Meet Polly and her super cute pony, Mickey! I've "known" Polly for several years through Facebook - we worked out it was through a mutual friend of ours, Chantelle and an online showing community. After keeping up with Polly and Mickey's lives through Facebook, it was really exciting to actually be meeting them!
Sadly, due to a change in circumstances Polly has had to find a new home for Mickey, but before he went, she asked me to come down. Saying that she wouldn't of had anyone but me come and do the session was a real compliment! We worked out the best way for me to get down to them both would be for me to hop on a train and meet Polly at the station near the yard. So, I headed in to London, successfully navigated my way through the Underground, through St Pancras and down in to Kent!
Mickey is 8 years old and lives the life of luxury on the family farm! He has his own paddock, with plenty of toys to play with and has loads of beautiful land to explore on his walks with Polly! He had almost kept himself clean that morning when Polly had gone to meet me at the station - she said he was a bit surprised to be wearing a rug! He managed to get a bit of dirt underneath (as ponies do!) so after a quick groom, we headed off in to the ferns and woodland!
Mickey led the way through the tracks and we found some lovely little spots to use! Sadly, all of the beautiful scenery we were exploring is due to be turned in to the lorry park off the M20. So this means Polly and her partner Dan will soon be moving to a new home - they had in fact got the keys for their new bungalow that week. More excitingly, however, Dan had proposed to Polly on the same day they picked the keys up!
The natural connection between the two of them was very easy to capture, as you'll see in the photographs! They clearly love each other and enjoy one another's company. Due to the height difference between the pair of them, I had to think of creative ways to set up each shot, mostly involving Polly crouching or sitting by Mickey's side. It was a brilliant challenge for me and I think the shots came out very nicely!
He is a very affectionate pony and was loving all the attention! He showed off the tricks that he knew, including giving kisses! The "step up" trick came in very handy when we needed to make him just a little bit taller, by standing him on a log, so that he could see over a little gateway we wanted to use.
I wanted to capture the relationship between both of them, showing off Mickey's cheeky personality. Polly said he's also very intelligent which makes him even cheekier! Mickey threw in some very funny facial expressions too, making it look as though he was laughing and chatting away to Polly!
Thank you so much Polly for inviting me down, it was so great to finally meet you and of course, Mickey! He's such a character and I wish you both all the best in your new homes, it was great to put a face to a name after feeling as though I've known you for such a long time!