I carry a bag of "toys" with me to photo shoots. I'm frequently battling the "not enough people to help" scenario when I'm at farms, so sometimes handling a number of horses isn't feasible, though as mentioned, another horse is always great bait, especially for a stallion.
The first thing I turn to is my mirror. I use a small, easily to handle, bought at the thrift store mirror about 2' x 2'. Most horses will perk up at the sight of themselves -- though I'm sure they don't have a sense of "self", to them it's just another horse. Some horses can be quite frightened of the mirror though, so I always warn the handler of this fact.
The next most popular toy in my bag of tricks is "Pete the Horse". Pete is a stuffed horse who whinnies when you push his tummy. He also says "Hi, I'm Pete the Horse, let's have some fun". Strange though -- none of the horses photographed has yet asked him for a date. I do, however, have quite a few clients' dogs who find him and several of my other toys quite irresistable. We've had to rescue him from under more than one trailer.
I also raid the after Halloween sales at Wal-Mart and buy all the left over witches' brooms for 50 cents a piece. These are short plastic sticks with glittery tinsel at the end. The sticks bend easily, thus the need to keep a large supply on hand! Great attention getters. I also have a rainbow feather duster that works sometimes too.
I have found that most horses respond to strange smells. I did have some REALLY stinky perfume, but that stuff even smelled too bad for me and I'd always end up with some on me
. It got the deep six after a while! Good attention getters include minty toothpaste rubbed on your fingers and musk-like perfumes. A real good au natural scent can be found on your mares or geldings if you know what I mean. Your handler has to have a strong stomach for that one, but it DOES work. I'm also going to try giving animal urine (found in hunting stores) a go too, and of course would LOVE to find some skunk scent without the skunk. Have used small dogs for bait -- well, not literally
, but horses will sometimes perk up to a puppy or small dog held up to them.
Other than that, I have some pet squeaky toys, keys (those REALLY work for zoo animals, by the way), a plastic bag on the end of a stick or whip, crinkly things and last but not least a handful of feed, especially leafy alfalfa is usually good for several shots.
The trick is to have a variety of items. Many horses will "turn off" on toys pretty quickly. It helps to have a horse that is naturally alert and bright anyway -- some horses just will never give you a "look". Some horses tend to die on you early on in the photo shoot, too, especially if it's hot outside. Once they do that, you're done -- no amount of stimulation will get them "up" again. Other horses will stay perky for longer periods of time -- totally depends on the individual. Learn to shoot fast anyway. Shoot everytime the horse's ears are up and he has a bright look on his face and don't worry so much about where his feet are. It's nice to get those beautifully squared up, head up, show stance photos, but if you look in the magazines, some of the most striking photos are those with a little more creative body language.
This is a photo of a friend's broodmare. She is an attractive mare, but standup, show type pictures of her were not in order. She's shaped like a broodmare! This photo was snapped when one of her pasture buddies whinnied and she turned her head to answer. It ended up being one of the loveliest, most feminine pictures of her taken that day.
Robin C