Through the Eyes of an Intern – What a Whirlwind

Wellington, Fla. – June 4, 2015 – At the close of my internship, all I can think of to say is, “what a whirlwind.” Unfortunately, I don’t think that phrase can accurately describe what the three months of the internship have been like. As well as covering high profile shows, clinics, and events that I would otherwise never be able to attend, I also found the time to become a rather successful back-up singer and dancer.

This stems from the fact that I, along with two other girls from Phelps, made up the dynamic trio of the Grand Prix Girls. We competed with our song and dance at American Equestrians Got Talent, which allowed me to perform in the international ring at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival for the finale, where we placed fifth. This is without a doubt the only time I will be allowed to “perform” anything in that ring, which made the experience that much more exciting and memorable.

Though when I started the internship I had a limited knowledge of dressage, my first few days of being “bathed by fire,” as Mason Phelps said, changed that pretty quickly. Starting out covering the Robert Dover Horsemastership clinic helped jumpstart my complete immersion into the land of dressage, and helped me to learn more about the discipline that would consume my brain for the following three months.

The Grand Prix Girls-Caroline Boese, Darie Mlinar and Glynis Williams
The Grand Prix Girls-Caroline Boese, Darie Mlinar and Glynis Williams

Not only did I need to learn about dressage quickly, I needed to also learn how to photograph dressage quickly. This is where the 45-minute sessions at the Dover clinic came in handy the first few days. As my blog details, my lack of photography skills were highlighted when it came time to pick photos for my stories at the end of the day and out of 100 photos I found about 5-10 decent ones.

Thankfully, as the clinic came to an end and I started shooting classes in the international ring, my photography skills gradually improved. The amount of time I spent ringside at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival was highlighted not only by my increasingly red/tan shoulders and back, but also by my improving skills behind the camera.

I enjoyed photographing classes at Global: it felt like a game trying to capture the right moment of each movement in a test. I was also pleased as my photography got better and I only started discarding about half of my photos to find the ones good enough to use in an article.

Of the twelve weeks of the AGDF, the jogs that preceded the shows were one of the more interesting things to photograph. Basically, I would stand with a camera at the end of a long lane and watch some of the best dressage horses in the world, many of whom are also quite high strung, get really excited and try to run over their handlers while being inspected for soundness. Several times I was almost run over myself as I stood with the camera not actually paying attention to what the horse was doing and just focused on trying to get a decent picture.

Patricia Koschel and Leuchfeuer DE

The jogs always proved to be a beast to photograph as well because as you can imagine, getting a nice picture while both the horse and human are running is not an easy task.

Working at Global was wonderful not only thanks to the awesome facility, but also because the media area was located in the VIP tent so we were lucky to get treated to the VIP food. This seriously helped my food budget as well as expanded my culinary horizons.

Overall, this internship has taught me more things than I could have even anticipated. Besides learning the Prix St. Georges test like the back of my hand, I learned skills that I will use for the rest of my life. I am so grateful for Mary Adelaide Brakenridge choosing me to join the dressage team for the 2015 season. She was an amazing teacher and helped me to improve my writing and to develop some skills with a camera. I can’t say thank you enough to Mason Phelps as well, for cultivating all the amazing experiences throughout the season.

This internship has taught me that I want to be in this industry for the rest of my career because when I got up to go to work, I was excited every day. Even when the dressage team was running around busy and crazed, I was having the time of my life and enjoying every minute of it.

No Comments Yet

Comments are closed