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.
