Preparing for Your Equine Photo Session: Part 2

Now it’s the day before your session and there’s a lot to prepare so that you can have a stress free night and get plenty of sleep.

It’s time to polish your tack. Don your work clothes and get ready to get dirty. Give all of your tack a good once (or even twice over) by rubbing oil into the leather, shining all your chrome, and don’t forget to clean your bit. Also, make sure to gather up everything you will want or need for your photo shoot, maybe a towel for wiping up slobber, lipstick for touch ups, an extra lead rope, your nice halter, objects to get your horse’s attention (like keys, plastic bag (but don’t scare him with it), toy, whip, etc), and water bottle, and put it all into a bag or bucket. 

Like I mentioned in my last post, you don’t want to procrastinate. Set aside the time you need to get everything done before hand. And don’t be shy to ask for help from a close friend or family member if time is running short. And don’t forget, the last thing for the day would be getting a good nights sleep. Once all the prep work is done, then you can get some rest without worry.

​Its the the morning of your session and the first thing you want to do is your hair and makeup, but you need to hold off on that because your horse needs some attention first. 

if you’d rather get ready first, just think of this ... your hair is curled and you have your favorite dress on and you get to the barn and your horse has rolled in manure. Now he needs a bath and during that process your curls fall out and your horse gets green hay slobber all over your dress. You need to start all over again and you’re running behind and only have half the time for your photo session since you had to find something else to wear and redo your hair. This is is why I highly recommend to get your horse ready before you get ready.

But it what should you do to get your horse ready? Get his energy out. A tired, not exhausted, horse is more likely do well standing next to you than one feeling his oats. You can do this by lunging him, help burn any extra energy before it’s bath time. You want your horse to be clean with combed main and tail. If there’s any white, make sure it’s white and not manure stained (you might need to work on getting stains out before the morning of your shoot). A good rule of thumb is to get your horse show ready for whatever discipline you ride. And if you don’t show your horse, a good bath, combing and brushing, and cleaning up any winter coat (if applicable and depends on what look you’re going for), along with hoof oil and make sure to clean the eye boogers and any snot (what the towel will come in handy for during your session).

Once your horse is clean, do not put him in a pasture because we all know a clean horse is going to roll in the dirtiest spot available. If you have a stall, put him in there and maybe put a blanket on him to help keep any shavings or straw off if he does decide to roll. Now it’s time for you to get ready, so read over to my next post in this series, Preparing for Your Equine Photo Session: Part 3.

And if you’ve missed the first part of this series, which goes over preparing the week before your session, Preparing for Your Equine Photo Session: Part 1.