Mission:  The Australian Stock Horse Society (ASHS) has over 9,000 members, 190,000 horses registered, and 60 branches across Australia.  It also has one branch in the United States and would like to see more.  The two largest equine sports in Australia are polocrosse and campdrafting.  The first campdrafting event in the United States was organized in Kiowa, Colorado more than 8,000 miles away and the ASHS needed to cover the event for their members.
Goal:  Get to Colorado and demonstrate the versatility and athleticism of the Australian Stock Horse in competition.  Capture photos, videos, produce a blog, before and after podcast episodes, AND write an article for the November/December issue of the Australian Stock Horse Journal so members in Australia could track the event.
Challenges:  The event was held over four days in rural Kiowa, Colorado.  There were no hotels within 40 miles, internet service was limited to the local library, and a thunderstorm was hammering the area the first two days. 
Accomplishments:  I camped on-site in a tent that was destroyed the first night.  Finding shelter in a 4-H building to sleep, I then captured many behind-the-scenes photos and interviews of the horses and participants.  While the volunteer library was closed most of the time over the weekend event, I convinced them to leave their wi-fi on so I could update the blog and social media from their back porch.
As luck would have it, two Australians visiting Colorado heard of the event, found some Australian Stock Horses to ride, and came to compete.  I captured the initial run of the first campdraft on US soil on VIDEO, edited and uploaded it to the blog and social media sites within an hour.  In Australia with the time difference, horse owners woke up that morning to see an Australian riding an Australian Stock win the first division of the competition.
The ASHS messaged me with a request to produce the article and photos within 48 hours so they could add it to the current issue of their magazine.  The print deadline was looming and with a layout change, they needed the content right away.  I filed my photos and article ahead of schedule and they were published in the Sep/Oct issue.
4-Page Photo and Article Australian Stock Horse Journal
Exclusive Video - First Run of the Campdraft
Photos

Behind-the-scenes a farrier insures the horses are ready to go.

Capturing the action shots.

Australians call cattle "beasts".

Out of the chute.

B&W artistic shots.

Pete Comisky working the beasts.

Australian Clinician Steven Hart working with the press.

Snapshot of Simple Blog for the Event
Back to Top