Such a friendly horse at horse at Steanbridge Farm

I had a meeting this morning with someone who might be a suitable graphic designer for the neighbourhood plan. B. turned out to be a keen photographer of birds too so it was interesting to discuss and see the long lenses he uses, which gave me food for thought. Oh dear.

When I left his house which is located at the edge of Stroud at the beginning of the S;ad valley I took the opportunity to drive further up to Slad village. I was tempted to pop into the Woolpack but it was looking rather busy so I turned off the road through the village to follow the valley to towards its head taking me through the area called Steanbridge. There are several farms and old mills located beside or on the Slad Brook which looked tempting places to stop and enjoy the fresh air and quiet.

But I pressed on to the end of the road, where it becomes an old track again, and then after a few minutes gazing across the fields and back down the valley towards Stroud. Finally, I ventured back to Steanbridge farm, which now seems to have become a training centre for race horses. There were various facilities for exercising horses as well as fields with series of jumps like the ones found at racecourses. There were also a lot of horses grazing in different fields, some alone, and some in small groups .

I parked in the entrance to a field and walked back to photograph a horse silhouetted against the blue sky. But as I only had my fixed lens I needed to keep changing my location as the horses walked about. After a few minutes standing by the fence, one horse slowly and gingerly approached me, looking straight at me and constantly having to shake its head to try to get rid of the many flies which were assaulting its head.

Eventually it let me touch and hold its head and stood completely still beside me for many minutes, as we seemed to make a deep contact which was delightful. I have put a few more pictures of that horse on this Flickr gallery, including some even closer shots of its eye, whilst I stood only inches from without it flinching.

I talked to it, and it just didn't move away, and when I finally had to leave it stayed in the same position and watched me go to my car and then drive off. It was very moving! You can see all of this in the other pictures. I shall return, as I told the horse, with some carrots!