27September 2007

This is going to be a quickie again. I have my last horse show this weekend which is a relief because it has been such a dreadful year in general. I thought I would post a copy of the business card that I created using the Brat's photo. An artist in Canada named Lesley White bought the rights to paint an original 24" x 18" oil of this picture which you can see here on her website http://www.oilsbylesley.com/westernoils3.htm names First Taste of Spring just click on the picture to see a bigger version. She has also used two other photos of mine as references, they are on http://www.oilsbylesley.com/westernoils2.htm and are called Lookin' Back and Unbridled Spirit. She does a beautiful job. The Lookin' Back one sold at the exhibition she had it at a few days after completing it and she had 3 people fighting over who would buy it!!! She said she has never had that happen to her before, made me feel good I have to say.

I dont know if I will get a post in tomorrow before I pack everything up because we are going to try to leave early afternoon as we have to drive around Indianapolis and dont want to hit the rush hour traffic. It is about a two and a half hour drive. The show is in Edinburgh. We will come home on Sunday night after the show finishes.

I rode Dosie again today and he did a fabulous job, he really is nice to ride and I think is warming up to me a bit more. I also taught Blaze a little more about lunging. Not too much because he is still young but enough to give him a bit of exercise, he has a bit of a gut on him, has always had one (that can usually be caused by worms but he has been regularly wormed and has been potbellied since he was little LOL).

Well guys, thanks all for your regular visits, hopefully after this show I can get some stuff done that has been neglected, mainly my regular blogging buddies who I have been grateful for. ((((Hugs)))) and if I dont check in until Sunday, see y'all Sunday and have a great weekend.

Lori
xx

26 September 2007

I missed yesterday, am having a few hiccups in the pathway of life, hopefully will be back to my usual schedule soon. The picture today is of one of the foals (a yearling in the pic) that was born 3 weeks before I came over to USA. Her name is Christine and she was sold to people down the road from us and I see her every time I go to feed the mares. I suspect she may be in foal because she is looking like she has a bit of a belly on her!! She was born the same year as my filly Lori.

We had just under a quarter inch of rain over the past 24 hours which isnt much but we will take anything we can get. It is also starting to cool down a bit again which is a blessing but that normally means that wham bam and it is winter all of a sudden with nothing in between LOL.

I kept the horses in since last night to give the field a chance to dry a bit and also have a rest from their hooves, but I am going to have to put them out again tomorrow. I am going to leave them out as long as possible or else I am going to have a ton of stables to keep clean.

I visited a site today via another blog that I frequent as a lurker which left me even more disturbed about the abuse of horses sent to the slaughter houses than ever. It was very graphic and made me more determined to hold onto my horses for as long as I have to until I can find good homes for them. It was heartbreaking to see the photos.

So all in all I am not a very happy camper at the moment and having serious doubts about the compassion of a vast number of the human race. I wish I had space for all of those poor abused horses.

(((((Hugs)))) to you all.

Lori
xx

24 September 2007

I found two more tomato worms on my one plant again today. The one had those little cocoons (wasps) all over it poor thing and the other was this guy, big and fat!! I can't bring myself to kill them even though they are eating my tomatoes. I love his colors, when he changes into a moth aparantly he is a plain brown guy!!

The sale of the horses didnt happen, very disappointing, but goes with the territory. I rode Dosie again today and he did so well. I also worked with Blaze (the foal that I am with in my picture on this blog on the right). He is 18 months old now and has always been the most amazing laid back calm foal since the day he was born. He has taken everything I have thrown at him in his stride with no hysterics. I clipped his mane with the electric clippers where the bridle goes behind the ears (we shave the mane away for a few inches so it doesnt get all rubbed up by the leather) and he was great, normally when you show a horse the electric clippers for the first time they have a heart attack LOL. I shaved him round his fetlocks (just above the hooves where the hair is long at the back) and I saddled him. I had to encourage him to move around in a circle (called lunging) around me and when he trotted he did a few small bucks because the saddle felt strange but then he settled right down. This colt is going to make some person a wonderful riding horse, he is the most sane, sound and sensible baby we have ever bred and is loving and "in your pocket" to boot, demands attention. We only did about 10 minutes work as he is still very young. You will normally start a horse when they are 2 years old but even then you have to be careful not to overdo it because they only really mature in their bone structure and finish growing when they are about 4. The "ground work" can start at about 18 months old, getting them used to the saddle, bridle, pressure on the reins to turn, flex their necks, yield to pressure etc. They also have plates in their knees that will only close after they are 2 so you can damage their legs if you aren't careful. Oh and I also gave him a bath, sprayed him with the hose and guess what, he stood like an angel!!!!

