Our daughter has a business giving pony rides to children in all its forms – birthday parties, fairs, working with children with learning difficulties, teaching children to ride and look after ponies and the occasional media invitation i.e. Big Brother and pantomimes. The ponies are Shetland ponies and they are so hardy. My photo does not do them justice and the weather did not help. They were muddy and shaggy with their winter coat. Their fields were very slippery!
I came home cold and wet and marvelled at how our daughter, her staff and the ponies survived the cold winter weather. I have sent her 2 hot water bottles, some more cups for hot drinks as the girls were frozen (not the ponies)!
The photo is no better than a snap but I thought I would end up on my bottom if I ventured into the fields, it started to rain and I did not want to get the camera wet and the girls wanted to feed and prepare the ponies for bed and get home to warm up. Be prepared for all eventualities next time or choose a better time, are my learning this time.
Edited image. I am not able to do selective darkening yet but I shall research it and see what I can learn. It does look much better just with the crop and editing the original image again.
Trudie Callan 
February 26, 2015 at 12:20 pm
I like the horse/human interest story here. You took the shot that told a story – good job!
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February 26, 2015 at 1:06 pm
The look on your daughter’s face says it all! The horses, although a bit muddy, are still pretty.
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February 26, 2015 at 1:29 pm
What child doesn’t love riding a pony at the fair! You can see the love of her ponies in her smile.
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February 26, 2015 at 2:16 pm
Lovely story and a girl full of heart! hopefully you can take more of these beautiful little horses in another theme sometime but I think its a wonderful photo.
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February 26, 2015 at 2:24 pm
Thank you for your kind comments.
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March 1, 2015 at 1:58 pm
Trudie, Take a look at cropping the photo into a square – using her hands as the bottom and the horses ears as the sides – then you can darken the top to draw the viewer’s eye to her face (as it will be the brightest spot.) and you have a very compelling image showing her love of the horses.
Its a lovely shot.
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March 1, 2015 at 2:32 pm
Thanks Sue. I shall try it and post the result.
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March 1, 2015 at 4:16 pm
The horses look like they are having a conversation with your daughter. I like it!
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March 1, 2015 at 10:02 pm
Posted the revised image. Hope you like, Sue.
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March 10, 2015 at 1:46 pm
You can see how loving they are towards each other!
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