Or should I ask why shouldn't you?
When I bought my own horse in 2014 I had so many phone photos I didn't know what to do with them. The everyday ones, the out in the field ones, the selfie ones, the behind the ears ones. All the ones you've got hundreds of stored in your phones and computers. The ones I could quickly share on Facebook, show my friends and gush over, just because seeing his handsome face made me smile every-time I picked up my phone.
But, I didn't have any photos of him and I together. None that I could put on the wall that didn't either have me covered in mud, hay or grass slobber! Or a bloody nose (that's another story in itself).......
Then one day at the yard, Katie my instructor told me a photographer she knew was offering a photoshoot to split between a few of us liveries. To be honest I wasn't completely keen on the idea, and that's coming from me who IS a photographer. Back then it was just a hobby for me and I was stupidly camera shy. I hate having my picture taken and am always the one pulling ridiculous faces. However I sucked up my aversion to being in front of the camera and said I would do it.
I wasn't worried about Jack being silly or pissing off back to the yard because a pigeon flew out of a hedge. He was a perfect gentleman and was quite happy standing next to me looking extremely handsome and posing like his life depended on it (plus trying to eat a hedge at one point). After 15 minutes I was so relaxed I had forgotten she was there and even when she asked me to pose a certain way I didn't feel like a complete idiot. I was with my boy, and being with him was my happy place so my smiles were natural and not a forced inane grin!!!
Feeling elated afterwards I took Jack back to the field, gave him a few treats and watched my golden boy saunter back to his friends. Having to wait a couple of weeks was torture, I hate waiting for anything, and we are now in a society where we can have everything right there and then. But the photos I was sent were worth waiting for. She captured Jack and I perfectly, from his personality to mine. We had only spent an hour together and she had managed to get the essence of us both beautifully.
Four years on from the photoshoot I had to put my beautiful, stubborn, donkey to sleep after an attack of colic. I wholeheartedly and truly cherish the photos I had taken that day at the yard. It reminds me of everything I loved about him, and I get to see his beautiful dribbly white heart everyday, looking down at me with his soft sweet eyes.
Thinking back to that day brings me such joy. I remember it all and glad that I took the chance to get the memories in pictures as you never know when the time will come when you have to say goodbye. Looking back at all the photos of us together makes my heart sing even though it's sad that he is gone.
I guess what I am trying to say is you SHOULD book that photoshoot, you SHOULD get those photos that you want of your most precious horses, because one day it may be too late and you may regret it forever.
Be safe and give those ponies a big smooch from me.
Jo xx
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