Today, as most other days, I have sat and thought about my experiences of the last year. I have pondered again about how I might record them. With the first copy of Tamsin Pickeral’s book in hand, which I have trudged the globe for many months to track the horses which were needed to illustrate it, I think that it’s time to stop thinking about it and to action plan. How many times do you write something on your list of things ‘to do’ before you actually do it? Is it the things you don’t write down that actually get done first? Mmm. The ones on the list are far more likely to be procrastinated over and then later transferred to another list. Either that task is going to take too long, or it requires some assistance, or something you don’t have right there (like your computer, or credit card, or the telephone number of the person you need to call). Either way,it is left for another day.

What I want to  do, so very much, is to write stories. To write the behind-the-scenes-making-of-the-book that has now been printed. Whilst I was travelling there just wasn’t time, or resources, to complete a daily journal, to write the bits that counted, to record it in any other way than with the photographs I was taking. But, that’s enough! Each image in the book has a story behind it. A story so different to the last and the next, and a story that I believe is worthy of telling. I did write a few blogs along the way, and just studying them I can see how vast the gaps are in between. And now, as I go back through the images and try to edit more, post more images, build hype about the book, send pictures to people, I realise that I need to just start to write this all down now. The order, it might seem, is irrelevant, but what my ‘plan of action’ is, is to actually stop procrastinating and start logging.

SO, day by day, I’m going to post, post about the book, about the pictures. I will write about each image individually, and post more pictures in between. I promise I will do this now, because despite all these experiences being so vivid in my mind, I am acutely aware how rapidly memories fade. Names of horses, names of owners, the whens, hows and wherefores.

The book is in chapters and I see no better way of logging this data than in the same order, page, by page, by page. I will start tomorrow, but leave you with this image – this is the mud-spattered back of the guy who, trying to impress me and win my heart, decided he would wade across the water to the horses and encourage them toward me. Did he win my heart, or didn’t he?

Lennie leering at the ladies

I breathe a huge sigh of relief as I wrap up from yesterday’s unexpected shoot. The Belgian who I thought was Belgian, that I had photographed last August, turned out to be Dutch and so I was sent into a frenzy and a mad-dash-panic in search of another subject.  We came up trumps and less than 48 hours later I was rolling around in the shrubs with Extreme of Cavallini, aka Lennie – a beautiful, energetic, sheeny, shiny show jumper.

I thank my lucky stars that the publishers are so wonderfully patient, that Tamsin is so wonderfully knowledgeable and able to dig out such beauties at the eleventh hour, and also that the sun shone for me whilst I raced through the blooming British countryside to Surrey where Lennie lives in the lap of luxury.  It felt good to be back out there with camera and horse…dare I say it, but I think I’m ready for more!

Don’t hate me for my silence since my last post – it’s been a wild and extensive journey and I’m still going.  Having arrived back in the UK after 3 months on the road, I had a 3 week turnaround until it was time to leave again.  3 weeks of recuperation, washing, administration, shooting and preparation for the penultimate trip – Europe.

An intense period of planning and preparation was for some reason the most intense to date.  Perhaps the highest concentration of breeds in the smallest amount of time in countries where I cannot speak the languages.  Stumbling blocks aside, I am now halfway through the trip, with 14 breeds left to shoot and almost as many days in which to complete my mission; my challenge to the finishing post is uphill all the way with the final 3 breeds being in Russia and visas to sort and language barriers to quiver at.  Focus, determination and a little bit of faith and I’ll get there.

The last 10 days have taken me from the UK through France (top to bottom with my father and Tamsin (author of the book) at the helm), to the Italian Dolomites into Austria and lastly into Germany, where I am now.

A few pictures from this recent fast-paced adventure are below, and individual stories surrounding each (for rest assured, there are many!) will follow…perhaps in the book I am planning on writing about all this – I even have a name, but ‘mum’ is most certainly the word on that…

Dad helps me prepare.

Big Boulonnais bottoms.

Jaffa – Meren stallion, Pyrennees.

A Noriker races around the track at La Villa, Alta Badia, Dolomites.

Local parade of Haflingers and Norikers. No yodeling though..

Maremmana stallion “Indomito” I discovered luckily in the Dolomites.

Lipizzaner stallion in Austria.

 

Kazakh eagle hunter in Bayan Olgii, Mongolia, where population is about 90% Kazakh.

Hi to all, from a precarious spot by the boarding gate at Abu Dhabi airport…about to fly to LHR….all other passengers aboard and I’m causing havoc as usual maximising on computer time and squeezing in a few last moments of editing before I fly.  My mission to complete and submit all images (shot so far) to publishers by the time I returned is all but complete… Just Mr Eagle Hunter and the Kazakh horse to go. 

 

Just before my kit failed.

Thank goodness for back up cameras! Today my Nikon D700 decided it was all too much…. JUST as the herdsmen appeared on the horizon with a huge head of furry Mongolian horses. Gut wrenching.

Having switched my 70-200 lens onto my other body (D300), I realised quickly that it was the lens at fault… A frozen iris perhaps?  I need to research, because later on it seemed absolutely fine. Dammit. In its defense,  it had, after all, been out in -20 degrees Celcius for about 5 hours, performing exceedingly well.

I cannot stress the relief I felt at having additional lenses and kit in the dry bags. Despite extra weight and worry of carrying such expensive gear, I am now positive it was all worthwhile.

All data of wild Takhi dutifully recorded, downloaded, backed up. A massive phew.

Finally, an excuse not to move. 33 hours aboard a big, long, old and incredible train. It’s 5am 26th January 2011, Beijing and we’re lugging hefty suitcases to a bus stop to get to Central Station. Apparently the taxis might not have collected us from the hostel, so the advice was to ‘bus’!  Considering it was 5am and we’d gone to bed at 1am, we did remarkably well to get to the station for a grand total of 20p each.

Once aboard and in the right cabin (hard sleeper – not THAT hard but definitely not first class), we established who was on top bunk and who got to go bottom, and we were away. The train left 7.47am and was due to arrive in Ulaanbaatar at lunchtime on the 27th. 

Once I’d scouted out my new ‘home’ and run the length of the train a couple of times ogling at all the other compartments and feeling very “James Bond” about the whole affair, I settled down with my book, but for the life of me couldn’t stay awake more than 10 minutes.  I have now discovered my most favoured method of travel. Plus, no power sockets = no editing.  Frustrating at first, but perhaps a blessing in disguise for I was long overdue some serious downtime.  Downtime and still in transit…suits me!

The Trans-Mongolian express at Beijing, ready for departure.

All aboard!

Bye-bye Beijing.

I managed to tear myself away from my bunk for lunch.

Robin and Tamsin get ready to accelerate down the hill.

The wonderful wall.

We took some time out in Beijing to explore. What a remarkable experience…and an insight into how cold it might be in Mongolia.  As if Shanghai wasn’t cold enough, we have now dipped seriously below zero and the temperature is going to plummet once we head north.