Britain gallery: Horses

I'm allergic to horses, or rather to the hay in their stables, to which I get an immediate and

severe reaction. Or I used to, but some years ago I was contracted by an American

producer to shoot the pilot of a series of programmes about horses, to be shot worldwide if

the pilot was successful. This first film was based on the National Horse Fair at Golega in

Portugal, to which Lusitano horses and their riders from all over Europe would attend. For four

days it rained practically non-stop, which landed me with some technical problems, especially

at night, but the footage I got was, if anything, enhanced by the atmosphere, with everyone

at the Fair pulling together to make the best of it. Unfortunately, the series did not come

off, as neither I nor the producers saw the finished episode - the director, a strange fellow by

turns affable and violently un-affable, scarpered one night from the edit suite with all the

rushes and was never seen again. The producers later told me that it had looked like 'a

million bucks had been spent on the material', so I was particularly miffed at never having

seen any of it. Anyway, I had had no reaction at all to the stables at Golega for some

reason, which was just as well or it would have made my work impossible.

I'm allergic to horses, or rather to the hay in their stables, to which I get an immediate and severe

reaction. Or I used to, but some years ago I was contracted by an American producer to shoot

the pilot of a series of programmes about horses, to be shot worldwide if the pilot was successful.

This first film was based on the National Horse Fair at Golega in Portugal, to which Lusitano horses

and their riders from all over Europe would attend. For four days it rained practically non-stop,

which landed me with some technical problems, especially at night, but the footage I got was, if

anything, enhanced by the atmosphere, with everyone at the Fair pulling together to make the

best of it. Unfortunately, the series did not come off, as neither I nor the producers saw the

finished episode - the director, a strange fellow by turns affable and violently un-affable, scarpered

one night from the edit suite with all the rushes and was never seen again. The producers later

told me that it had looked like 'a million bucks had been spent on the material', so I was particularly

miffed at never having seen any of it. Anyway, I had had no reaction at all to the stables at

Golega for some reason, which was just as well or it would have made my work impossible.

Equine parade