View From the Cheap Seats My PSA to the Professional Horse Show Photographer

Iget it. Long hours on your feet chasing exhibitors down the rail, class after class. Show management barely covering expenses. Your only hope for profit relies on print sales. Paying someone, anyone, to man the booth, run the computers, service frustrating, undecisive parents. Let’s not even discuss how digital imaging and the Internet have hijacked your professional advantage right out from under you. Technology irreversibly affected your route to a decent wage when everyone acquired camera phones at arm’s length. It’s a wonder you’re even willing to stand center ring at an equine competition these days.

I admit you shouldn’t rely on me to fill your pockets, either. I’m a little selective after this many years and countless horses. Odds are, you’ve taken a few shots of my horse throughout the class. If I’m lucky enough to have made it that far, there’ll be a couple posed ribbon shots and hopefully, at least one good victory pass photo. But you’ve got to wow me with the extraordinary. For example, if my horse looks fantastic and, miraculously, you caught that rare moment when my face isn’t sporting my signature competition grimace, I am buying that image. But let me be clear. Some terrain is off limits no matter how digitally crafty you think you can get. One person’s artistic masterpiece is another person’s horrifying reality. Ask Rachael. She’ll back me on this.

Well over a decade ago, I trudged off to an early March horse show at the Kentucky Horse Park. I hauled in a Western Pleasure mare, a Country English Pleasure mare, and a couple of students with their