Remember the good old days when you had to take your graduation photo shoot? Inevitably, you will comb your hair back, ensure that your graduation robe is all neat and tidy before the shoot itself, and all of these are done to ensure that you look the absolute best during the photo shoot. Of course, this is also doable because we know how to look good during the photo shoot itself.
This goes the same when you decided to engage a photographer for your horse’s photo shoot. While you can always use Photo Shop to help you spruce up the photos, you will still want to ensure that your horse look perfect for that photo shoot that you are so excited about. Hence, there is a need to groom your horse before a photo shoot so that you can capture the horse in its full moment of glory.
To ensure that you can capture the best part, here are some grooming tips for your horse before the photo shoot is being done.
Grooming Tips for Your Horse
- Bathe your horse: Get your horse ready for the photo shoot by giving it a good wash down. Ensure that you wash every nook and cranny so that there is no dirt left on your horse.
- Grooming the mane and tail: You wouldn’t want your horse to look unkempt with the untidy mane, right? So why not schedule hair appointments for your horse and let the professional groomer work its magic? Of course, if you are adept at combing the horse’s mane, by all means go ahead!
- Clean equipment: This is perhaps one of the most common mistakes that most horse owners do, which is that they forget to clean the horse’s equipment before the photo shoot itself. Please ensure that the saddles or even the muzzle looks clean before the photo taking session.
- Shine boots and hooves: Of course, you will want your horse to look at its very best on that day itself, and for this to happen, you will need to ensure that the hooves or even the boots are as shiny as possible. This will ensure that the hooves or boots look sleek during the photo shoot itself.
- Ensure no stray hair or straw: One that day itself, be prepared to trim away any stray hair or even straw that can be found on the horse itself.
- Clean the barn: If you decide to take the photo shoot in the horse’s barn itself, then you should ensure that the barn if fee of unsightly images like the loose straw or even horse’s poop that might be lying around the barn!
- Applying spray: To give your horse a premium look, apply Show Sheen from Absorbine spray on the horse to ensure shiny hair. Apply face and hoof polish too!
If you follow the steps above, you will most certainly get the best from the equine photo shoot. A point to note however is that your horse might be jittery before the photo shoot. If this is the case, give your horse a very light work out so that it can release endorphins to relax itself. Otherwise, you can give the horses a drop of Bach Flower Rescue Remedy.
Better yet, I always bring along Christy with Interactive Equine Bodywork to settle them down with a little acupressure and massage.
Jody Miller is a professional photographer specializing in Horse Photography, Equine Photography, and Equestrian photography. Her work can be viewed online here in her gallery section, and she is also featured at these Arizona Galleries: Van Gogh’s Ear Gallery on Whiskey Row in Prescott, AZ and Coops Coffee House at Talking Rock Ranch. Several images are also available at The Phippen Western Art Museum