We Ride Sport and Trail Magazine August 2016 | Page 15

No pressure, but for BreyerFest, I needed an act for each of my three horses. Each act had to be unique and incorporate either a falcon, a raven, a hawk, an owl, or some combination. Did you know that birds and horses find each other’s company as welcome as a skunk at a family picnic? But that was the challenge—to get both predator and prey species to embrace what we were trying to do with them and be happy about it.

Laurie believed in my expertise, and I believed in hers, and suddenly, amid the practice sessions from late winter into summer, we had some cool things happening. Ever have an owl fly under the belly of your horse with you on it, standing atop a two tiered pedestal? I hadn’t either. Oliver the barn owl, and Valiant the Morgan stallion had built a bridge between species!

Next came another photoshoot, as we needed promotional pictures with each bird and horse. I called my favorite BFF horse photographer, Jennifer Wenzel of Rein Photography. Other than the fact that Machu the Harris’s Hawk decided to NOT fly out of his comfy tree perch he had nestled into during the shoot, it all went well that day. Oh, and yes, the wild red-tailed hawks, kestrels and vultures that we don’t see and/or pay attention to showed up for the killer bird convention at the top of my hill too (They eat each other, btw). This new world I was in had a lot of killers in it! It wasn’t until the photoshoot that I actually realized we had successfully united all of the moving parts—the birds, the horses, the rider, the falconer, as well as putting together a show that would wow all those in attendance.

Our giveaway poster for the event owes its impact to the great photographer Jennifer Wenzel who photographed us that day.

killers in it! It wasn’t until the photoshoot that I actually realized we had successfully united all of the moving parts—the birds, the horses, the rider, the falconer, as well as putting together a show that would wow all those in attendance.

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