Reverence Among Belgian Horses
In March of 2025, we road tripped from LA to Nebraska to visit Adam’s family. We packed up the van with some studio gear, intending to surprise his parents by taking photos of their senior dog Molly Mae during our visit. Once that mission was thankfully accomplished (she sadly passed a few months later), we were itching to capture more animals. But why stick to domestic pets when you’re in farm country, right?
We asked his dad, a large animal veterinarian of over 40 years, if his clients had any good subjects. “Well, Charlie has Belgian horses,” he said.
“Great! When can we go?” was our response.
What we should have said was, “Great! We’d love to have our minds blown, be brought to tears, and spend several hours chasing the light in a pasture filled with creatures more majestic than we could imagine.”
It turns out that Charlie, an incredibly generous and modest farmer, raises over 30 Belgian horses! As we headed into the pasture, he casually called the horses over as he’s done a million times. For us, however, it was an experience like no other. It’s impossible to describe the feeling we had as dozens of these stunning creatures galloped to greet and surround us, but we can assure you it’s one we’ll never forget.
It’s safe to say we were a bit apprehensive at first. Sure, these horses have adorable manes of naturally crimped hair, looking like an ideal 1980’s Barbie doll accessory, but the fact that they could kill you with one swift kick was hard to ignore.
As people who’ve spent much of our lives on farms, we knew respect for the power of these horses was priority #1. Keeping our gear in tact and getting good portraits was secondary.
However, our anxiety quickly faded as we witnessed how Charlie’s horses were basically like curious, 2,000 lb dogs! It was surreal to turn 360 degrees and continuously be surrounded by their gentle, long faces towering over us. They looked us in the eye, nibble at our coats, and sniffed our gear with noses as big as our faces and soft as feathers.
After several minutes of this magic, Charlie helped get us a bit of space to begin taking photos. It was clear that, like most farmers, Charlie’s not just a caretaker to his animals; he deeply loves them, and they feel the same. It was an honor to witness their relationship and the legacy he’s built.
Now, photographing horses was a ton of fun (smiles never left our faces!), but like all animals, they’re not necessarily easy to photograph.
Aside from the fact that we didn’t have all the gear we would have ideally used and constantly feared dust getting in the lense, the horses didn’t exactly take direction. Sure, we’re used to not being able to tell our subjects, “Find your light," or “Turn two inches to the left,” but at least a dog might follow, “Sit, stay!”
So we did our best to capture the horses as they turned into the shadows, pushed one another out of the way, or playfully yanked our gear out of place (and slobbered all over it).
However, the joy of these quirks is what we also love about photographing animals: It’s unpredictable, challenging, and forces you to follow where the moment and subject leads you…in this case, through piles of manure.
One horse (below with Laura) was a surprisingly cooperative and affectionate subject, remaining close to us throughout our entire visit. We’ve never had a “soul horse,” but Mary certainly earned a piece of our hearts.
In the end, we were nudged outside our comfort zone, learned a lot, and made an incredible memory. We’re so grateful to Charlie for generously gifting us time with his magical horses.
Looking at these images a year later, we feel the same awe and reverence we did that week. We have a feeling it won’t be our last visit with these Belgian beauties.
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