One of the great things about doing horse photography in Chattanooga, TN is the chance to meet so many great horses and their people! Not only that, but so many of those people and horses end up becoming close friends. Such is the case with Draak and his person, Jenny. Jenny contacted me about photographing Draak with her daughter.
Draak, Friesian x Paint Horse
Running a horse photography business in the Chattanooga, TN area offers such amazing opportunities to get to know the variety of equines in the area, along with the equestrians that love them. Draak and Jenny are great examples of this.
Draak is a 15-year-old Friesian x Paint cross gelding. His sire was a Friesian, Thijs van de Lange Akker, from the Netherlands, and his dam was a beautiful paint horse. Draak only has one tiny spot of white on his entire body and it’s about the size of a fingernail. He has an adorable bent ear as a result of upsetting a pasture mate when he was a yearling.
Jenny loves the special physical characteristics of Draak that help to make him who he is and wanted to feature them in his photographs.
Talk about a Small World…
So, here’s a short story about how it’s becoming a small world…
Shortly after we photographed Draak, I posted the above image of Draak on the Ride the Sky Facebook page.
To Jenny’s knowledge, Draak had no siblings. However, after posting the image of him, another Ride the Sky Facebook fan recognized the name Draak and thought he might be the sibling of her own horse. Turns out that he was!
And, not only that, there were more siblings out there as well. How cool is that? You can read the post at the link above and even see a picture of Draak’s sibling, Shaman, which his owner, Amber was so kind to share.
Betsy Bird of Ride the Sky Equine Photography spends her days doing insane things to make horses look at her. Clearly, she’s desperate for attention. When she’s not celebrating the stories of the amazing horses in her clients’ lives, she invests time and energy into perfecting her equine photography skills and growing her business, hanging with her favorite rescue dog, Nitro, and planning her next big adventure. She also tries to spend some time educating and entertaining her fans and potential clients by blogging and posting on social media about whatever catches her fancy at the moment.
Betsy is a Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) with the organization Professional Photographers of America (PPA). The CPP designation is held by fewer than 2,000 photographers nationwide and is a hallmark of consistency, technical skill, artistry, and professionalism. Ride the Sky specializes in on-location photography for equines. Ride the Sky also has the option of bringing the studio to the stable. Based in Chattanooga, TN, Ride the Sky Equine Photography works on location in Tennessee, North Georgia, and beyond.