Chic and Kilara (photo essay)

My best selling picture on fotolia is the one of my horses Kilara and Chic.To date, this photo has been bought 132 times and I have sold nine large licences for calendars and cups and even for a kids' horse magazine that produced heart-shaped stickers from it.

Kilara, my brood mare, is a courageous, dominant and fearless  horse who prefers to go out and lead the way through the countryside. Unfortunately, she had an injury to a hoof so that she cannot be used for riding any more. Chic, my dressage riding horse, a gelding, dotes on her but is quite the opposite in character: a fearful, overly sensitive but very obedient horse who prefers to stay indoors and do complicated dressage lessons in a riding hall for fear of the unknown outdoors. They are unusally close, in fact, we have never seen any friendship quite like that before - they complement each other like an old couple.When a doctor visits Kilara, Chic is so worried that he suffers from diarrhoea.When he has this condition, I am sure to find some lameness or other problem in Kilara. He himself is never sick.

So how could I get my horses to pose for such a picture?    ... Of course they would not pose. The behaviour documented in this photo series can only be observed, if you know your horses very well and sometimes patiently wait for a long time with the camera ready in hand, just like wildlife photography. This is the story of this picture:

                                             

                                      An afternoon on the paddock. Every day they go out to the paddock together.

                                      "you smell really good!"

                                                  after some nibbling...

                                        they get down to business.

                                     And now for dinner....   she tries to tear off some leaves ....

he is a cavalier and gets some

                                          But she is distracted and curious: what is happening next door?

                                                     Look, what I have brought!

                                          Now she wants some, too.

                                      Suddenly they notice me .....

                                      And Voilà, here it is !

                                       more here ....