Houghton 2013 - Monty Roberts Tour

Houghton  Hall & Alpaca Centre

The dust settled from set-up at Houghton and the new venue (for us), was sold out! The folks at Houghton made us feel very welcome and certainly scored a 9.5 from me on the filming front too! There is a lot of work going on in this venue right now, as they are focused on a big Alpaca show in the spring. If you've read the Hadlow blog, just go back and have a look at the 'lana' at the top of the blog. Two things will be apparent when you look and compare it to the one above here. This venue looks bright and airy whereas, Hadlow, looks dark and dingy.

This is a better venue for shooting film, and taking pictures. The surface is the lighter colour I prefer, and they have a lot more lights with a better colour temperature (yes, OK, if you don't know what that means come on a course with me!). Not only that, but all the lights were working which is a big benefit. This is where they score highly for me. They had a 'chary picker' and weren't afraid to fixed the one faulty light over the round-pen. That's why I like this venue! I had no dead spots of darkness around at all. The bright surface, gave a better contrast for the pictures, and the footage. The ambient light was higher, as there was a little reflective increase of the surface. This is the problem with Hadlow and any venue with a dark surface. It just eats the light up!

Monty working with a starter. So much easier to get great shots in this sort of venue!

Monty and Kelly had a great demo. The horses were extremely demonstrative, and one was very surprising with a fine display of rodeo quality bucking. This wasn't a remedial starter either. The problem it had was with a wood pallet. It was a dressage horse that the owner had had for four months. So, when it decided that it didn't like the line behind it, exploded in a big style, it caused Monty to change plans. That is something that never happens, normally. Jake, his rider, had to make a run for the round pen door as this horse flew into a rage/panic. The owner was as shocked as the rest of us, but to be honest, she wasn't aware of the history of the horse as she had only had him for four months.

This was also the first venue that I used Monty's Go Pro. There has been a debate in camp about the quality of the footage from the Go Pro, in challenging light conditions. Having seen the previous test footage shot in another country, I agreed. But, having run some tests at this demo, using good lighting from the venue, and changing the positions around to see what the view was like. I think there is a good chance that some of the footage can be used. I wouldn't make it the main camera, it's a wide angle shot, so you never get the detail of Monty's work. But, it would be good for cut away shots. Maybe the next step is to get Monty to wear it for one horse? Stay tuned…..
By the end of the evening all of us were tired. But, as is the way with these folks, the tenacity to get the job done right is always there. This is Oliver (right) and Paul (left). Two of our brilliant helpers who stayed right to the end and beyond. When I say beyond, we had to wait for one of the trucks to return after transporting a horse back home that didn't have transport!

AND, a big thank you from me to all the audience, you raised a further £67 for the Have A Heart Charity effort I'm running.

So the current standing is:
1. Houghton - £87 (although there is an extra £20 from one of the helpers - Julia thanks!), which since it was given at Houghton pushes them into the lead.
2. Hadlow - £76

The helper team at Houghton!