Elderly lady wearing a fur coat by Fred van Schaagen

The sweet head and friendly look of this Przewalski horse mare attracts attention. Due to her advanced age, her appearance has changed, from a powerful all-rounder, a primal horse, she has become a conservative calm elderly lady. The beautiful shaggy coat with its lovely long hair has protected her from the elements all winter. She is struggling this lady, being old is not easy. Her hooves are scarred from walking and her age. In the background two more Przewalski horses, not even the youngest. Next to the mare a powerful tree, a hornbeam (Carpinus Betulus). It is her favourite tree which she can rub and lean against to sleep.

The background so soft and beautiful in colour in this spring, together with the low-hanging branches in the foreground, give a nice frame to the image. The situation touched me particularly, these sweet horses that helped to put together a herd that saved the breed (From 1992, more than eighty Przewalski horses moved from the Netherlands to Mongolia. There, hundreds of these beautiful animals now gallop across the rugged steppe, with these ladies among their ancestors). She is struggling and will not live long, her descendants owe much to her. I cherish the feeling of her presence, of being privileged to photograph her.

For me, photographing animals is capturing the feeling, what I experience with the animal, in a photograph.