Mel, Skippy, Romeo and Aly
A few weeks ago, I had the please of photographing Me, with her three horses Skippy, Romeo and Aly. This shoot, unfortunately had to be booked rather quickly, as Skippy was recently diagnosed with osteoarthritis with no options for a longer term management plan. That said, despite the reason for the shoot, there were still plenty of laughs, and you couldn’t have asked for a more perfect location or weather.
Mel’s yard had a whole host of locations to choose from, with flower gardens, willow trees, a beautiful driveway, miniature orchard and even a pond. This of course provided plenty of opportunity to get very creative. After all, why wouldn’t we? Mel also made full use of the three different outfit changes, which we varied alongside the ponies and locations. In the end, she wore each outfit with at least two of the horses and we regularly switched between all of the locations. This not only provided plenty of variety within her gallery, but also meant we kept the horses moving, which kept them relaxed and “photo ready”.
We started with the star of the show, Skippy. He’s an 8-year-old thoroughbred cross who is known officially as Upper Glebe Roo. Mel and her family initially started by fostering Skippy in 2015 when he was around six-months old as he was an RSPCA rescue case and was found with his mother who was around 27 years old! The original plan was that he would just be fostered, but of course Mel and her family fell in love with him and he never left! They backed him at 5 years old and his favourite activity is to go for long hacks. He’ll hack in front or behind (although in front is his favourite) and despite being a younger horse is incredibly brave and will happily nanny the older horses past a variety of scary things! Although I am told he hates the rain and will refuse to leave the yard. His favourite snack is bananas, but you do have to peel them for him. According to Mel, he's the most chilled horse on the yard and an absolute pleasure to have around.
Next, was Romeo a 15 year old Irish Sports Horse who Mel bought when she made the decision to retire Aly from ridden work. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite as advertised and Mel had a few nasty falls from him when she first purchased him. A friend then helped bring him on by riding him whilst Mel worked to regain her confidence. Romeo isn’t without his vet bills either though! He once had a freak accident in the field and ended up having surgery to flush his tendon sheath from an infection, and then he needed to be rehabbed carefully. This may have been a blessing in disguise though as the slow gentle work helped to build their confidence in each other and they work much better as a team now! I’m told Romeo's favourite things to do are run around in the field (he does a very impressive capriole!) and go show jumping. Another fun fact, he likes licking everything - from his salt lick to his feed bucket to Mel whilst she mucks him out! He can also smile on command, and will do so if he sees a phone as he thinks he's having his picture taken. That said, he didn’t quite figure out what a camera was so we didn’t get see his fantastic smile this time though!
Finally, we come to Aly, or Aly McBee as she is registered. She’s 24 years old and was a racehorse broodmare and was transported over from America prior to Mel purchasing her. They think she was possibly trained as a racehorse, although she was never raced. Mel got her in 2012 when she was 14 years old and they did absolutely everything together. During her time as a ridden horse, Aly has competed in dressage, been cross country and they even done liberty work together. Mel says she is the perfect horse as she could take her showjumping one day, then the next Aly could take Mel’s brother, who has never ridden before, for a nice gentle hack. Definitely one in a million. Once Aly retired in 2015, she took to retired life life a duck to water and definitely lives the life of Riley!
Whilst shoots like these do have an air of sadness surrounding them, I always find myself feeling so grateful to have been given the honor of being the photographer chosen. Mel, it was an absolute pleasure to photograph you and your horses and I hope you both love the images, and they help remind you of all the good times you’ve had with Skippy!
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