‘I took the photo last summer in the Blauwe Kamer, a nature reserve between Wageningen and Rhenen,’ says van Cauwenberghe. The student of Forest and Nature Management does quite a bit of nature photography, which sometimes requires a lot of patience in order to get near the animals. This time he suddenly stumbled across a herd of Konik horses during a walk. ‘The herd was behaving beautifully naturally,’ says Cauwenberghe. ‘Even though they are wild horses, they are used to people and even came towards me, up to a distance of 10 metres.’
Van Cauwenberghe won the competition by 150 votes. The prize is a photography masterclass in the Oostvaarderplassen with Ruben Smit, director of The New Wilderness. The photo will be published in the magazines of the Dutch state forest service and the Royal Dutch Touring Club.