First Draft
What we still need from you.
Everything on the site right now is real — the results come from your own posts, the horses from your FEI record. These are the gaps only you can fill. Nothing here is urgent, and nothing needs to be perfect.
Video.
This is the single biggest thing missing. Jumping is a sport you have to watch — one clear round would do more for the site than any photograph on it.
A round, for the top of the home page
- 15–30 seconds. A jump-off, or just the last three fences.
- Landscape if you have it — it sits across the full width. Portrait works too, we'll crop.
- Phone footage is completely fine. It plays muted and loops, so wind noise and commentary don't matter.
- Grass de Mars at the three-star would be the obvious one, if it exists.
Anything from the barn
- Flatwork, hacking, morning feed, tacking up — the unglamorous stuff.
- A few seconds of each mare's face is worth a lot on the horses page.
- Clips you've already posted to stories are ideal. Send the originals if you still have them.
Photographs.
We have seven good action shots. What's missing is everything that isn't a jump.
What would change the site most
- One portrait of each mare — head and shoulders, standing still. Right now each horse card uses the photo from her Instagram post, which isn't the same thing.
- One good portrait of you that isn't in a helmet. The about page is carrying a lot on one black-and-white shot.
- The barn and the yard. Stables, arena, the view. Nothing on the site currently shows where any of this happens.
- Something quiet — a hand on a neck, a bridle on a hook, early morning. These carry the "feel" of a stable far better than another jump.
Highest resolution you have. Straight off the camera roll is fine.
Photographer permissions
The action shots are credited to Andrew Ryback, Nicole Schultz and Ashley Neuhof. Equestrian photographers usually sell limited-use licences, and a website is normally separate from social media. Could you confirm you're covered for web use — and tell us who took the Wellington palm-tree shot, which has no watermark?
Words.
We've deliberately not invented a philosophy for you. Everywhere the site would normally have "our approach" copy, it's either a fact or a gap — because putting words in your mouth on your own website is the fastest way to make it feel like everyone else's.
A few sentences, in your voice
- Your story. How you started, who taught you, what you're aiming at over the next two seasons. Three or four sentences.
- A line about each mare. One sentence each — how she goes, what she's like in the barn, what makes her different.
- Why "3 Flamingos"? There's a name story here and we don't know it. It would be a lovely thing to have on the about page.
- One sentence we can quote. Something you'd actually say about riding. It goes big, in the middle of the home page.
A voice note is genuinely fine — often better. We'll shape it and send it back for your approval before anything goes live.
Things to confirm.
Small factual checks. Quick yes/no answers are perfect.
- The horse photos. Each card uses the image from that horse's own Instagram post — please check every one actually shows the right mare.
- The string. We have Grass de Mars, Ditarca OH Z, Geavanta and BEC Lenka. Is that right, and is anyone missing?
- "Mares, every one of them." The FEI record confirms three mares; we've assumed BEC Lenka too. True?
- Breeding, height and age for each mare — none of that is public.
- Savvy. Her post is currently in the Instagram feed on the home page, as published. If you'd rather she had a proper "in memory" place on the horses page instead, say the word.
- Email address. The site says [email protected] as a placeholder — that mailbox doesn't exist yet.
- Where you'd like enquiries to go, and roughly how quickly you reply, so the contact page tells the truth.
Send what you have, when you have it.
The site works as it stands. Everything above makes it better — and it can all arrive in pieces rather than in one go.