My name is Sarah Caldwell and I am an equestrian photographer.

I am 22yrs old and grew up in a relatively horsey family so it was inevitable I would eventually get a pony of my own.

I got my first pony (Mr Freebee) when I was 11yrs old, he had been my older sisters before he became mine. I mainly just did pony club with him as I was never confident enough to give anything else a go!

After a year on Freebee, I moved on to another pony- a rising 6yr old Stationbred pony who came to us as 'Chantelle', but I changed her name to Missy and competed her as 'Lil Miss Perfect'. A few months after getting Missy, we noticed she suddenly had a ginormous udder and her stomach had started moving! So the vet came out and confirmed she was indeed in-foal and 4 weeks later we had an extra pony (Buzz) in our paddocks.

When Buzz was weaned, I started back riding Missy and we started competing- a first for both of us. Our first few competitions were a disaster- running out of dressage arenas, diving off jumps and bolting around cross country courses (usually back to the float if we were heading toward home..) I eventually learnt to ride her into the jumps and after almost a season of being eliminated we started to get clears and even a few placings. We even managed a reserve champion on the flat at our last ribbon day together.

In 2007, at the age of 14, I had well and truly outgrown Missy and it was time for me to move on to a hack. After what seemed like forever, trying out many unsuitable horses, I found Digger. Digger was a relatively green rising 7yr old TB, who on paper was definitely not what I was looking for! I decided to have a look at him anyway and fell in love. After a few events together at Pre-Training (the highest either of us had evented before I got him) we did our first training. He took me around like an old pro. Over the next few years we had a few ups and downs and at the beginning of 2011 he was turned out with an injury.

I gave up riding for a while and did a makeup artistry course, but still went to all the competitions with my sister and friends, taking an old family camera along. After nearly a year of not riding, I started to miss it so I decided to buy a young horse to bring on. A day after deciding I would get another, I found 'Vovo' and two days later we were bringing him home. Vovo was 5yrs old and an ex-race horse who had been over in Hong Kong not long before I got him. He settled into sport horse life pretty well and two months after I got him he was entered into his first little ODE's. Vovo did really well- you couldn't tell it was his first (non-racing) outing. However, as soon as I walked the SJ course (only intro level) the nerves came flooding back to me and while Vovo jumped everything (a few greeny issues meant I had to circle a couple of times and we ended up eliminated with no refusals) I just didn't find myself enjoying it as much as I remembered with Digger. 

It was then that I decided to take the plunge into becoming an equestrian photographer and I haven't looked back since! 

I still have both Vovo and Digger, who enjoy their very laid back lifestyle of sporadic riding and semi-retirement (for Digger).

I will try and keep this page up to date with events I attend- starting with Woodhill Sands SJ this weekend! You can find some of my work at http://sarahcaldwell.co.nz/ or on Facebook 'Sarah Caldwell Photography'