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hello,
does anyone know if horses (and cows) are annoyed by flash? I have a shoot this week on a farm, and may use a horse in the pic with a model in saddle.

any animal experts offer some advise regarding flash, and general horse "expression"

no horsing around...

My daughter's horse is fine with flash but flash could certainly spook a horse if it is unfamiliar with it, and of a skittish disposition. If you don't get any better advice here is what I suggest. I wouldn't expose a horse to flash for the first time with a model on the horse. If the horse gets spooked and panics it could be ugly. I would try it with the horse on a lead rope held by someone familiar with, and trusted by, the horse. I wouldn't point the flash directly at the horse first up. I'd fire off the unit pointing about 90 degrees from the head. If it is comfortable with that then narrow the angle and fire again and repeat until you are pointing at the horse. Only if the horse is remaining comfortable at that point would I put someone on the horse and trial the flash again. The first person on the horse should be an experienced rider familiar with the horse. If that goes OK then put your model on. Maybe give the horse a treat between the early flashes...piece of bread, chunk of apple something like that, and at the end of the shoot.

From what I've seen flash doesn't seem to bother cows.

Good luck.

thanks simon, good advise. the horse is the model's own, so she will know well, and will use your safer approach also.

perhaps I'll use reflectors moreso...

Oz_Beachside wrote:hello,
does anyone know if horses (and cows) are annoyed by flash? I have a shoot this week on a farm, and may use a horse in the pic with a model in saddle.

any animal experts offer some advise regarding flash, and general horse "expression"

no horsing around...

I wouldnt be using a flash with the model on straight up. Try to find out from the owner what the temperament of the horse is. I would think the cows would be less of an issue.

Too be honest I wouldnt use a flash with a model on the horse unless she was a reasonable rider and could hang on if it suddenly turned into a buckout.

Oz_Beachside wrote:thanks simon, good advise. the horse is the model's own, so she will know well, and will use your safer approach also.

perhaps I'll use reflectors moreso...

Oh I would be far more worried about using reflectors than a flash around horses.. they tend not to like strange objects like that... of course it will depend on the horse (I grew up riding Arabs and they tend not to like anything really lol)... the owner of the horse should have an idea as to whether or not her mount will tolerate certain things like the flash etc...

P.S... We have racehorses and I use the flash around them all the time with hardly any reaction... but then again I guess they might have gotten used to that kinda thing at the track...

I have photographed a friend's horses a few times and during the day most didn't seem to mind the flash. (A couple got a bit nervous)

At night however - pretty much all were seriously not happy campers.

HTH

dviv wrote:I have photographed a friend's horses a few times and during the day most didn't seem to mind the flash. (A couple got a bit nervous)

At night however - pretty much all were seriously not happy campers.

HTH

Horses are very fickle creatures, and something which will not upset one horse may make another go ballistic. For example, a couple of years ago the family was at a weekend horse event. The horses are kept overnight in little makeshift yards made from starpoles and electrified tape. As evening came on the automatic sprinklers from an adjacent oval started up all at once. It spooked one horse which reared up and landed on top off one of the starpoles which must of pierced its heart because it died on the spot. Non of the other horses did more than give a little start.

In regards to reflectors, I have used reflectors around one horse. At first it was a little nervous but after 10 mins or so it was fine.

I'm no equine psychologist but I'd I always suggest introducing unfamiliar sensory stimuli in a graduated fashion

i'd think it depends on the horse....ive only taken one pic of a horse, shot it at 1/4 power, off shoe, right into its face, but it had those flappy things over its eyes. It didn't mind it at all.

horses don't like ufos. so you should be safe...

...seriously though... ask the owner if the horse is "bomb-proof", if it is, should have no problems at all... if not... have a quick trial with it before doing anything serious

I took 2 photos near a friends horse, an then it wouldnt get near me. It would walk away everytime I went near the fence and it remembered me next time I visited.