This lovely stallion is Hermes. Clearly he's not a great fan of Poseidon, God of the Sea. But he did love Achilles enough to follow him to Troy. Follow their hoofprints...

http://horseflyfilms.com/Ofgodsandkings.html

The Exquisite & Elegant FM Gloriaa

We salute the ethereal and beautiful FM Gloriaa, winner of World Champion Silver Mare! Check out the recent film we made of her in Belgium. All hail Gloriaa! :)

World Champion at last!!!

The mighty Emandoria, my favorite mare of ALL TIME, has finally won what is rightfully hers, the World Championship title in Paris. A huge congratulations to Michalow State Stud and to everyone involved with our beloved Emma. Here's a link to her home and history-- the film we made to celebrate Michalow's 60th anniversary this year. We honor her roots and her future. We love you Emandoria and can't wait to see you at home in your pastures with your mother Emanda very soon :)

Best of 2012

So the New Year is almost upon us, and as Sophie and I jet off to the Annual Farm Tours in Scottsdale tomorrow for lots of incredible horses and merriment with friends, I was thinking about all the amazing horse moments we've had this year. Every year. That's what I love about our work-- each day brings something new-- a new challenge, a new breathtaking image to capture.

So, in the spirit of looking back just a teensy bit as we look forward to a fantastically creative 2013, I thought I'd try and put together a Top 5 Horse Moments of 2012. Hmmm... this proves damn near impossible.

Certainly one of the highlights of this (or any year!) was filming with the legendary *Emigrant and our friends at Valley Oak Arabians. This was soooooo worth the wait-- *Emigrant is larger than life. He exudes everything a stallion should be and he just makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up with his mere presence. Thanks big E!

Would it be filming in the Rae-Dawn Canada fog with our wonderful friends Claudinei and Bey Ambition-- under saddle for only the second time-- and loving it!

Or maybe realizing that Rae-Dawn's llama Steve is worth his weight in gold-- if only for comic relief!

Perhaps it would be filming Shael Dream Desert in Belgium. It seemed no matter what situation we put him in, he was just an absolute rock star-- even in a barn filled to the rafters with fog-- he would emerge a beautiful white ghost-- buzz our cameras, play with us, then run off into the fog to do it all over again...

It wasn't a horse moment per se, but rather a moment between gigs in Belgium and Poland. As we explored the canals of Bruges and saw the dog in the window, my heart did sing.

What about Van Gogh? A young, extreme stallion in Belgium so full of himself we just couldn't help but smile and laugh...

Any list would be incomplete with a laundry list of moments in Poland this year. Then again, as I wrote a few posts back, maybe the best horse moments this year were quieter. Less obvious but spectacular nonetheless... I think I would include so many moments in Greece-- searching for the Skyrian horse on the mountains, watching them frolic in the Aegean Sea.

And for the life of me I can't get the image of one little filly just grazing in a field waring her traditional halter out of my head. Hauntingly beautiful and sweet beyond measure, she definitely makes the list.

Scotland too, so many indelible and amazing horse moments captured there this year. I think of Ivan so often. His mane flying, such an incredible introduction to the Skyrian Horse...

So many many others-- too many to name. We are so lucky to do what we do and create magic with such incredible life-changing creatures. Here's to 2013 and many, many more!! Happy New Year everyone! ;) Jen

Sound Mix-- The Movie!

So everyone knows that it takes LOTS and lots (and lots!) of work to make a good film great. Sophie and I pride ourselves on all the tiny little details that may go unnoticed by others but that we put our heart and soul into, and which ultimately make the magic that Horsefly Films is known for.

Case in point was the final Soundmix for  our film Path to Glory which (crazily!) took place a mere 10 days before the scheduled World Premiere in Las Vegas. Our incredible Sound Mixer Kelly Randall really powered through with us every step of the way. We literally had 72 hours to try and mix every second of a 2 hour+ movie to perfection. For the layperson we'll just say this-- that is absolutely an IMPOSSIBLE endeavor. But we Horseflies aren't known for giving up. Come hell or high water --or snow (snowstorm in the middle of it all!) or collapsing air mattresses on the studio floor, we somehow miraculously made it all happen.

