Meet Sam and her very pretty coloured mare, Maddie! When I asked how long she had owned Maddie for, Sam laughed! She said she's owned her for 10 years - her husband thought owning a horse would be a 5 minute wonder but 10 years on, Maddie is Sam's pride and joy!
It was a warm summers morning so we headed straight for the shade at the back of one of the fields - the light conditions were very challenging so we stuck to the shade throughout the shoot.
Maddie and Sam are based on a dressage yard - dressage is their main passion, although Sam said Maddie has relatively low mileage at competitions just because she wants to be doing everything "properly" at home before they venture out to shows.
Sam said that Maddie is just a joy to be around, sweet, friendly and loveable. Maddie demonstrated that perfectly, stood in the dappled light, patiently, whilst we moved around her. She didn't move an inch!
Maddie was a little bit of a pickle, or some would say, a diva! When Sam was in the photographs with her, she would not put her ears forward for love nor money. I was trying everything - throwing anything I could find by my feet, we were both making noises, rustling packets etc, she would just not put her ears forward for more than a few seconds. Sam was suprised by this as she's normally a very happy, curious horse! When she did put her ears forward, she couldn't have made it any clearer to us that she wasn't impressed, because she'd actually roll her eyes!
It did make us laugh, because as soon as Sam stepped out of the pictures, Maddie was very obliging with those ears!
The shoot finished off with some black background images in the stable! Thank you so much for having me, Sam - and of course to Hannah who organised the gift voucher for her lucky Mum!