a new focus
THE COURAGE TO CHANGE CAREERS HAS LED HORSE PHOTOGRAPHER KATIE MENDL BACK TO HER ROOTS.
LATE AFTERNOON, KATIE MENDL heads down the paddock at Finch Farm in Westbrook — located in the Darling Downs region of southern Queensland — and walks among the warmblood yearlings at the stud. After greeting her with a familiar, gentle sniff, they slowly wander off to graze. Katie knows their habits and personalities after hours spent here on any given day armed with just her camera, quietly capturing their spontaneous interaction that will later be immortalised on paper. “Out in the paddock with the horses is my happy place — it’s heavenly, quiet and serene,” says Katie, who lives nearby in Toowoomba with her husband, Ben, and their seven-year-old daughter, Isobel. “I never go out with a set idea; I’m always looking for the beautiful light and that special thing to capture,” explains the 37-year-old photographer. The golden hour is Katie’s favourite time to shoot at Finch Farm, but sometimes she will use the harsher light in the middle of the day for black-and-white photography. “It’s all about the light and sometimes I will work with the stallions in the stable to get a darker, moodier feel. People say I capture a lot of emotion and it’s because I spend hours at a time just observing the animals in their natural environment.” Katie’s life has come full circle since launching Calico Pony, her photographic prints business, two years ago. She rode from an early age on her family’s broadacre farming and cattle property, Yandilla Homestead, one hour from Toowoomba. “It was an incredible place to grow up, there was a beautiful creek full of lilies and I’d ride my pony and help Dad muster. I was a bush kid with a horse and this takes me back to my roots,” she says. After boarding school, Katie worked as a polo groom for three years and studied Agribusiness at the University of Sydney’s Orange campus. She later completed a Graduate Diploma of Education and was working as a teacher in Brisbane before opting for a more creative path. “I wasn’t made for either of those careers,” she admits. “I wasn’t living my life the way I wanted to. I’d always loved photography, so I studied at the Brisbane College of Photography and Art for a year full-time. I learnt on film, so that was a huge advantage and I also learnt how to print all my own work.” Katie was 30 at the time and decided to move to Toowoomba with Ben after finishing the course. She began shooting weddings and portraits, and that led to commercial and editorial work. She didn’t intend to shoot horses initially, but would find herself pulling over and wandering among them with her camera. “Being a new mum with a first child, I was trying to find a bit of peace and that’s how I ended up in the paddock,” Katie says. “A lovely local girl saw one of my photos of her horse on Facebook and asked if she could buy it.” Katie chose the name Calico Pony for her prints after hearing a line from American singer-songwriter Kenny Chesney’s song Wild Child. “The line was ‘Got a spirit that can’t be tamed. She’s a calico pony on an open plain. I know I’ll never be the same no more.’ It struck a chord and reminded me of Isobel,” says Katie. >
Her friend Aaron Bourne began stocking her prints in his store, Harolds Finishing Touches, and put her in contact with David Finch of Finch Farm stud, a breeding and training centre with a focus on showjumping, eventing and dressage. Katie began regularly visiting the farm to shoot. “Finch Farm has been so generous and it’s been a great partnership; David gets beautiful images and I get to do what I love,” she says. This has led to Katie working out at the farm from time to time — feeding, mucking out and helping during the breeding season. “I love watching the foals grow into weanlings, then yearlings and seeing their progression.” She recently bought her own filly, Finch Farm Matilda, from David. “I was on foal watch the night she was born and I actually helped foal her,” she proudly says of the bay weanling. “She is a funny girl; very smart and her imported sire Massimo Quality has European bloodlines.” At the weekend, Katie takes her daughter to the farm, and they explore the creek together while Isobel collects feathers and treasures. As a working mother running a business from home, time in the paddock provides balance for Katie. “I love the open space and quietness,” she says. “I thank my lucky stars all the time that I had the encouragement and support of my mother and husband to follow my dreams.” Visit calicopony.bigcartel.com for more information.