys the excitement and the challenge of endurance riding where she rides in 25 and 50 mile rides. During these rides there are several “vet checks” to check on the horse for stress, dehydration, and overall soundness. It is not just a ride like hell to win. You have to know the condition of your horse so that you can pace the ride, negotiate the terrain and finish with a healthy and sound horse. It’s funny, but the vets don’t worry much about the riders at the vet checks. If they clobbered a tree with their knee and are hobbling about and the horse is sound to continue, they say go for it.
Related posts:
Peter I have been admiring your work for some time and have to say your work is an inspiration to me all the time. I have taken classes from Carien / Equine Photographers Network and learned alot. Long story short, I have had horses most of my life and was raised with them by a father that loved and had a passion for God’s beautiful creatures but lost my father way too early, I was only 14 and he was only 42.
All of this has helped in transforming me into following my dream of becoming a photographer.
But, what I wanted to say here (about this photo) is that I looked at this photo in one of your other galleries and then came upon it here with your story about what led up to this photo. You were exactly right in that when I looked at it the first time I saw the compassion she has for this horse….I had even wondered if it was injured. Then to read what had happened about touching the electric fence. I have done this very thing and know just what she was feeling when you took this photo…..
Thank you for sharing!
Sherri McFarland