horses

Apr

2024

Niagara Region Horse Photography

Niagara Region Horses

I’ve lived in a number of different parts of Canada and the USA. Different areas claim they are ‘horse country’. I’ve come to believe I’m not the only person in the world that is in love with these beautiful animals.

I was in Oregon for a while but wasn’t doing much horse photography back then. Kinda wish I had been; it’s great horse country there. The eastern part of the state is high desert and lots of big ranches with lots of horses. Cowboy country.

Later I lived in Alberta for a number of years. One of my favourite places. Southern Alberta is more cowboy than Texas. (More Texas than Texas!) One of the first times I was photographing a local rodeo a little north of Calgary, the next rider was announced as the top calf roping student in his High School. They would teach these skills in the rural high schools!!

If anyone is worried, they would all lose points if they did anything that would harm the animals. These cowboys and cowgirls were quite kind and humane to the animals. They like the animals.

Here in the Niagara region of Ontario there are horses all over.

We were picking up some honey yesterday from a local guy and decided to wander some backroads on the way home. My wife said ‘let’s go here’. It looked like a dead end but ‘what the heck’!

Got a couple of hundred metres and there was a barn, a bunch of paddocks with eight or nine horses and a donkey. I knocked to ask but no one home. So I took these shots from the road. I got the contact info from their sign and sent them a couple of the photos. I’ve now been welcomed back anytime to take more.

I’ll wait till it’s a bit drier - less mud on the horses. They like rolling around in it too much.

Lots of ‘horse’ photos here on my website. One of my favourites photo outings was in Southern Alberta, a branding. I did a write up of the day here and a bunch of photos: https://photo-photo.com/event-photos/branding/

And as for the ‘painterly’ photo, you can look at my last few blog posts and see more of this and why.

Enjoy!

Oct

2021

Muskoka Horses in the Autumn

Muskoka Horses

Muskoka is known for its tourism not necessarily its horses. The bugs in the Spring and Summer can be a bit harsh on the animals, but the Fall, with the nice weather, it being a bit cooler but still nice the horses are much more relaxed.

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Last year I made some new friends up the street from the cottage. Also made friends with their horses. I had driven by their farm numerous times and seen these beautiful animals from the road. One day I stopped and talked to Stirling, who allowed me to take some photos. He put me in touch with his niece and sister who own and care for the horses. So, the first of the two photo sessions with these horses was planned and they were groomed nicely. (Aside from the rolling around on the ground after the grooming.)

Still lots to edit but here are a few sorted from both days. They were all taken early October. For me, the most beautiful time of year. I was able to capture some colour with a few of the shots. Nice to get some warm weather without the bugs. For the people and the horses.

One of toughest things about photographing horses, when you are in the field with them, is that they are such curious and generally friendly animals. When I want a bit of distance, they come right up to me, maybe they think the camera is food.

The buckskin horse in these photos is Kit Kat. Very photogenic. Kit Kat will often keep some distance as well, allowing me to get some decent 'posed' photos, whereas Bella, the champagne/white horse, always comes as close as she can to me.

I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did taking them!

Horse Portraits

Some different portraits. Sometimes horses are like 8 years olds, especially when you are trying to photography them. They don't stop moving. I was taking some photos of a friend's boys years ago. They were 5 and 7. Mom was in the studio trying as she might to get them calm and posed. I finally had to ask her to leave the room. There was no way those two boys were going to sit still with her in the studio. Truth be told, they weren't a hundred percent better but I did get some great shots. Almost like with the horses here. They are such curious beasts. One of the biggest challenges, often, is getting them to stay far enough away that I can get a decent photo. They come up and are all curious about the camera! I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did taking them.