If you have fallen in love with these photographs and would to like to purchase copies for yourself, please visit my ordering gallery found under the "CLIENTS" tab. (The password is listed next to the event.)
I appreciate your business!!! Only you as my guests allow me to continue my passion for photography as well as capturing the memories you will treasure forever! <3
It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up! Three weeks ago, since I have decided to reopen my photography business and focus my full attention on it, I was able to book a four day event at the Nancy G. Held Equestrian Center (home of Albion College equestrian team and education program) photographing the Great Lakes Regional Pony Club Show Jumping Rally AND Dressage Rally!
I fell in love with Albion’s farm as soon as I drove through the gated driveway. The rolling pastures surrounded the barns and the open fields offered perfectly fluffed rows of cut hay, waiting to be bailed and tossed into the lofts. The morning light was incredibly dreamy as it graced the grandfather trees stretching over the arena. The arched branches made for perfect framing as the ponies tucked their knees over the jumps. My camera begged to be changed to black and white as I walked quietly through the barn, enjoying the sounds of ponies munching happily on their breakfast, as the girls scurried around finishing the last of their morning chores and squeezing in one last snuggle with their ponies.
I spent the in-between moments in the barn, capturing behind-the-scenes activities, cleaning, grooming, and for safety and tack checks. In the stillness, I found myself wanting to plunk a few of the ponies into my pocket and take them home, but my husband told me “no,” so I admired them from behind my lens and resisted the urge to kiss all of their velvety noses!
Even their names were adorable! My favorites, “Chips Ahoy,” “My Sodapop Crush,” “Pik-Sure Perfect Gus,” “Prince Playdo,” and “Kic-Kic The Fairy Queen,” who I learned was accompanied by it’s own traveling duck, appropriately named “Daffy!”
Seeing the kids humming with excitement, for not only spending a weekend with their best friends and their ponies, but to also prepare, compete, and complete an accomplishment like these rallies, took me back to my own childhood memories of 4-H and Pony Club.
I sat ringside for the morning jogs and show jumping rally warm ups, photographing the girls working their horses, the training opportunities, and the candid moments taking place in the shady oasis out of reach from the sizzling sun. It was wonderfully satisfying to see so many of the girls smiling and enjoying their rides. A smile, as we all know, can make or break a photo, but in this case, it creates an enormous gallery of images for you personally and also for me to choose from for Young Rider!
And for the final two days, I found my familiar place along side of the dressage ring, and spent time in the silence finding and photographing the elegance and lightness of the horses as they danced between the letters of King Edwards Horses. I grew up in the dressage world, showing my first pony at age 9. The unique relationship required between horse and rider to train and compete to an upper level is demanding. Dressage asks the horse to move in natural ways, but with lightness, control, and power circulating from the hind end through to the soft connection of the bit. As the rider, to ask an animal to elegantly dance as a ballerina would, takes skill, admirable from anyone who watches.
It was good to be back behind the camera and enjoyable to see and photograph an talented group of Pony Clubbers. It was an unforgiving 95oF+ couple of days, but the girls all kept a positive attitude, finding ways to keep themselves and their horses cool, while continuing to help and cheer for one another, from the start to finish. They should be proud of themselves, their teams, and their ponies!
I hope to be invited to photograph future Pony Club events, and I would LOVE to travel to the Pony Club’s own farms to photograph the girls and their ponies individually! I do offer discounts for your photo shoots if you and your friends schedule at the same location on the same day. If you were from out of state, competing in this past event, and are interested in having me to come to your home farm, please let me know! Again, I travel!! Especially if there are cute ponies involved!!!
If you have fallen in love with these photographs and would to like to purchase copies for yourself, please visit my ordering gallery found under the "CLIENTS" tab. (The password is listed next to the event.)
I appreciate your business!!! Only you as my guests allow me to continue my passion for photography as well as capturing the memories you will treasure forever! <3
