Here’s a horse who is clearly bombproof in all traffic – as he turned not a hair while a mighty Emirates jet cruised just overhead.
Jay Patterson of JPhotography was in the right place at the right time to capture this perfect picture – of a horse who had arrived at his new home Hack Hall, under the Newcastle International Airport flight path not 48 hours beforehand.
“If that isn’t bombproof, I don’t know what is!” Jay told H&H.
Helen Spry, who is pictured with her new horse Woody, told H&H she bought the seven-year-old from a friend, dealer Jack-Thomas Watson.
“I’ve had a few horses from him, and if he says one’s bombproof, I know it is,” she said. “I’d moved him to the yard on the Friday, and a girl on the yard had organised the photographer to come on Sunday.
“I thought ‘New horse, let’s get some pictures’. I hadn’t had a saddle fitted yet so I said I wouldn’t ride him but asked if we could get some nice shots.”
Jay snapped some good pictures, then one of the other liveries said the Emirates plane was due to pass overhead any minute, from the runway just beyond the yard.
“I thought ‘Oh my god, I don’t know how this will go, but in for a penny, in for a pound!’” Helen said. “And he just stood there; the plane came over and he didn’t put a foot wrong.”
Jay, an equine and canine photographer, said Helen suggested the under-plane photo.
“I asked what the horse was like with planes and she said ‘I don’t know, I’ve only had him 48 hours’!” Jay said. “But the horse stood like an absolute rock, he was totally relaxed. I got home and looked at the photos and thought ‘Wow’. That’s not something you see every day!”
Helen added that she was glad the picture features the Emirates aircraft rather than some of the smaller planes that also fly overhead.
“An Easyjet or Jet2holidays one wouldn’t quite have the same effect; it had to be the Emirates, we’re going for style!” she said. “And Woody just stood there with his ears pricked.”
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