Sarah Lane

I began Lane Equine Photography based upon a lifetime of equine experience. I had endured all of the highs and heartbreaks that the industry has to offer. I feel like my experience has allowed me a lot of opportunity and understanding to catch some of the most raw and authentic shots.

My mother was riding endurance horses on an Arabian horse farm about thirty years ago. Before I was born, she brought two of those Arabians down to Florida. Beautifully bred, fairly untamed. I grew up with those two mares. I didn’t have the trained horse, I didn’t have a horse trailer that worked, nice tack, couldn’t afford riding lessons, and had the Arabians that no one I knew had a taste for. I simply enjoyed them. At eight years old, one of the mares kicked me in the face/head and shattered my jaw. If you see photos of me now, a crooked smile is my signature feature. I was fortunate to recover and continue my journey. I eventually lessoned, showed very lightly, and then started riding any horse that I could get my hands on. I got close to horses in any capacity that I could, rode the neighbor’s ponies and horses. And finally, got on one of my mom’s un-broke Arabians. I had some serious falls along the way and eventually had reconstruction done to save my jaw function.

I needed a job around horses that was safer, on the ground. I don’t know that it really ended up being any safer at all, but I began managing a 70 horse Arabian and Saddlebred breeding facility out of high school. These were the most beautiful saddle seat horses that I had ever seen, a new world for me full of big trotters and personalities and talent, and I fell in love with it. I handled stallions during live breedings, medicated horses, prepped horses for sale and show, hauled mares and foals to the clinic, took care of the emergencies, hauled stallions for collections, cleaned a lot of stalls, and met a lot of new fuzzy foal faces. I began working for the farm owner’s trainer simultaneously and began traveling to horse shows as a groom. We went across the country and I hauled one of our farm stallions. I worked up to the U.S National level and handled some of the top Arabian and half-Arabian horses in the country. We crowned many national champions. It was really hard work but the experience of a lifetime.

I went on to a smaller private breeding facility and enjoyed my time there very much. With very similar duties. I was still near the Arabian show scene, and began shooting for National Horseman Magazine. One of my images was even featured on one of their digital covers. Over the years, I had my own personal horses as well that gave me experience in colic, severed tendons, broken legs, and a broken heart. I have no desires of owning a horse after the times that I did have, but they were all special in their individual ways. One was a partially blinded colt that I met as a yearling with West Nile. It was one of the most gut wrenching events I have ever witnessed. I was up night and day trying to save him from something he shouldn’t have survived, but he made it. And came home with me. There’s a photo of him tagged below here of when he was in his accident as a foal before I knew him. His chest had been impaled by a t-post and he almost lost his little eye. He had a will to live and enjoy his life more than any horse or human I have ever met, and gave me a lot of inspiration.

Over all of the years, what I loved most was foaling, and raising young horses. The raw bond that I could build with them all as individuals was really incomparable. I started photography by taking sale photos of foals. When I got a few compliments, my confidence really boosted and I started getting creative where I could. It developed gradually over the years into what it has become now. The experience was built on a lot of intense experiences, naivety and failure, and development of creative freedom and personal style. I departed from my job in the equine industry and started seeking something that offered more security for the long term. I landed, strangely enough, in private aviation. I worked a front desk at an airport, networked with pilots coming through the area, and found my real dream job with a private jet charter and fractional ownership company. I work in an operations control center as crew support for pilots for half of my week and travel around with my cameras for the other half. Seeking the next adventure. Seeking more knowledge, more skill, more of life. I hope you join me in my travels, and find some fraction of beauty in the scenes that I bring to you. And I hope you know always, that a real love for the horse lives here. I find the beauty in them all, and especially in what they provide for the human heart, that so many things simply cannot.