How to prepare your horse for a photoshoot.

Location

Most clients choose to have their shoot where their horse is stabled, which may be at your home or equine's yard. If this is the case, before the shoot I like to spend a few minutes with you scouting and exploring what spots/backgrounds are available.

If you don't fancy having your shoot at your home or yard, why not go to your local woodland/beach or field.

What should you wear?

The most important thing is feeling comfortable and confident in what you're wearing. It's all down to personal preference but I'd recommend sticking to neutrals or pastels. Outfits can be anything from a pretty dress, smart jeans and a nice top, country style clothing such as a tweed jacket. Sometimes co-ordinating with your location can look lovely too, for example; if your shoot location has a blossom tree or you have a field of pink flowers nearby, wear something pink that might compliment it. If you're still struggling to put an outfit together, please don't hesitate to send me a message beforehand as I'm always happy to help!

If you've booked a luxury session and will be having a second outfit choice, you might use this for some ridden shots. A little tip is to give your riding boots a quick clean, sometimes I will take a close up with the boots in shot and if they're covered in muck it won't look as good in photos. Ideally you'll want to wear similar colours to whatever your horse is wearing, but I'll go more into that in the next section.

Grooming and Tack

Before the shoot try to give your equine a really good groom, maybe even a bath the night before (especially if they're a grey). Another thing you may be wondering is whether to plait them or not. Again this is down to your preference, personally I think a tidy natural looking mane looks lovely. But if you know your horse has quite a messy/frizzy mane, then by all means go for the plait instead.

For tack, a clean bridle usually looks the smartest and will save time if you're planning to do some ridden shots. You could also use a smart leather head collar, just try to use a black or brown lead rope that matches the leather.

For ridden shots, try using a saddle pad you don't use as often or that looks fairly clean and smart. Matchy sets always look amazing on photos too, especially if you're planning to co-ordinate with them. For example, if you put your horse in a green saddle pad and ear bonnet, then match with a green base layer and/or hat silk. If you don't have a matchy set then don't worry, just avoid clashing colours and try to go for similar tones or stick to a theme.

If you're still unsure how to prepare... my top tip is to imagine you're preparing yourself and your horse for a show.

I hope those tips helped and I'm so excited to meet you and your equine in the near future!