Buckshot didn’t want to stay in the background; he wanted to be the star.
Amanda and Phil had made a simple request of photographer Kristen Zaffiro: they wanted their horses to appear in the photos from their maternity shoot. It wasn’t a whim. To them, their horses are part of the family, and the arrival of their baby was a celebration for them, too. At first, the horses were facing away from the camera, but Buckshot turned around, walked over to the couple, and stood right beside them, as if he knew exactly where he belonged in the photo.
Amid the laughter, Kristen told him: “At least you could smile”. And the horse simply did. He started making faces and gestures that looked like laughter. According to the photographer herself, when she laughed, he did too, and the more she laughed, the more he put on a show. He even squeezed between the couple and sniffed the camera, as if checking that everything was going well.
Amanda and Phil loved all the photos. Kristen, a professional photographer for nearly 20 years, wrote that it was the best maternity shoot ever, and confessed that she laughed even harder when she saw the photos than she had during the shoot. What these images captured wasn’t just a funny horse: they show the joy this family feels as they await their baby and the love they have for their horses.