One of the magical things about horses is that most of them try to do what we humans want them to do most of the time. Of course, sometimes they don’t understand what we’re asking, and modeling for a photoshoot definitely qualifies as something that horses have no basis for comprehending what is going on or how they should behave.

Still, it usually only takes a few tricks for getting ears up or body moved in a certain way, and most horses, most of the time, will give me exactly the shot I’m looking for, despite not understanding exactly what’s happening.

Meet Perry. He’s a talented liver chestnut warmblood who can do eventing, hunters, jumpers, AND equitation! And, look how handsome he is:

Gotta love that Roman nose and big blazed face!

Perry stood perfectly still with such a beautiful expression for his black background shoot! He even kept his hooves clean. What a champ.

I think his entire black background session took about 20 minutes and gave me dozens of great shots to choose from. Easiest session of 2020 so far! Gold star for Perry… 10/10 would recommend him for supermodel status.

A few days later, we did a horse & rider session with Perry and his rider Alex. Alex did everything right to prepare Perry for his session with her, husband Travis, and doggy Evie. She made sure he’d had plenty of work the days before and the day of the shoot. And she walked him over to all of our shoot locations in advance so he’d be acclimated.

Turns out Perry had some ideas of his own this time around. He felt that this photoshoot was his perfect opportunity to… ahem… express himself.

It wasn’t just one bad shot. It was like every time I raised the camera to my face, Perry attempted to sabotage with the goofiest expression possible.

WHO ACTS LIKE THIS? No seriously, this is intentional horsey sabatoge.

Kudos to Alex for keeping a nice smile despite Perry’s antics! Well, most of the time.

Perfect girl, beautiful lighting… and a horse attempting to create his own masterpieces.

Art is subjective, of course. So we rolled with the punches and took the shots Perry wanted for his portfolio… or maybe his Tinder profile? Who knows.

Alex was a champ and we just kept going. Finally, Perry decided he’d done enough and gave us a few minutes of normalcy.

Who’s a good boy?!?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Horses, man. They love keeping us on our toes! ??

Contact me today to book your horse & rider session!