Beautiful Pictures of Horses at a Dressage Training School

A collection of photos taken on a sunny day spent at the Kinvara Equestrian Centre in Kyalami. Kinvara is known for their dressage events and training at their school which allowed me to snap some beautiful pictures of horses training.

Dressage Horses on Display

I started in the stables as the horses were prepared for show. I took the opportunity to wonder around taking photos of the various facilities. With both horse and rider ready we made our way to the nearby arena. It all started out simple enough with some basic warmups. But this was my first time being around horses in a long time and I wasn't sure what to expect.

Finally the horse became more comfortable and we aimed to get shots of some of the more traditional poses. As a result this was a lot harder than I initially thought. The dressage community has some pretty specific shots they want which include legs and heads in particular positions and so on.

After an hour or two in the arena the horses retired for the day and were set free in the paddocks at the bottom of the property. I made my way down to take some photos of the horses relaxing. An energetic stallion seemed to enjoy the freedom of the open paddocks as he galloped around showing no fear. It was impressive to see such a large animal let loose. I on the other hand stayed outside and took photos from relative safety.

What I Learnt Snapping Pictures of Horses

From a photographic point of view the shoot was easy, the lighting conditions were good so there were no technical challenges. But adapting to a particular field of photography proved a challenge. I'm sure I just scratched the surface of photographing dressage horses and look forward to trying it again someday.