I’m a leading equine photographer. So you’d expect me to own a horse. But I don’t. Nope. I own lorryloads of horses.

There’s a lot of hay. And a lot of shoveling. On top of that, my house reverberates to the noisy chaos of a husband, six kids and nine dogs.

It’s this effervescent rush of life that fuels my work. It feeds my observation, offers visual options and gives me plenty of scope for practice.

Since being a kid in my dad’s dark room, I’ve taken photos. I shot my kids (not like that) and moved on to weddings, parties and headshots. But horses were my first love. I learned not just to take great shots, but to think my way around them. To consider light, detail, interpretation, ways of thinking, and when to stop for lunch. I surrounded myself with like-minded people.

Today, I’m mainly surrounded by horses. I take the ordinary and make it extraordinary. But there’s nothing ordinary about horses.

Since saving my paper-round money for my first pony, I’ve loved their muscled flanks,  a twitchy nose, a poked-out tongue or a quizzical tilt of the head. I love the mucky barn work. Their breath on an autumn morning. The lack of exhaust fumes.

I knows and feel your love.