British Horse-Trainer and TV Presenter Wins Two Awards at Equus Film Festival
British professional horse trainer, TV presenter and adventurer Emma Massingale is celebrating two triumphs at the world’s leading equine film festival in New York, US. In partnership with Equine Productions, Emma has taken honours at the Equus Film Festival for The Island Project, in the international documentary category. Furthermore, Emma and Equine Productions have won ‘Best Equestrian Commerical – mini’ for The Midnight Race.
The Island Project tells Emma’s story as she survives for a month on an island off the west coast of Ireland, training two unbroken Connemara ponies without using any equipment, just her voice and natural horsemanship sills. Emma filmed almost all of The Island Project herself whilst alone in the wilderness.
Emma also developed and created The Midnight Race, a promotional film made from QIPCO British Champions Series. The Midnight Race features former racehorses from the British Thoroughbred Retaining Centre being trained by Emma to let themselves out of their stables, walk up to a gallop and race by themselves, all under the light of the moon.
The Midnight Race beat more than 150 other entries to scoop the prize.
Sam Fleet, Managing Director of Equine Productions said: “We’re made up to win these awards. Every film we produce we’re proud of and to get recognition like this is so special.”
Emma said: “You don’t normally win prizes for working with horses in this way, so to win two awards for ideas I dreamt up is just awesome! The Island Project was a way of challenging myself without challenging my horses and I loved every second of living, filming and surviving whilst being completely alone. The Midnight Race was equally challenging as we had to turn it around in six weeks. Racehorses by nature are not as intelligent as other breeds but I was absolutely thrilled with how well they did in such a short space of time, and with the final film!”
The Equus Film festival is the world’s premier showcase for horse related films and documentaries. The awards ceremony took place on Saturday November 21st, 2016.