Tragic Loss

Eric Lamaze riding Hickstead

International show jumping has suffered a terrible loss with the sudden death of Hickstead. The 15 year old superstar stallion collapsed and died from an apparent heart attack before a stunned crowd during the Rolex FEI World Cup event in Verona, Italy on November 6th.

Hickstead and Lamaze won major titles on four continents including Individual Gold and Team Silver at the 2008 Olympic Games, Individual Bronze and Team Silver at the 2007 Pan American Games and Individual Bronze at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. He won the $1 million CN International Grand Prix at the Spruce Meadows Masters twice and countless Grand Prix in North America and Europe.

Every time Hickstead came into the ring, he appeared to absolutely love to jump. It was a privilege to watch him in action and I am saddened by the thought that I will not have the opportunity to photograph him again.

It must be September

Despite my best intentions, my blogging appears to be a yearly event. Initially I had hoped to do this at least once a month, but somehow life got in the way. Here it is September again and I find myself excited to share some photos after another fun shoot.

I was on assignment again, taking photos of a young woman and her horse for a magazine article. Her name is Mathilde Blais Tetrault and I first saw this 19 year old ride earlier this spring when she was competing for a spot on the Young Riders team to represent Canada in dressage. You couldn’t miss her in the crowd – dressed in her top hat and shad belly she is tall, lean and elegant looking with an infectious smile and big blue eyes. While in Kentucky, she and her horse Michealangelo had the top score of her team and were instrumental in helping Canada bring home a team silver medal.

The elegant competitor

With her new puppy, Bali.

Love this setting.

Preconceptions

I’m often sent on assignments to take photos for articles on riding establishments that I have never seen or heard of and before I go I like to read the article to get an idea of my subject matter. In this case I wasn’t given the article but I quickly glanced at the barn’s web site and noted that they have an apple orchard. OK – I’ll take pictures of some apples. I’m thinking a couple of shots of the barn, an apple tree, some horses and that should do it. So off I go with my google map in hand and 50 minutes later I find myself at the base of a small mountain in the middle of apple country.

I quickly realize this is not your ordinary boarding and lesson facility. I meet a young woman named Pascale Tremblay Wagner, whose family owns the 22 acre property. She explains that they operate a day camp during the summer for children from the ages of 3 – 12 and during the fall local schools send up to 150 students a day to learn about all aspects of life on an organic farm. We start with a tour of the gardens where row upon row of every ripe vegetable you can imagine is just waiting to be picked. On to the orchard, which is much bigger than I expected with 500 trees and 14 varieties of apples. Then off we go to see just a few of the 23 horses that are in the huge paddocks at the foot of Mont Rouge. This must be horse heaven – a never ending supply of apples!

We go to into the barn where the cutest little girl was tacking up a grey pony for her riding lesson. She had such a big enthusiastic smile that made me think back to how much fun it was to be a kid with a pony.

Tacking up

Before I arrived I thought I would spend about 1 hour shooting but I found myself still there 2.5 hours later walking around and taking it all in. I’m glad I didn’t read the article because it might have given me preconceived ideas about the Centre Equestre Mont Rouge. Thanks Pascale for a special morning.

A tender moment.