Two days of shooting, weeks of preparation and months of reflection: welcome to the backstage of The Horde !
The Horde: a story that has been written for over 10 years.
The Horde is a story that’s been written for over 10 years now. More than a brand campaign, it’s the very expression of Horse Pilot’s story: a horde of enthusiasts, with different profiles and backgrounds, but all driven by the same desire to imagine the future of horse riding.
A story to relate, sporting and human values to represent, and an ode to teamwork to wear. In January 2023, almost 10 years after the birth of the brand, The Horde was born.
Choose a place that inspires you
Once the project was born, the Bourron-Marlotte sand quarry was an obvious choice. Minimalism and clean design, the place is capable of stepping aside to give riders the freedom to come together, express themselves and unite to form a horde. That’s why we chose the Bourron-Marlotte sand quarry. Not only for its design, but also for its functionality and its reference to horse-riding.
Made of pure white sand, the quarry supplies the world’s biggest equestrian events, such as the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and the FEI Dressage European Championship in Sweden in 2017.
Perfection and attention to detail are key to the success of a shoot like The Horde.
The choice of outfits, riders and horses all had to fit together to form a unified horde.
Creating outfits in perfect harmony with the sand quarry is what the creative and product departments did when designing the merchandise boards. Bright colors were left aside in favor of neutral, natural tones capable of matching and blending into the decor. In all, no fewer than 20 outfits were designed for The Horde.
Did you see a wild casting call on Instagram? The communications department was in charge of finding the pairs of riders and horses who would proudly carry the values of The Horde. With over 80 items of clothing, obstacles, horses, cameras, a control truck and a quad bike, the entire Cysoing logistics team took care of transporting the equipment to Bourron.
In total, no fewer than 30 people and 10 horses took part in the project, and all contributed to its success.
“What if we made the weather an opportunity rather than a constraint?”
Shooting The Horde in April at Bourron-Marlotte was, in the end, the biggest challenge we faced. Located in the Île-de-France region, the weather is often rainy. Rescheduled three times in a row, it was becoming hard to get everyone together on the same date. Determined not to let it get us down, we finally decided to make the weather a strength, not a weakness.
“What if we made the weather an opportunity rather than a constraint?” That’s how we decided to integrate our winter collection into The Horde. PS: That’s all we’re going to tell you for now, so stay tuned, because this winter, The Horde has plenty more surprises for you.
That’s how we had to deal with the weather conditions on site. Between sunshine and rain, we had to be flexible and reactive in order to shoot summer and winter outfits in the same hour, while respecting the horses. Riders, production team and companions all did their utmost to ensure the necessary comfort in these complicated weather conditions.
In the end, these few difficulties are also the beauty of this shoot: cohesion, resilience and dedication, it’s thanks to the determination of everyone that this shoot was a great success for us. And what a success!
