Tag Archives: horse

Covering Dressage Competitions at Topthorn Arena…

Topthorn Arena is the popular Equestrian Centre, near Stonham in Suffolk. With a large indoor school, they run frequent and well attended competitions.

I went down recently and photographed a dressage competition. As nobody has been able to get their horses out recently because of the snow, there were not the usual number of competitors, which was ideal to run a test shoot.

After adjusting for light levels and movement, got my ‘eye’ in and have attached a few of the results.

I’m happy to say, there was interest in the images taken that day, especially as it was meant to be a trial shoot and was not expecting too much success. So… this Sunday I will be attending again… and there are many more competitors this time.

What I love alongside the photography, is the stories behind the horse and rider partnerships. I feel more blogging material here!

Good luck to all who compete – looking forward to catching some good shots.

Beautiful profile, so willing...
Beautiful profile, so willing…

One of the worthy winners!
One of the worthy winners!

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Competitors going through their tests.
Competitors going through their tests.

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Finished... with a well deserved thankyou!
Finished… with a well deserved thankyou!

 

Equestrian Photography portfolio is growing….

Some of you may recall a folder of images I displayed after a visit to Burghley Horse Trials in Sep 2011 – well they are still on my website, in a brand new section for Equestrian Photography .

I’ve been gradually building on this portfolio and eager to share some of the results with you.

Back as an eager young teenager, horses was my love and the direction I intended to follow as far as work went. After training for a year and qualifying as an instructor, I did indeed head out to find employment in the equestrian world. During that year, I got the chance to compete, hunt, teach and conquer a few of my own fears… I learned a lot!

However it was short lived, as married life beckoned and I needed to earn somewhat more to afford and run our own home. Having embraced ‘office work’ to help achieve this, I also had an opportunity to return to a nearby equestrian centre and work at weekends. This turned into full time (very hard) work and lasted a whole year. At that point I was able to buy one of the horses I’d fallen in love with and return to an ‘office’ environment for employment. ‘Oscar’ was part of our family for nearly 10 years and I will post some old photographs of him soon. He was much happier in a private home than a riding stable and his character blossomed.

So it is with much excitement that I’m hoping to find a niche in Equestrian Photography and as mentioned earlier wanted to show you a few results.

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