Blog Posts in Category: Equestrian

This weekend I headed up to Herefordshire with David for the North Herefordshire Hunt’s Opening Meet. Hunting is something that I want to photograph more often but finding time is always very difficult and I live a long way away from Herefordshire which is where I used to hunt so know the countryside well and the people who hunt there so it’s ideal for going and taking photos as hunts are very suspicious of new people turning up with cameras. It is only the second time I have attempted to take photos of Hunting and last time was in an area of countryside I was not familiar with so spent most of the day driving around completely lost, but this time as I knew the countryside very well we spent the whole day on foot with a good idea of where the hunt was going to go next. This proved to be very tiring as we covered around 7 miles over hilly terrain while carrying heavy camera gear and quite a lot of the distance was done at a sprint to get ahead of the hunt for the jumps. Towards the start of the. Read the full article…

Recently I headed down to Pontispool Horse Trials to see my sister, Katherine Begley, eventing due to the wind delaying my other plans for the week. To say it was breezy would be an understatement with the remains of Hurricane Katia hitting the UK. Other than the wind it was a pleasant day without any rain and even some sunny spells. It will unfortunately now probably be my last event of the season due to heading back to university and the season coming to a close anyway. Due to the wind my sisters horse, George, was looking fairly wild before the dressage and this was unfortunately reflected in the test, though the mark given could have been worse as the score given was 41. A quick tack change and it was on to the show jumping where it was so windy that the planks had to be held on in the arena until the rider had jumped the previous fence and Katherine is still getting to know her new horse and had 3 down. It was then on to the final phase, the cross country which is my favourite phase so I went off to the furthest side. Read the full article…

Today I headed up to Cheshire to take pictures of my sister, Katherine Begley, competing at Somerford Park. She was competing at Intermediate level and this was her first intermediate since getting her new horse, Gorgeous George IV. I have been to many events but few that ran as quickly as this one, once the dressage had been completed early it was straight onto the show jumping and then after that straight onto the cross country. It was lucky I had my lunch early before the dressage! I really struggled with the sun today as it was very harsh and I was not able to get into the positions I would have liked to cope with the harsh sunlight so there were some interesting shadows to deal with (typical Brit, complain when the sun isn’t out, complain when it is!). I have also decided that George is a difficult colour to photograph as I have now taken pictures of him twice and both time found it very hard to edit the photos, something I have never encountered before with other horses. The dressage went very well despite George sticking his tongue out for a. Read the full article…

Today I got another chance to do some equestrian photography as last week my sister found a horse to replace Supplejack, her eventer which retired after Chatsworth a few months ago. Her new horse is called Gorgeous George IV which she rode for the first time on Wednesday and as he was already entered into the competition at Salperton Park this weekend she decided to ride the Dressage and Show Jumping phases and just ignore the cross-country as riding an Intermediate XC course on a horse you have never jumped a cross-country fence on is not exactly recommended! The day went well considering that it was only the second time she has ridden the horse and she got a decent dressage score and while the show jumping did not go that well, it was also not a bad round especially considering how many others were having poles down. I am really looking forward to documenting the progress of Katherine and her new horse throughout the summer as she does her first few novices to get to know her horse before upgrading to Intermediate before the season ends.

In my last blog post about Withington Horse Trials I said that Katherine Begley qualified for Chatsworth Horse Trials and Chatsworth was today so as it was her first advanced and was the last event before her horse Supplejack retired I headed up to the Peak District for the day from Exeter. The day started as usual with the dressage which went well ignoring a few exuberant changes by Jack, though I got a shock as I have not shot in a full size dressage arena for ages and as such forgot just how long they are which unfortunately limited the amount of times in the test where I was able to take photos of her as I had not positioned myself accordingly. After the dressage due to a 4 hour wait and due to Katherine wanting to walk the course for a third time we headed out for a course walk, it was a great course to walk around with very big and technical fences. It was also quite exciting as all the spectators had to stay the other side of string but because I was walking the course with a competitor we. Read the full article…

Today was the day of the 2011 Withington Manor Horse Trials and as my sister, Katherine Begley, was competing and with me freshly filled with enthusiasm for equestrian eventing photography from Badminton last week, I couldn’t stop myself from stopping by for a morning of equestrian shooting in the sun on my way back to university, except when I say on my was back to university I actually mean a 45 minute drive in the opposite direction! The weather was somewhat similar to this event last year with it being a beautiful sunny day, which while it is nice to be out in and provides better photos when the sun is in the right place, it does cause issues when you have no choice of where to stand, such as in the Dressage and means that you have to be especially careful which jumps you chose to photograph to ensure that the side of the horse and rider that is facing you is in the sun wherever possible. As usual with an event the day started with the dressage which went without any incidents but was extremely tricky for photography due to having to stand in. Read the full article…

This weekend was the weekend of the annual Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials three day event which is one of the best three day events in the world, it also happens to take place 3 miles from where I live which means that I have been every year it has taken place bar one since I was tiny. So this year I headed over on the cross-country day as usual. This year the weather was stunning and the best conditions I have ever been to Badminton in that I can recall, it was a beautiful sunny day with a light breeze to keep the temperature down to a pleasant level and despite there not having been any proper rain here for over a month the course was still not too hard for the horses due to the careful maintenance by the course builders. We started the day as we always do by walking the course before the riders are riding it and while it is less crowded so a better view of the jumps can be gained and so when we head back later and there are crowds everywhere we. Read the full article…