So in honor of all the unseen details that go in to everything we create, we thought this episode of Horsefly Films' Into the Suitcase would show you that crazy, sleep-deprived, slaphappy mix to end all mixes. Enjoy!

http://horseflyfilms.com/Intothesuitcase.html

Into the Suitcase

I digress I realize, but digression is one of life's greatest pleasures. Try it sometime... I digress. But it's going to be loads of fun. Promise.

For years now people always say to us, "We want to come with you on your Horsefly adventures! Take us with you in your suitcase!" So now we proudly, nay boldly whisk you into the suitcase with Horsefly Films via the miles and miles (and miles) of behind the scenes footage we've shot on all these said adventures with our handy little ever-present flipcam.

To celebrate our cinematic shenanigans we're launching a brand new peek into that world via something we call, appropriately enough, INTO THE SUITCASE with Horsefly Films. This first trip into the suitcase reveals an Olympic Race that NBC didn't want you to see (and frankly--shockingly-- didn't cover, seeing as it took place in Poland 2012 rather than London). It features many of your favorite people from the world of the Arabian Horse.

So I say unto you-- pack your socks and undies and get ready to wear jeans that could walk away by themselves after 2 weeks of filming horses all day and climb into the suitcase with Horsefly Films!

See the Horsefly Films Olympic Race here!

A Date with a Wonder of the World

So as sad as we were to leave Poland until next year, Sophie and I were incredibly excited to jet off to our next filming adventure in Greece. We rolled off the tarmac in Warsaw under cloudy gray skies and were whisked away a soda and magazine later to touch down in hot sun-drenched Greece. Even before we left the plane the sheer "Greekness" everywhere hit us-- rows of airplanes from Olympic Air, complete with a bastardized Olympic Rings logo (how did they EVER manage that legally?) on their tails, a heat haze shimmering off the dusty nearby hills. Stepping into the Greek air, my lungs heaved with the heat. It was then we realized the word of the day-- every day-- for the next 2 weeks-- would be rivulet. As in try and ignore the rivulet of sweat running down my back and focus on the task at hand... We were only staying in Athens one night before flying off to the small little-known island of Skyros at 7AM but Sophie and I made the most of it. We checked in (great hotel right at the airport) and then got down to studying the subway map. Sophie and I have collectively and individually travelled all over the world and we both agree that there's just nothing like taking mass transit in a city to make you feel a part of a place. It gives you the panache and vernacular of a local. From "Gophertown", the underground world of stores selling everything from cigars to wigs to bras to tomatoes in Warsaw's central subway station, to the efficient cool of minding the Gap with the rest of the Brits on London's Underground-- nothing beats heading down into the bowels of a city and emerging one train ride later like curious mole people... So we studied our map, loaded up our backpacks with gear and went off to the Acropolis. To say that hiking up the hills of the Acropolis and passing through the temple gates to gaze upon the Parthenon is a life-transforming experience, well, that's just an understatement of god-knows-what magnitude. We filmed and photographed for a couple hours, breathed in the wonder, walked on ancient stones of the cradle of Western Civilization. All in our creative quest for our new documentary film on an ancient rare breed of horse. The Skyrian Horse. The Horse of the Parthenon. Of course most of the Parthenon friezes are long gone-- worn away by time and war or taken by Lord Elgin a few centuries ago to reside in that most wonderful of human cultural repositories, the British Museum. But the well-worn fragments that remain are awe-inspiring. And as we climbed back down in the dusk through the olive trees and returned to the subway tunnels, we lamented that the friezes weren't here to film or photograph. Or see. And then-- directly across from us on the subway platform-- the Parthenon friezes. Okay okay, so they were a copy but a damn good one. And in the dim oily light of the tunnel Sophie and I high-fived each other and thanked our lucky stars and our wisdom that we always explore by subway. Tomorrow we would be off to Skyros in search of horses...