Meet Georgie and her mare, Willow. Susy kindly gifted Georgie a voucher for her 21st birthday, earlier on in the year. Based at one of my favourite local livery yards to photograph at, I met up with Georgie, her Mum and their three ponies. However, our star of the show, was Willow!
Willow has just turned 2, and they have owned her for about a year now. She had managed to keep herself relatively clean before the shoot. When I arrived, Georgie was just getting changed - I already had plenty of locations in mind for the shoot. I photograph quite regularly at this yard and I have my favourite spots - so you may recognise a few of the backdrops!
We headed off to the "Avenue" accompanied by her two friends, 20 year old Autumn and companion pony Squeak. Both Autumn and Squeak used to be part of the local riding school, so it was a pleasure to see them again - I almost ended up having Squeak myself when she was up for sale! Squeak and her friend Bubbles provided much entertainment at the riding school with their cheeky character, and Autumn even accompanied Dolly and myself around a cross country!
Willow is a very brave little pony, completely unphased by anything around her. There were ladders, scaffolding poles, vehicles and machinery but she was totally oblivious to it all and seemed to quite like exploring the new places she hadn't been before. I'm pretty sure that was because there was plenty of food around to have a munch on - Georgie said she's compeltely food orientated!
She's a Connemara x Irish Sports Horse, but the Connie in her definately showed through today with her cheekiness. Willow coped so well and at times, other than her fidgeting, you wouldn't have known she was as young as she was! Georgie regularly takes her on walks around the land owned by the livery yard, as well as taking her out jogging too!
After an outfit change, we made use of the pretty locations closer to the stables. Willow was starting to get a little fidgety by now so we tried to ensure she was kept moving as much as possible. She'd done very well up until this point, but sensing she'd probably had enough posing by now we worked as quickly as possible. The bench around the trees on the driveway is always a favourite of mine at Cullinghood - Willow was lined up alongside the bench where Georgie was sat. She was given big handfuls of grass and she stood beautifully. Within a few seconds we'd got the shot I was after!
Willow's patience was starting to run a little low by this point so we headed over to the field for a change of scenery. Using the gateway to the paddock gave us something to "aim" Willow against, again with more food bribery, the barrier in front of her just stopped her moving around enough to get some pictures of both girls looking over the gate!
Georgie had seen a photograph that I'd taken at the same yard recently, of Alice and Darcy, both sat in the field together. After a little apprehension at making sure this was done safely, as Willow had started to show us some acrobatics by this point - but with big handfuls of grass to keep her occupied, the results were lovely!
We decided to call it a day here as, on the whole, Willow had been beautifully behaved. Thank you so much for having me, Georgie, and to Sue for all your help! And a massive thank you to Susy for organising the shoot.
Thank you!