Riding Horses Through Falling Snow — Niseko

From Kyogoku we drove to Niseko, where the horses were waiting in the snow.

The snow was deep, the forest was white, and nobody was in a hurry — least of all the horses. She rode in her wedding dress, wrapped in a white cape, while he walked alongside and led.

The horses take the snow in stride — it piles up on their manes and backs, and they stand in the falling snow like it is nothing at all.

Two horses, one wide field, and no tracks in the snow but theirs.

Out in the open, it was only the two horses crossing the snow — and nobody else, anywhere.

And then, just as the horses were done, the day turned. The snow stopped, the sky opened, and Mt. Yotei came out from behind the clouds. On the drive to the slopes we stopped in an open snowfield and took these.