Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Wild Mongolian Horses in Alberta?



When I first started work on the Equine Heritage Exhibit - I had a mandate to locate – photograph and document all the different breeds of horses that make up the equine population in Alberta. I was given 2 years in which to complete this project
The initial list included 40 different breeds, however I photographed 43 in the first year and the list just keeps on growing. I can’t take credit for locating all these horses I had lots of help from people within the horse industry. What would typically happen whilst on a shoot they would suggest people they knew who specialized in a certain breed and owned either a stallion and a few mares or in some cases large herds. Some of these suggestions were of breeds that were not even on my list, which made the whole project very exciting. As I really don’t know exactly how many breeds are represented here in Alberta.
Last week I went out to photograph Zebras at Calgary zoo - although it was a bit of a stretch, I know they are not horses but they certainly are equines. Plus it was an excuse to get up close and personal with two very cute female zebras and capture unique images of them in the snow - after all most Zebras should never see snow.
Today I discovered there is a small herd of wild Mongolian horses in Southern Alberta. In all the years I have been an equine photographer I have never seen a Mongolian horse so I am very excited at the prospect of meeting them, and truly fascinated to find out why they are here. Hopefully I can arrange a photo shoot soon – I would like to shoot them in a winter setting.
I wonder how many different breeds of horses there are in the World?
If anyone knows of an official list or unofficial for that matter I would love to see it.
I think I will make it my personal goal to photograph as many of them as humanly possible.

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