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The morning of July 25th dawned crisp, fair, and
bright! The Kansas weather had agreed to cooperate,
as had the horses by traveling to Atchison in the
dark pre-dawn hours without incident. Mr.
Sparagowski arrived first on the scene to scout out
the location and take some test shots, as the horses
were prepared.
The first horse brought out was Hanaa Al Badia
(*Al Adeed Al Shaqab x Shadenn), a three year old
grey mare. Hanaa was selected for the shoot because
she had already been trained by Mr. Botha for the
US Egyptian Event, so handler and horse were well
acquainted. Additionally, even though she was a ‘hot’
horse to handle, she was attentive and responsive
under pressure. Hanaa adapted to the scene on the
east lawn quickly and put on a dynamic show.
Mr. Sparagowski recounted:
“I really liked this picture
(right)
, the mare’s expression, and the movement to it.
It’s a vertical look. She is animated, looking right at
me. The way she looked blended in with the setting. If
you had a horse blowing and snorting right there, it just
wouldn’t fit. The most defining part of the architecture
of the building, the larger arched windows, captured
the feel of the monastery with this one picture.”
After Hanaa had settled in, Mr. Sparagowski decided
it was time to try some shots with the monks. Since
the posed shots involved people with little to no
prior experience with horses, Mr. Sparagowski and
Mr. Botha spent some time instructing the monks
on what to do if the situation went awry.
When asked to expand on the shoot from a photographer’s perspective, Mr. Sparagowski commented:
“You run into scenarios that
you don’t have on the farm. The most obvious
one is that you are generally in a non captive
area, so there are no fences containing the horse.
The first concern is that the horse doesn’t get
away. The lawn on the east side of the abbey
ends abruptly with a 100 foot plummet down
to the Missouri River, and there is no knowing
where and how far a loose horse will go. The
other consideration is that when you are in a
public place like the monastery with the college
nearby, you have members of the public and
non-horse people curiously watching. We have
to keep control so no one gets hurt. And posing
the horse with non-horsemen is something I
would not have done without David there.
You have four monks present who have no
experience handling a difficult horse situation.
It’s all up to the handler. Additionally, we had
to be conservative and not push the horse too
hard with the props.”
Left: Candid picture of David Botha
giving the monks a short instructional
TUTTO ARABI 321