Today is the month I start taking monthly conformation pictures of my horses. Next month will be the month I start taking monthly conformation pictures of my horses and my pony, as he is not here right now.
I have never actively tried to take a conformation photo of any of them, and it proved to be harder than I thought it would be. They would either decide to start meandering away, or they wouldn’t look straight ahead. It would be an easy fix though if I had someone help me, but I was hoping they would stand there, like obedient statues. I did manage to get them though (sort of).
Subject 1: 7 year old thoroughbred mare.
Berry ended up stepping on her lead rope and that pinned her there long enough for me to get a fairly bad photo of her. She suddenly became super camera shy and was constantly looking away from me. Possibly it was urgent she checked out the scenery of the place she’s been living for a while.
“Hmmm, yes I suppose it is a nice view. I should take tiny steps closer to it, she doesn’t notice when I move in slow motion.”
Vintage was doing the same, and I failed to get any photos of her where she wasn’t looking away.
“I’ve never noticed this view before!”
I convinced Dave to come out and hold her for me. I was also too lazy to walk all the way back to the arena, so her final picture is on the dirt path.
Subject 2: 19 year old appaloosa mare.
Of course, since Dave is the treat dispenser, she was super interested in receiving some. Dave stepped away to be out of the picture, while asking her to stand still, resulting in her stretching out like a saddlebred.
I’m planning to take new photos at the beginning of every month to see how they develop. It will be interesting to see how their muscles develop. Berry is worked way more than Vintage, so I am sure her changes (if any) will be noticeably much faster. I haven’t even ridden Vintage this year, so possibly there will be little to no progress… but we will see. Hopefully she will be able to be worked into the riding schedule.
emma
i def like having fairly regular confo pics of my horse for reference. typically i can’t see much change from month to month (i’m not even close to a confo/musculature/anatomy expert), but when something does crop up and i want to get a closer look at how it might have developed over time, nothing beats that photographic record!
Courtney
emmaI hadn’t considered that – that would be useful!
I’m not expecting too much change month by month, but I am really excited to see how she’ll develop!
Erin
I’m pretty impressed by how well you got them to stand. Anytime I try to get a shot of Tucker he walks towards me in the hopes that my phone is a cookie.
Courtney
ErinLOL I’m surprised mine didn’t do that. I think it was because I did them together, they were united in a front against the weirdo making them pose