This particular type of therapy is all about your emotions, thoughts and feelings in the moment and beyond.
Photography is a creative art form of using a camera to capture and record images of just about anything you can think of. There are many types of photography including portraiture, macro, landscape, weddings and nature, just to name a few.
Photography can be also used as therapy to help with mental health difficulties. In order to use photography as therapy you do not need to be a professional photographer. All your images are for your personal use only.
Improve your photography and help mental health difficulties!
Discover the therapeutic power of equine photography!
This course will delve into the profound benefits of combining equine activities with photography to enhance mental well-being.
Guided by a self-help workbook, participants will explore techniques to use horses as photographic subjects, fostering mindfulness, emotional expression, and stress relief.
Through hands-on activities like photographing horses in their natural habitat and learning about the psychology behind equine-assisted therapy, participants will gain a deeper understanding of mental health and personal growth.
Self Help Equine Photography Workbook for Mental Health Therapy
Advertisement
Plenty of Exercises!
Some of the skills and qualities that therapeutic equine photography can help with are:
Improving relationships with friends and family. Get everyone together and show them your photographs :)
Becoming more aware of your surroundings.
Strengthening and improving your confidence, self-esteem and well-being.
Bringing public attention to poor horse welfare.
Useful as a distraction from pain either physical or mental.
Taking you away from all of your troubles in the present.
Requiring total concentration.
Exploring your memories.
Creating structure and order.
Encouraging you to look at the world from a different perspective.
Giving another form of expression. Maybe verbalisation is difficult for you or you don’t find writing thoughts down easy.
Overcoming social isolation.
Reducing the level of the stress hormone, Cortisol.
Improving Teamwork.
If your camera makes a sound when you press the shutter, switch this off in the camera settings to avoid spooking your subject.
Don’t chase your subjects around. Even if you’re not in the field and are in an adjoining one, it is still possible to worry or hassle an animal unnecessarily in order to obtain a photograph. If they move away from you, do not follow them. Leave them be.
By harnessing the power of impactful photography, utilising effective communication
strategies, and aligning yourself with established organisations, you can play a significant
role in bringing public attention to poor horse welfare and advocating for positive change.
This element is therapeutic in the sense that you will develop an overwhelming sense of
achievement, and joy at being able to help those who suffer, and you will definitely be
learning a new skill!
To avoid the need to get up close and personal, use a zoom lens for your camera.
Use the composition rule of thirds in photography to make the subject really stand out and make your images look professional. See image below of the donkey (my image) showing a grid. The eye of the donkey is shown to be placed perfectly!
At some point you may wish to edit your images. No photographer, amateur or professional, can make a completely perfect image straight out of the camera. Love it or hate it, editing is a must.
Photography is a versatile medium that allows you to capture and express your inner world and outer experiences. You can use it to:
By harnessing the power of photography, you can unlock your creativity, connect with the world around you, and share your unique perspective with others.
Later on, have a look back at the photographs you made and reflect on the time you spent with those horses.
What emotions does it invoke?
Equine Photography is A Equine Assisted Learning Activity
“My Dancing Horse” isn’t just a story about an animal. It’s a deeply moving tale of connection. It showcases the immense power a single creature has to touch the lives...
Pickles for Christmas is an enjoyable story for young readers to follow. This book features lots of gorgeous illustrations which compliment the story well. Children...
I’ve been slowly making changes to the Guiding Horses website lately. I’ve combined all informational pages into one download. It can either be read on the...
As you make more photographs, the better you will become. Practice makes perfect! It’s inevitable that you will make some pretty awful images to begin with IF you have never used a camera before.
They could be out of focus, maybe you missed your subject completely, have poor composition, be too dark, too light, etc.
Don't worry too much! Pick up your camera and try again.
Here is a list of other activities you can do after you’ve completed your therapy session!
More Activities are listed in the Self Help Equine Photography Course Workbook - https://amzn.to/3AXPCEF
Check out these professional equine photographers for ideas for composition, techniques, angles and effects.
Matthew Seed - https://horse-photographer.co.uk/
Sue Westwood-Ruttledge - https://www.horsephotographeruk.co.uk/
Mark Beaumont - https://markbeaumont.co.uk/
Comments
DerdriuMarrinerMay 12, 2025
The above sources list bolting tendencies as a disadvantage of horses over donkeys.
Might bolting possibilities mitigate with intensive service and therapy training and work or might they be near-improbably but slightly ultimately possible?
tinacollinsDec 13, 2024
DerdriuMarrinerDec 12, 2024
Your answer three boxes down that "Cats and horses, yes! Also dogs, too. Both will ride on the horse's back" intrigues me.
Book, internet and magazine images and my first neighbor's horse Bullseye here serve as examples known to me of feline sentients atop equine-sentient backs, but not of canine sentients.
How would puppy and grown-up dogs stay on horse backs? Would they just sit like on a floor or would they gently dig a claw somewhere into the back skin as something like a steadying attachment?
tinacollinsDec 7, 2024
DerdriuMarrinerDec 6, 2024
Your answer is most elucidatingly helpful!
Does that rule apply to any subject or might only certain subjects -- such as animate versus inanimate -- benefit?
tinacollinsDec 5, 2024
tinacollinsDec 5, 2024
DerdriuMarrinerDec 4, 2024
Improving teamwork always aids everybody and everything. Horses ascertain what they ask of us and what we ask of them.
And they cooperate with photo opps by never a "bad hair" day.
One discerns the above truth in the charming image, on the front cover of your product line How to photograph horses and their humans, of the beautifully coiffed and groomed horse making eye contact with us, correct?
DerdriuMarrinerDec 3, 2024
Is it not known the mutual benefits of equine- and feline-sentient interactions? Famous racehorses with their feline companions on their backs number among images beloved to some Unitedstatesians!
DerdriuMarrinerDec 2, 2024
The second paragraph to the seventh subheading, Make Use of Camera Accessories and Add Ons, advises us that "Use the composition rule of thirds in photography to make the subject really stand out and make your images look professional."
What is the "rule of thirds"?