Stacey Thompson of Guelph, Ont., closes out the year as the December photographer in the 2020 Heart of Harness Racing Calendar with her photo of Qaligirl Blue Chip getting a warm bath from Heather Young at First Line Training Centre after a morning of jogging.
It was a chilly Saturday in January when Stacey headed to First Line with the intent of capturing the hard work and dedication that goes into training horses during the cold Canadian winter months.
“It was mid-January, we had a stretch of really cold days, and I wanted to try to get some pictures of the horses after they had trained and were all steamy,” Stacey explained. “Heather asked me to come out, her Dad (Robert Young) was going to work all the horses and it was otherwise a pretty quiet and relaxed Saturday. I bundled up and got some pictures on the track before heading back into the barn for bath time. I want to say it was luck but it was more like trial and error. I probably took hundreds of shots while I adjusted and played with different settings to really capture the steam.
“Heather is one of the hardest working people I know and it was a fun morning getting some pictures to capture the moments. The steam was what made the pictures so great but spending time with Heather and her Dad was really nice too.”
Stacey has been around horses her entire life, but it was only in the last decade that she started learning about Standardbreds from her time working as a Registered Vet Technician (RVT) at McKee-Pownall Equine Services in Campbellville.
“I actually spent about 10 years working with thoroughbreds and was involved in horse racing that way. I had spent some of that time working with Standardbred mares and foals but wasn’t exposed to Standardbred racing at all until I started working at McKee-Pownall in 2010 and was helping Dr. McKee at the Mohawk clinic.”
Thompson is 100 percent self-taught when it comes to photography, and after being gifted a camera by a friend, she’s had the opportunity to learn different techniques and tricks.
“A good friend gave me a camera as a gift early in 2018 and I was hooked. I had an interest in it, I just never had the right camera to learn with. I do lots of reading on how the manual settings work and then lots of practicing.”
Stacey is hoping to make it back out to the barn or to the paddock at Mohawk for some new photos in the future since she didn’t have the chance this year due to the pandemic and restrictions in place.
“I really enjoy capturing candid moments and there is no better place to do that than in a barn with dedicated people working hard to keep their horses healthy and happy. Happy horses make good pictures!”
Along with taking photos of horses, which are her life passion, Stacey’s main photography subject is Freestyle Motocross. You can check out more of Stacey’s horse and motocross photos on her Instagram page.