There’s always something going on behind the scenes and recently, as the weather improves, I have been planning my equine shoots for the Spring, Summer and Autumn. I find horses absolutely fascinating, they are incredible animals and I have seen them overcome terrible situations and then go on to be empathetic toward humans, despite what they have been through.I firmly believe that in order to photograph something well, you need to be able to understand your subject and in the case of animals, read their body language.  I am continuing my study this year by undertaking a couple of online courses by Justine Harrison, a horse behaviourist and will let you know how they go and what I learn along the way.  

In the meantime I attended a webinar last week on ‘Promoting positive equine behaviour and wellbeing through management’ which was really interesting, eye opening, and I learnt a lot from it about the ideal ways of keeping a horse, understanding what they are trying to tell you and how you can enrich their lives in simple easy ways. 

 Run by the ‘World Horse Welfare’ they are a UK based group promoting positive methods for horse welfare with a heavy interest in the mental aspects of horse welfare. How often do we consider if a horse is mentally tired or is struggling to mentally figure out what you are asking them to do?

These are important things not only for owners to understand, but also for photographers. The more I can read their tells and understand their needs, not only during the shoot but also in the preparation, then the better images I’ll be able to capture.

Their webinars can be found on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/@worldhorsewelfareeducation

Their website can be found here if you’d like to see what they do: https://www.worldhorsewelfare.org

and their discussions are well worth a listen and then just make your own mind up.  I will say that the behaviour and the diet webinars are really interesting.  If you want to get ‘into one’ then the ‘How to keep horse sport ethical’ is also and interesting watch even if you don’t necessarily agree with it.  Understanding the arguments around such topics can only inform how we feel about such things.  

If you get chance to watch any of them let me know what you think.