An Equine Photoshoot at Yeats Feed Merchants, Dallance Farm with Sarah, Paul, Harper & Norman

An Equine Photoshoot at Yeats Feed Merchants, Dallance Farm with Sarah, Paul, Harper & Norman

At the end of April, I made a short trip to my local feed merchants for an equine photoshoot in Hertfordshire - not a sentence I get to say every day! Photographing Paul and Sarah was a little bit like photographing our local celebrities. They are the owners of Yeats feed merchants based in Waltham Abbey, serving our close-knit local equestrian and agricultural community with animal feeds, hay, straw and bedding, as well as useful bits and pieces in their shop in Galley Hill and via local deliveries.

As someone who has always trusted Yeats for my own horses, capturing this equine lifestyle photoshoot in Essex/Hertfordshire felt incredibly special.

The backstory

Last year whilst exhibiting at Hertfordshire County Show, Sarah came to visit me at my trade stand with a friend. They both ended up treating themselves to a photoshoot with their own horses. Sarah and her mare, Harper's story is one formed sadly from heartbreak. Sarah's horse at the time of purchasing herself a photoshoot was a beautiful bay mare called Fifi. Sarah owned Fi for a number of years and had been everywhere, having done everything together. Sadly, before we had a chance to carry out their photoshoot, Sarah lost Fi suddenly - I think it's fair to say it shook all of us due to how unexpectedly it happened. If you look closely enough, every heartbreak in life is followed by some sort of dawn. Along came Miss Harper...

Animals that come after the ones before not only usually have very large boots to fill, but they often shoulder the responsibility of mending a heart they didn't break. Harper came along at a shocking and sad time for Sarah but with her she brought hope, happiness and a renewed urge to grab hold of life and live it. Originally coming from Ireland (a lot of the good ones do, don't they?) Harper found Sarah a month after Fi's passing. She is young, turning 8 now and although extremely willing, at the time she arrived with Sarah, Harper was very green. We knew she'd need a good amount of time to find her hooves and settle into her new life and we postponed our photoshoot til this spring.

The Shoot Day at Dallance Farm, Near Epping Forest

Paul and Sarah own and run Yeats Feed Merchants on Galley Hill, Waltham Abbey in Hertfordshire. They've single handedly witnessed the current generation of local horse owners grow up (or old!) serving many of us through each chapter of our horsey lives. Paul has worked at Dallance Farm since he was just 16 years old, and his days are normally spent doing deliveries to local farms and stable yards, and driving tractors farming the acres they tend to. For their equine lifestyle photoshoot, we were lucky enough to be able to use Dallance Farm as the location for the shoot. Sarah stables Harper locally so she was able to load up and make the trip across to Dallance Farm for us to host our shoot here. We had the pick of the beautiful fields, mature tree lines and the beautiful view from the hill across the historic Epping Forest.

Paul joined Sarah and her flea-bitten grey Irish Sport Horse mare, Harper with their beautiful 8 year old Beagle, Norman. We were able to recreate some similar images Sarah and Paul had taken 10 years prior with their past horse and dog, and create lots of lovely new moments celebrating how far Sarah and Harper have come together already. She was a complete angel, didn't put a single hoof out of line for a moment the entire morning and waited so patiently tied to the trailer whilst we had outfit changes and did a section especially just for Norman.

What to wear for an equine photoshoot for couples

One of the things Sarah and Paul did exceptionally well was choosing outfits that felt authentic to their lifestyle, practical for the day we had and perfect for an equine photoshoot.Sarah opted for:

• Denim breeches (a brilliant, versatile choice)
• Riding boots
• A long-sleeved shirt layered with a gilet, later switching to a t-shirt as the day warmed up

This allowed her to be warm enough on what began as a chilly misty morning, sit in long grass, move comfortably up and down the hilly fields as we changed location and safely ride Harper during part of the shoot.

Paul’s outfit complemented hers perfectly:

• Beige chinos
• Brown boots
• A shirt layered with a Schoffel gilet

For partners who may not consider themselves “horsey,” this is an ideal approach. Smart, understated yet still reflective of the agricultural lifestyle that Sarah and Paul share.

Why This Shoot Matters

This session wasn’t just about beautiful photographs. It was about legacy and documenting a way of life. For livelihoods and families rooted in agriculture or for horse owners who see their animals as their family, these portraits become part of a visual history. They are something to revisit and treasure years from now knowing that we preserve the horses who shape us. Whether at a private yard or a working farm, an equine lifestyle photoshoot captures far more than a moment. It preserves a lifestyle that is seemingly disappearing by the decade.