Two weeks ago, we had the opportunity to photograph and film our upcoming summer collection at the beautiful Össjö Castle just outside Ängelholm. The horses at Caroline Bore’s farm — where she both lives and runs her business — were to be our models. Beautiful and talented dressage horses of various ages and colours. Perfect.
Our biggest worry, as is often the case in Sweden, was the weather. We were going to shoot summer rugs — what if it started snowing?
To our relief, there was no snow. Instead, we had decent sunshine, but it was cold and windy. Early in the planning, I had decided that the young girls should be in the pictures because it would look better. A good idea, it turned out, considering it was polo shirts and icy northern winds raising the hairs on our arms. All we could do was smile and look happy.
Something I hadn’t quite accounted for was the horses’ more or less reluctant attitude towards participating in this photo session. Pretty quickly, the long-legged ladies (they were all mares) grew tired of our endless fiddling with leg positioning, ears that needed to be forward, and manes standing upright in the wind. Today’s dressage stars are prima donnas — if they don’t get the attention and rewards they feel they deserve, they certainly won’t be persuaded to pose for extra shots just to capture the details of a rug. That kind of nonsense is for someone else.
Luckily, Caroline had many fine horses to choose from, so we could gradually switch out those wanting a change.
The day was long, but with a team of horse girls used to not giving up easily, we got some fantastic material to work with.
What I’ve realized afterward is that today’s horses have so much fire in them — and that fire looks great on camera — but it isn’t always easy to handle. Equestrian sport wants quick-reacting horses full of expression, while we also want things to be as simple and natural as possible. Will that be possible to combine? Are we creating too many horses that too few can handle?
Today’s thought.
(This blog post has been translated using AI. We strive for accuracy and clarity, but certain nuances may vary. Thank you for your understanding.)