Had a very hot day today again, minimum 66 and maximum 92 again. It should start cooling down tomorrow again and we are hoping for rain to move in from tomorrow at about lunch time. We really need it.

Mike welcome back, I will visit your blog soon to catch up on all your travels, hope you had a great time. Well that is it for today, still trying to catch up on my backlog. Hope you are all having a great week. ((((Hugs))))

Lori

xx

23 September 2007

Well I am slowly slogging through the list of TO DOs and it is still getting longer rather than shorter. Got some more print orders done today. I rode Dosie (the stud that we gelded a few months back) because Larry had mentioned him as part of the deal to the lady who is interested in the filly. He and I have never really gelled. He is good with me and listens and obedient but there is an underlying resentment there. You get that sometimes, where you just dont click and unfortunately he is one of those. He is a very nice horse, rides beautifully considering the lack of riding he has had and a pretty boy to boot. He is the father of Blue, Wiggle, Lori, Cayenne, Cookie and Eb (the B&W yearling) among others who we have sold. I think he has one of the nicest heads I have seen on a horse. Considering he has had nothing done with him since we got him back from that "trainer" in April, and we are in serious doubt that he even did anything with him, I lunged him for about ten minutes then got up and rode him with no problem, good boy. He just needs someone who will love him who he can love back. I suppose we will find out tomorrow if they were seriously interested or not. Fingers and toes crossed.

I walked around the pasture this morning to check fences and see what flowers were sprouting. Todays pics are three that I took. It has been very dry again but we are expecting a chance of rain on Tuesday so I hope we get it.

Abraham the people who print the calendars for me are actually not general printers, they publish the Code of Federal Regulations and the owner of the firm is Larry's cousin so I will have to get hold of them and ask if they would be prepared to print up some for you and get a quote for you. Would you be looking at a certain number to print or small numbers as ordered? I am hoping that I can get them to print them up as they are ordered and mail them out for me and bill me for the printing and postage but I am not sure if they would be willing to do that for anyone else. If you are just going to have a bunch made up I am sure they will agree to do them and ship them to you.

MiKael send me a few of the pictures you would like to use, full resolution straight out of the camera and I will have a look at them and see if they will print nicely or not. The pictures on the calendars I do normally are about 6"x4" so you may very well get away with it if you do them similar to mine.

Well that is it for another day. I have to say I started the day out badly but after riding I felt a lot better, but then lapsed into depression again until this evening. I just need something really positive to come out of something soon.

(((((Hugs)))))

Lori

xx

22 September 2007

I got brat baby out today into the sunshine and roundpen for the first time since his accident. He was very happy to be out there, was a bit of a handful to get there but we managed eventually LOL.

I needed to take a few shots of him to show the friend who owned the stallion that sired him.

Larry wanted to go to a horse sale in New Castle today (same place as a lot of the shows that I shoot at). We had a friend who was taking two horses and he was interested to see what prices horses were bringing. My only experience of a horse sale since arriving here was horrendous hence my adamant refusal to send any of my horses to one, but that is a whole nother story. It sure was an eye opener. Weanlings, the same age as Taxes (of course Taxes looked far better LOL) were bringing anything from 100 - 250 dollars. Well broke riding horses were bringing 400 - 600 and while we were there one mare brought 1100 but nothing else came even close to that. I was so depressed after going there, to see these beautiful horses devalued so badly.

Well that was pretty much the whole day taken up and it was nearly 5pm by the time we got home so had to start the rounds of feeding etc.

Donna, I will probably sell the calendars off of my website. I am also doing post cards which I am really pleased with. I will be posting those there too. A friend of ours who I often post photos of (Annette whose granddaughter is Morgan) is going to the Quarter Horse Congress which runs for most of the month of October in Ohio. She has a tack store called Golden Royal which is near Indianapolis and she takes a stand there every year. She is taking some of my matted photos and the postcards with her so we will see if they attract any interest. I really should do a calendar too to go there.

That is my lot for today. Thanks Abraham for the plant photo leads. The one that looks like a efern with the white clusters of flowers isnt hemlock, I am pretty sure it is Cow Parsley because the leaves are more fern like, very fine leaves, whereas the hemlock has broader leaves. Still looking into the other ones.

MiKael, I think a calendar of your arabians would be fantastic, we will get together to do one of those if you want. It will save you a lot of time learning the set up and Publisher (mine is the 2000 version) does a pretty good job.

I wanted to get around to answering questions that had been asked in the last few days, but I really need to get more of my photo orders finished so will try to do that tomorrow.

I will answer more questions soon I promise, need to get more print orders done. ((((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

21 September 2007

It has taken me a while to upload these. These were the plants I found in the field where the 4 mares are, who are suffering from sunburn. Wiggle and Cat are still peeling and scaly, Wiggle is the worst but I have been spraying them with conditioner and disinfectant and sunscreen and they are improving. This first one has really sharp thorny things on it.

