3rd Place, "Horsestyle" by Wiebke Haas

When people ask me why I’m photographing horses I usually respond "Because I adore their beauty and magnificent grace"! But there is another reason as well. Horses can be hilarious and they are darn funny! It’s my greatest passion to tease out nearly human expressions from my horse models. It was really fun to work with such different horsy characters. The black PRE Allaus learned to shake on hand sign in the 5 minutes before the photo session while Arabian stallion Hafid preferred to neigh proudly in studio before he realised that the studio team praised him when he shook his head.
The most difficult part was keeping the horses looking straight to the camera as they wanted to move their heads to the side or downward. Good handling and many horse treats were the highest priority. I focused on getting a great face and a harmonic choreography of their hair.