Grooming

Grooming your horse plays an important role in the session overall. A horse with mud in his coat or burrs and hair in his mane or tail make for a longer and more difficult editing process. Grooming before the session also gives you a chance to gauge your stud's mood on the day of the session and can help give indicators on how the session might go. Grooming also gives you the chance to calm or soothe an anxious horse, and of course, help with bonding in the long run. The horse should be fully shed out or shaved with hooves recently trimmed, cleaned and oiled, mane and tail clean and brushed face clean and nose oiled if you so choose.

It's also advisable to bring extra supplies with us as we're most likely to be moving around. You never know when you might need more hoof polish, face oil or fly spray.

Location

Locations differ for every session. Most owners prefer to have their session in the same location as where they keep their animal as it can help keep the stallion's stress levels lower as well as the stress of traveling and having to groom again. We aren't limited to around the barn though, some owner's like to take a walk and scout locations with nice backgrounds or pleasing foliage. If you haven't got a location in mind, that's where I come in to help. Keep in mind, the less busy or distracting a background, the more your stud's portrait will pop! In addition to the location, we'll also be looking at the sunlight levels. Some owners prefer an overcast day and some prefer the full sun look, something we'll talk about in the planning phase of your session.

This applies to the natural stallion portraits, Black Background is a whole other look, but that's another blog for another time.

Tack

I bring a couple of rope halters with me to the sessions for portraits that will have the halter taken out in photoshop, but it's also a good idea to have your own on hand as well. Nice leather halters and leads should be cleaned, oiled and ready to go as well as show saddles or any tack that could potentially be used in the session. Saddle pads should be free of hay, hair and stains without signs of sun-fading or excessive wear. Silver on tack should be polished and tarnish-free.

I truly love when owners bring their favored tack or heirloom saddles. It adds more images to the gallery and depth and meaning to the session as a whole.

Energy Levels

This might just be the most important aspect of the session.

Imagine this...you pull your fresh stallion from his stall and go right to grooming. He's fidgety and full of energy but over-all he's ok. We begin the session and he seems to be losing patience with us fairly quickly, which in turn will probably upset YOU the longer this goes on.

To avoid this stressful situation, follow this old advice. "A tired horse is a good horse." These truly are words to live by! If it's possible, the best scenario for the day of the session would be to get in an intense exercise session in before ever picking up a brush. Not only will this expend most of the excessive energy, but it will also pump his muscles up a bit and add to his studly appeal.