I am a photography student as well, what equipment were you using for this shot?

I would have taken a step back and bent down a little to get all of his ear while keeping the same effect, it looks like you were shooting with an aperture of 7-8 i would have dropped that to a 4/5 to frost over the background while keeping the horse chrisp. Then with that change you could change your focus to right above the nose, rather than in the middle of the face and that will come off with a nice effect. Also when shooting outside and its sunny keep your ISO around 200.

Zef wrote I am a photography student as well, what equipment were you using for this shot?

I would have taken a step back and bent down a little to get all of his ear while keeping the same effect, it looks like you were shooting with an aperture of 7-8 i would have dropped that to a 4/5 to frost over the background while keeping the horse chrisp. Then with that change you could change your focus to right above the nose, rather than in the middle of the face and that will come off with a nice effect. Also when shooting outside and its sunny keep your ISO around 200.

Thank you Zef. This is some great constructive feedback. I was actually only using my iPad Mini for this shot as I was outside and saw the opportunity. However if I was using my SLR I would have got the ears in and got a much better shot.

On the other hand I think that if I did get the ears and use my SLR I would have had a better outcome.

Thank you for the constructive feedback. It helps me.

I would have added a few photo filters to this to darken the darks and brighten the brights. Something to bring out the colors. Also, I would angle it more downward, but only slightly. I would try to bring out the sky more in the picture with some effects. And I would maybe be a tad bit further back, and to better complitment the rule of thirds, I would offset it, so the back of the horse is visible to the left, and the front of the horse is slightly to the right. This would keep it in balance as well!