Dream model, dream location!

It took a few attempts to make this shoot happen but it was definitely worth the wait!

We had photographed weddings for some years at Westonbirt school near Tetbury, and each time we were blown away by the beauty and elegance of the grounds and the Italian gardens. Then in 2017 we were lucky to photograph one of the school pupils, Sophie, at the school with her horse Dantzig (you can see this shoot here), and in 2018 we sponsored the Westonbirt Equestrian team. This meant we photographed the team of young riders with their ponies and horses in the school grounds a couple of times, which was amazing. By this point, I had realised that this location was just crying out for a beautiful, standalone equine model to create some unique and lovely art.

Enter Jamiro. Around this time, we were also commissioned to photograph a white Spanish horse, Jamiro, who was just up the road in Malmesbury. He is the kind of horse that takes your breath away – pure white, with a long cascading mane, and a real Spanish pride and presence. His full name is ‘Orgulluso’ which means ‘Proud’ in Spanish, and it’s not difficult to see why.

Putting the two together – stunning horse in stunning location – was a dream come true. We turned up one August evening, and as we walked around the grounds of the school with Jamiro, and his owner Rebecca and handller Anne, I had goosebumps on my neck. We were both buzzing – there was just so much opportunity!

Horses are like very big toddlers, who have a limit on their attention span and patience. So while we all relaxed and had fun on the shoot, we also kept things moving, conscious that the light would go, and Jamiro would at some point have had enough. The school’s children were watching from their windows in the school, and we could hear them saying ‘there’s a horse in the garden!”.

We are two perfectionists, and even after years as a photographer, I usually feel we could have got something better or something different after a shoot. And of course, we could have, but sometimes you just have to draw a line under it, and say, what we got was just right.

We hope you like it!

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With huge thanks to Westonbirt school for allowing us to use their grounds for this shoot; and to Rebecca and Anne for bringing Jamiro.

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