Meet Kari and her two beautiful bays: Ron and Isla. Where do I even start with this, Kari? What an absolutely wonderful few hours we had together, I can't thank you enough for all the thought and preparation you put in prior to your shoot. I've always wanted to do a shoot like this, well in fact, both of your shoots were so fantastic! Kari is absolutely lovely, so welcoming and it felt like I'd known her for years! We clicked straight away and had a great time - in fact, she'd already invited me back for her second shoot, almost before I'd even left the yard!
We'd discussed several ideas over email and Kari provided me with a few images for inspiration as to what she was hoping to get from her shoot. I was SO excited when she told me there would be a flower garland involved!
Before I get too carried away with it all, here's a bit about both of her horses. First up, we have Ron, a 9 year old, 16.3hh dark bay Cleveland bay x Thoroughbred. Kari says that he's very affectionate and loves cuddles, she's owned him since December last year.
And of course, we can't forget Isla! Isla is a 7 year old, 15.3hh dark bay Irish Draught x Thoroughbred. "She is more reserved than Ron and not always in a cuddly mood. She is quite selective with whom she does and does not like (I am not sure I am always in her inner circle myself) but she is a very sweet mare. She has been with me since March." Kari went to view her but sadly she sustained an injury just before she brought her, however Kari knew there was just something about her and she couldn't not have her - so she now (I'm not sure it was quite planned!) has two horses.
We began the shoot with having a little look around the yard Kari keeps them at in Oxfordshire. There were so many potential locations for us to play with: tracks, fields, paths and plenty of trees. After discussing a few outfit ideas, we tacked Ron up and headed to our first location!
Ron was a little on his toes, so we kept this in mind and made sure he was as relaxed as possible. Kari was so natural in front of the camera and so easy to pose! After some black background shots, we began to explore the fields around the edge of the yard. With beautiful long meadow grass and open space, it was idyllic!
There was a very special relationship between the pair of them - they seemed to know what each other was thinking, and I felt privileged Kari had asked me to capture that.
After around an hour, we headed back to the yard and grabbed Isla for a couple of group shots. Then a quick outfit change followed. Kari had always wanted portrait photographs of her horses wearing a flower garland, so she had one made by a local florist. I'm sure you'll see why from these photographs why I was so excited to be a part of this - it creates such a lovely, heavenly, boho feeling which I simply adore! It was the perfect combination of colours, everything worked so well together! Sadly, Ron wasn't quite sure of the flowers on his back, on the other hand, luckily, Isla wasn't at all phased, and was more interested in eating the flowers!
To begin with, we played around with various black background shots - we'd put a few flowers in to Kari's hair and then headed off to explore again. The majority of our time seemed to be spent in the field and along a lovely long, sweeping path along the side of the yard.
Everything about the shoot was so enjoyable - the wonderful company and as I said, it felt like we'd known each other for years, rather than hours! Kari was determined we'd get a shot of Isla without any tack on, in a lovely grassy field ... however this took some convincing on Isla's part, that she was here to look pretty, not to eat!
Before we knew it, we'd spent two hours photographing - we could have gone on forever! Thank you so so much Kari, it was a pleasure! I'm so glad you're pleased with the photographs!
