There's something about horses that mesmerizes me. The ferocity, the movement, the power... an entire situation of chaos being controlled by a bridle and a saddle.

I recall visiting the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan and seeing that Hayao Mayazaki spent many an hour (day? Week? Month? Years?) creating animations of horses and their movement as he watched it on a screen. This affected me profoundly for my own vision. While the application is different (I'm capturing specific moments through photography instead of trying to capture and animate the intricate movements of horses), I feel that horses represent a bit of a starting place and a centering place for me: Amidst the chaos and the uncontrollable situations of horses and riders jumping, I have to watch them carefully, calm myself down, focus and just shoot... and get it right.