Julia Lawrence with Sander | Lifestyle Horse & Rider Session

Pickering, Ontario

I absolutely adore this session of Julia. I’ve known her for a couple years while I helped out on the OCEA circuit doing in-gate for west and central zone. Always the happiest and perkiest person in the morning and I knew it would be a great day in-gating if Julia was there helping me. So it was no surprise how happy I was when I found out she had won the free mini session I had donated to the University of Guelph Vet students to help fund their trip to Africa.

Unfortunately luck was not on our side for the first two dates we had picked. Both days had decided they wanted to rain on us which was disappointing but I guess there was a reasoning behind the madness. The third session date we had chosen turned out to be really something special so all the unfortunate rebooking definitely worked in our favour.

I had been to Pickering Horse Centre many times for OCEA shows and to just go to watch friends show there as well during the summer. So I knew the property pretty well when arriving. Julia’s biggest worry was finding spots to shoot in but I need not worry about that. You can make just about anywhere work with a little bit of angling and perfect lighting. We started by their outdoor arenas, which are lined by beautiful mature trees. It was such a perfect spot to start and Sander was such a cutie pie!

We ended off the night in the massive backfield on property. The sun was setting just behind the tree line, giving this beautiful glow to the images. It was also the perfect spot to capture the beautiful purple pastel skies we were graced with that night. Never would I have imaged such a gorgeous sunset to finish off the night!