3 Model Horse Photography Unwritten Rules!? Should we break them?
November 23, 2025
Hi everyone! For this week’s topic I decided to take a look at the unwritten rules of model horse photography, and answer the big question: “Should we break these photography rules?” Let’s find out!
No white horses on a white backdrop: This rule specifically refers to gray “white” model horses photographed on a snowy “white” backdrop. When I first heard this rule I was like “I'm never gonna break this rule, it makes total sense! The horse is just going to blend into the backdrop and catastrophe strikes…” Well, no. In fact, placing a gray model horse on to a backdrop of the same color can create lovely definition and highlight your horse. To achieve this you need to be very careful with your camera settings and it’s definitely not something I would recommend to beginner model horse photographers. However you can have a lot of fun with this one and in my opinion this rule is always fun to break! Here is a picture that I took where the horse is very well defined, and there are soft highlights and shadows.
2. Do not photograph the back of your horse: This one is up to preference and style I think. It's when you take your shot from the back of the horse towards its head. Some people actually take pictures like that to achieve a certain look. However, it is a difficult angle with no 100% guarantee of success and that's probably the reason people avoid this type of pictures.
What I like about this angle and color palette is the fact that they have the same tones; the bricks are very graphical, very straight, and Lerroy, my custom resin, is smooth and in focus.
3. No rider horse disagreement! So many people dislike it when model horses and their riders don't face the same way, in fact, they can't even place the riders on the horses. I do understand this but don't follow it. I have some lovely pictures where the rider faces the opposite direction but that's exactly what I like about the picture, it's an intentional style choice that can completely take your picture from being basic to being story filled.
I hope you enjoyed reading about these model horse unwritten rules! To answer the question about should we break them: It depends. Beginners will struggle with these tricky style choices while more advanced photographers will enjoy playing around with these options. However it never hurts to try, and who knows, you might just end up with a perfect picture!
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