If you’re a horse person then “stock horse photography” might have another meaning.
Stock photography is the business of licensing photos to individuals or companies for use. A stock horse is a horse 
that has been trained to work with livestock. Two very different things. I offer both, I can take photos of your stock horse or license my horse photos for usage. This blog is about the business of licensing stock horse photos for a variety of use. Stock photography is often used as an alternative to hiring a photographer to go out in the field and shoot the specific images you desire. Before the digital age stock image companies would build collections from various freelance photographers and then offer those collections to ad agencies or PR firms, newspapers, magazines and more. Requests would go out to these stock agencies and they would browse through their catalogs to see if they had an appropriate matching photo to license for use. Until the 1990’s agencies would search through libraries of images to find a match. In the mid to late 90’s online stock agencies began to take over. Images were catalogued and you could do extensive searches to find the exact photo you needed. In mid 2000’s with many mergers and start ups- the cost to license photos started to go down and the abundance of photos and photographers grew exponentially.
Stock photography of Horses and cowboys available.
A picture is worth a thousand words but you have to have the right picture. On my web site you will find a variety of 
horse and western lifestyle photos as well as dreamy romantic style baroque horse photos. All images on my website are model released so they can be used in a multitude of ways. All photographs are copyrighted and are available for licensing. Licensing costs are determined by photo usage: size, location of use, duration of use and exclusivity are the key factors in determining price. Most sites, including mine offer royalty free stock photos. Royalty free means that the image can be used as specified and payment is typically made once and no other payment or royalties are paid on a per item basis. If you find an image on my website that you would like to license, simply contact me and we can discuss the details and pricing. The original copyright always remains with the creator of the photograph, although I have heard of complete buyouts and exclusivity clauses in licensing stock photos.
Stock Photos are used everywhere.
As you move about your day you will see licensed stock photos everywhere. Magazines will license photos for cover
stories, manufacturers will license photos for packaging design, corporations will license stock photos for brochures or power point presentations or annual reporting. Startups will hire graphic designers that will license stock photography for a new logo design. Website with license photos to use for blogs or promotions. Even magazines and newspapers will license photos for editorial usage to help illustrate a story they are covering. There are stock photos being used all over ever day.
Samples of stock horse photos I have licensed.
Over the years I have licensed my stock photography to various magazines, book publishers and manufacturers. I have a full page on my site showing some of those publications. In a few cases the companies have hired me directly for freelance photography work which included usage rights and in other scenarios they have licensed stock horse photos. Here’s a local real estate website that has licensed some of my stock horse photos and another that was a direct hire for photos.
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 Arts Prescott Gallery, in Arizona.