Silver Dancer #14679

The Story

This white horse is a real looker and a true pleasure to see in motion as he seems to float by as he runs past. Like a fairy tale horse, it’s almost as if he fell out of a story to land on Earth simply to show humans how to do things in a heavenly manner. This white Arabian horse is known nationally in Arabian circles as a breeding stallion and his high-end purebred qualities easily shine in his poise, movement, and high athleticism.

Part of his raw beauty is the pale dapple gray coat with a platinum mane and tail…just like a fairy tale horse. Yes, there was something clearly magical about him.

On this day of shooting in a borrowed pasture new to him, he showed all his stallion fire and so-called snot just to make sure everyone knew he was in town! It didn’t take much to get him going back and forth along the fence line in front of the camera with the help of a few people as chasers to make him turn as needed. That added a bit of frustration made him a tad more alert and on point, even with his testosterone already bubbling.

His experienced owner/trainer stayed close to keep him in check as needed, but he behaved very well for a box of live horsey dynamite. The neck stayed in a powerful arch, the ears were pointed with the head up, and he often held his tail up in high flagging glory.

I used an 80-400mm “horse lens” and a camera designed to shoot long, continuous sequences set for about five frames a second. It’s typically used in sports like along a football game sideline. Strong sunlight helped to gain a high shutter speed, important for shooting at 1/1000 of a second to stop almost all motion. It’s more fun if you can get all the muscle detail as they work as well as capture the mane and tail flying and streaming in beautiful ways.

Location: Fannettsburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Picture and story © Andrew Dierks