Close to Ossiach, Austria

The Austrian goat, is a cute story that took place while on an equine photography tour through Germany, Austria and Italy. It was an early wake up call for our group to be ready to go before sunrise. We had a half hour drive up into the mountains before arriving at our destination. I have to say that the drive up was beautiful on small mountain roads with dense forests on either side. It was truly something else.

The Story

We started this morning session super early. After a super late night of traveling to get to the hotel we stayed in, I think we all dropped dead in our beds in preparation for the stupid early alarms we all had set. Me being me, I was up early and ready to go before most. It was a very quiet, calm morning as we loaded up into the van with all our luggage and headed to the session.

We headed up the winding, twisting mountain road. Most of us excitedly anticipating what this next session would bring. While still super dark you could see the dense forest on either side of the road, giving us zero clues of what the landscape was going to look like when we got to our location. All we knew is that we were heading to a massive stud for Noriker horses. Once we arrived I doubt any of use knew it would be such a picture perfect landscape.

We arrived to magical golden morning light and very dense fog. It was an extremely mystical vibe that was being created between the mountain peaks, the light and the fog. As a photographer this is honestly what you dream of and to have experienced it first hand, it was jaw dropping.

We were photographing one of my favourite draught horse breeds, the Noriker. We started in a massive field with a herd of young stallions. As they began trotting up the hill to give us a show, we were throughly surprised to find them escorted by a billy goat. We were told after seeing him that he lives with the stallions and you could truly see he was part of their herd dynamic.

For the next hour we got to watch him interact with all the horses. We watched him run up in front of the herd to lead the stallions and enjoyed as he playfully interacted with them. He was extremely affectionate, nuzzling up with a few when he could and enjoying their company while he did goat things. I’ve never seen such an adorable dynamic and I felt so lucky to capture these once in a lifetime images.