Back in December 2023, I had the great pleasure of photographing the amazing Lydia Heywood, event rider and all-round equestrian role-model with young event rider Rupert Thyde, in the grounds of Mausel House in Somerset. Read below to learn more about Lydia’s incredible achievements and images from this fun wintery shoot!
Lydia Heywood and Cool Ridings
Lydia Heywood is a pretty impressive young lady. Not only is she an accomplished event rider, but she also founded Cool Ridings, an organisation that aims to celebrate and support diversity in equestrian sport. 2017 Lydia started mentoring at Ebony Horse Club and in 2021 began a role as Diversity, Equality and Inclusion consultant at my alma mater, the Royal Agricultural University.
And this isn’t an exhaustive list of her achievements. In 2017 she began representing Jamacia in Eventing, works with several major brands to promote diversity in the equestrian industry and remains an incredibly humble and kind human being. I will probably have to update this blog within a week to update you all with her next amazing achievement!
As anyone in the equestrian industry knows, it is hard enough to break through without a financial leg-up and knowing the right people to get you to the next level. When you add in being part of an underrepresented group where you face discrimination and struggle to see other riders just like you to look up to, it can be intimidating and seemingly impossible without the right support to get you there.
Lydia’s equestrian journey began at age 11 at her local riding school, supported and cheered on by her late mother Claire, who worked tirelessly to help her daughter achieve her dreams. Lydia has first-hand experience of how important racial diversity is for riders and wanted to forge a path for other riders to follow in her footsteps. And thus Cool Ridings was born.
Cool Ridings now has a growing number of Members, fostering a sense of community, confidence and belonging, creating opportunities in and out of the saddle alongside organising several rider training days and events.
I first heard about Lydia Heywood from a dear client of mine, Bel who spoke of how inspirational and amazing she was and how I just had to meet her. I got the chance to meet Lydia in person when I exhibited at Badminton Horse Trials but it wasn’t until December 2023 we managed to arrange a shoot date.
Lydia wanted to share the shoot with Cool Ridings Member Rupert Hyde, a 16-year-old event rider who is quickly making his mark on the industry and actively pursuing his dreams of becoming a top-level event rider. We used his home base in Somerset, set next to the grounds of Maunsel House for a wintery photoshoot with his 3 horses and Lydia’s horse Flynn who is stabled there.
The Shoot
Despite a rather grey start to the day, with the sun choosing to stay in bed behind the clouds, we had a ton of great locations to work from, including tree-lined driveways, beautiful old oak trees and the backdrop of mistletoe-laden trees surrounding the sprawling estate grounds.
We started with bay gelding Pocket, who Rupert hopes to move up to BE100 or Novice level in 2024, using the quirky carved mushroom as a great prop for some shots before switching it up with some shots of Lydia and Flynn. Lydia had been competing with Flynn at 100cm but unfortunately, an injury saw him pressing pause on his eventing, hence why he was enjoying the good life with Rupert’s horses. He was full of great presence and looked fantastic despite being on his holidays, and was the perfect model for the shoot.
Also on the shoot was Rupert’s latest partnership, Vinnie, who he hopes to take to 2* level and rising 4-year-old Annie, a very pretty chestnut mare by eventing stallion Party Trick, who they had just got under saddle for the first time the very same week I visited them for their shoot. Rupert’s Mum Katie is very excited about her future and thinks she has all the makings to be something very special.
The other red-heads on the shoot were fun fox-red labrador brothers, Reggie and Ronnie who we just about managed to get semi-stationary shots of using a tennis ball as bribery!
I was very jealous of Lydia’s stunning wardrobe, including beautiful HiHo Silver jewellery, a collection of Fairfax & Favor shoes and general effortlessly cool style. As equestrians, we often don’t get a chance to dress up and show off our non-yard clothes, and an equine portrait photoshoot is the perfect excuse!
Over the next few hours, we created several gorgeous portraits of Lydia and Rupert, both individual and fun group shots, even convincing Mum Katie to hop into a few shots.
This is what Lydia had to say about her experience:
“Joss blew me away with the care and attention given prior to shoot day.
Whilst organising what would be a day to remember, we all felt absolutely confident with Joss’s guidance and professionalism. I commend the thought that Joss put into backdrops, outfits, the horse’s turnout and more, it all enabled us to have an enormous array of beautiful images to treasure forever.
I’ve done a shoot or 2 in my time but it would be fair to say that this is unknown territory for 16 year old Rupert. The warm support Joss gave us from behind the camera was incredible and allowed everyone to relax into each scene and feel very self assured in a situation that can feel quite an alien!
When I invited Rupert to participate the goal was to build life skills that would be useful in his career going forward- mission accomplished thanks to Joss! When we met up to view the images captured with coffee and snacks at The Manor House Joss set up a big screen to present the library which totally exceeded my expectations.
Now I have precious memories, some of which are mounted in beautiful frames, I can’t thank Joss enough and highly recommend her services.”
