Alana shared her highly entertaining first photo shoot experience with y’all in a recent blog. My first photo shoot at Horse and Rider was far from that outrageous — I think it was a fairly tame breed show, if I remember correctly. I’ve been a part of some interesting moments since then, not to mention our most recent photo shoot this week, where I had to stip down to my skivvies in the middle of a boarding-barn pasture for a quick costume change. (Alana ensured me that no one could see me…)

My most hair-pulling experience photo-shoot experiences so far have been begrudgingly assuming the role of “designated horse-ear-getter-upper.” To put it gently, I absolutely STINK at this job. It’s probably because I always come unprepared for the task and am left to beg for the horse’s attention with something as banal and uninteresting as a handful of dirt or a jacket. It’s probably also because I don’t really enjoy being the only person on site making an absolute idiot of myself in front of a tough crowd up jaded horses and industry pros. The picture is from a shoot with Clinton Anderson, who kept requesting that I yell louder, run faster, do cartwheels, stand on my head, etc. I think at a certain point, this became more for his entertainment than anything.

Today I’ve been working on a feature about equine photography, and would like to include some tips and tricks for getting a horse’s ears up. What are y’alls secrets? Because mine obviously aren’t working! (Please include your name and state.)