Wednesday, January 9. 2019 was the ‘preview’ of the horses at Helgstrand Dressage. This is the creme de la creme of dressage horses. They have many of the qualities of haute couture fashion garments: high-quality, expensive, sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable sewers. These horses are high quality, trained with extreme attention to detail and ridden by highly capable riders. And yes, they are expensive. Here are some photos from the evening.
Andreas Helgstrand introduced the horses and told us where they came from and how long he had them. He said that every horse he would takes on must have three good gaits. If the trot was spectacular but the walk was not good that horse would not be brought to Helgstrand Dressage.
One of my favorites was a smaller horse who was described at “green for his age”. He was seven and a nice size .I thought he was a horse that lots of riders could have a good time with. Here are two photos of him.
For those of you who are not familiar with horses the foam on his mouth is because he is working the bit in his mouth and this is seen as a good thing as it indicates he is not tight and resistant.
The horses came in one at a time and went through their paces as we were told where they were in their training. The horses all had stunning movement as you can see in this photo.
The six year old chestnut horse above reminded me a bit of my horse Biasini. This horse has a very interesting white blaze on his face.
The parade of beautiful and talented horses continued and the sun began to set. Stunning colors but difficult to take photos of the horses with the fading light as I am just an amateur photographer.
This is my last photo. All these photos were taken with a Canon EOS Rebel 3Ti and a 55-250 mm lens at 1/400 shutter speed. ISO on auto till the light faded. Then 1660 for the photo above and 6400 for my last photo seen below. All photos edited in Adobe Lightroom Classic.
Once the light was gone I decided it was time to stop taking photos but there were many more horses to be seen. All these horses are for sale…if you have the pockets for beautiful and talented Haute Couture Horses!
Fantastic article with beautiful pictures, love to see the pictures of running horse, felt as visited the place.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for this comment Subbashini. I’m glad you enjoyed the photos.
LikeLike
Oh those are really beautiful horses. Thank you for explaining about the foam in the mouth.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are welcome Emma. Thank you for commenting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gorgeous photos!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Sue!
LikeLike
One of these days I’m going to have to make the trip down to Florida if for no reason other than to enjoy the show haha
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well there is plenty of “show:” to be seen here and I bet you could find some adriatic inspiration as well. 😀
LikeLike
Hello! Thank you for another wonderful post and really beautiful photos. I too like small, compact, horses xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for taking the time to comment. I think the big horses are fine for professionals but for myself as an amateur I’m happier with a more compact model!🙂
LikeLike
❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fun to browse, but I don’t think my pockets are nearly deep enough!
Such magnificent horses and great captures!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much for this comment. They are magnificent and it is fun just to ‘window shop’
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautiful photos! I think you do a WONDERFUL job as an amateur photographer. That’s a really nice camera you have and I love the sunset photos. Magical! I need to win the lottery to afford these gorgeous horses. I’m so thankful I can see what goes on in the dressage world through your posts! Thank you! ❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Diana! They are wonderful subjects to photograph.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Dream Big, Dream Often.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for this reblog Danny.
LikeLike
I am now wondering how large one”s pocket must be to buy one of these horses. Your pictures are perfect. They are not amateurish at all. Thanks for sharing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
These horses are all 6 figures in US dollars. Thank you for your positive comment about my photos.
LikeLike
Lovely photos, Anne. Particularly the last one..
LikeLike
Lovely! I need deeper pockets 😂😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! Yes. Me too.
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing – great photos.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you James. It really is like watching latest from atop fashion house.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautiful 😍
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautiful captures!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Irene!
LikeLiked by 1 person
When you say the one horse was smaller, how small, as a rider of a small horse (she’s 15.1) I’m always interested to know what size other people consider small for Dressage Tks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This horse was probably 16.1 or 16.2 he was also lighter in his frame than the others. One 4 year old was at least 17hh so could finish at 18hh and was much bigger boned. My own horse is 16.1 and that is a size I like.
LikeLike
Tks for the reply
LikeLiked by 1 person