(Click on picture to enlarge)

These two are shots of the other plant. If anyone knows what they are I would be interested so that I can rule them out as the problem.

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

We had people over to look at the yearlings today and to see my friend Tiffany's two horses that she is selling. We think that they may be interested in one of our fillies and one of Tiffany's yearling geldings. These two young ladies live near Grand Rapids Michigan which is about a four hour drive from here. They train their own horses and are looking for winter projects and arent worried about the fact that our fillies have absolutely no training past halters and having manners, so these horses will be perfect. Keep fingers and toes crossed that we hear back from them, I know this will be a good home.

Abraham, Donna et.al. I will get back to you with info on the calendars tomorrow. I havent had a good day so that is it for today. I didnt achieve much after our visitors left, was too hot again.

((((Hugs)))) to you all.

Lori

xx

20 September 2007 (2nd post)

Abraham asked me about my calendars. Here are a few examples of what I did last year. I also did two on cats. The pictures show what one of the pages looks like on the left and on the right are all the pictures I used, one on each month.




((((Hugs))))

Lori

20 September 2007

Not such a good day today. We are hoping to get people from Michigan tomorrow to look at the horses with an intention to buy. We have been let down so many times before that I am not going to let my hopes get up.

I saw these flowers down in the field last night and was going to try to photograph them early this morning but forgot so I cut some off tonight but by the time I came to photograph them it was dark and despite being in water they were starting to wilt. I will try to get some tomorrow in daylight. Just thought they would give a bit of brightness to the blog today.

It was dreadfully hot again, 86 by this evening (normal average is 76), the mosquitos are really bad. When I woke up this morning I looked out the window at the horses in the field and they were milling around with their tails thrashing and obviously uncomfortable. Just hope it cools down soon so that they will go away.

Didn't get any more of the fence done today because I had to go into town to do some shopping and by the time I got back it was too hot.

Abraham, I try to make calendars for my special clients each year, they are nothing fantastic but I get them printed fairly reasonably. I tried to sell some last year but I left it too late in the year before I got them out. If I dont get them together for selling I will still be making some for particular people. I use an old version of Publisher. It took a bit of getting used to but it works really well. If you would like some help with getting one set up let me know and I will help in any way I can.

Donna I wish you were closer, I would love to sell you a paint and for a much more reasonable price. Dont know how much it would cost to ship one from here to you but it could very well work out less expensive than what they wanted for the mare.

Tracey, everything in print and photos on the web or otherwise is the sole property of the creator (and this is not just professional writers and photographers, it means anyone). You dont have to have a copyright disclaimer or your name on it, it is just a face. It is difficult to prosecute someone for just posting the picture on their site, but it is good etiquette to ask the creator for permission. I am sure most will allow a shot or text to be used, with credit given to them as long as it is not being used for profit by the person wanting to use it. I will try to find a link to a site put together by an artist (they have just as much trouble protecting their paintings) which should shed a bit more light. Basically if you did not create it, it does not belong to you and you need to ask permission.

On the subject of stolen artwork, the next time you see an "original" painting offered on eBay think of where it originated. They are mass producing paintings in China by the thousands every day, a lot without permission, and selling them here in the USA. Same applies to a lot of the posters and probably framed prints you may find in Walmart, although that I cannot be sure of. I just know that on eBay it is a big problem, I have had a photo stolen, "painted" in photoshop digitally and put on eBay for sale as greeting cards and prints. In China they will get maybe 100 painters together in a factory with easels and paints and they will give them a picture that they must copy. They do at least one a day each, get paid nothing for them and then the organisers flood the market. There are also american painters who will copy work but not on such a large scale and some of them also sell on eBay. I belong to a group called the Equine Art Protection League who look out for each other and it is our mission to get as many thieves closed down. We have had one eBay member closed down about 15 times in just over a year. She keeps popping up again and we report her and she gets closed down. She is well aware that what she is doing is theft but doesnt seem to care and has tried every trick in the book to get around us. At this time of the year she sells a lot of Christmas cards and greeting cards with images of horses, dogs, cats and general animals, all lifted off the internet. The beauty of it is that once eBay has closed someone down they can NEVER have an eBay account again, so this is out trump card. We concentrate mainly on equine images because that is what we all specialise in. If the stolen work is on someone's website, we contact the web hosting service and they will close the site down. I could go on all night about this but rather I will find some links so that anyone interested can check it out.

Okay off my soapbox. Hope you all had a great day. (((Hugs)))

Lori

xx

19 September 2007

I was having Taxes withdrawals so thought I would try to shoot some of the brat inside the barn. His leg is healing beautifully and the scar is nowhere near as big as I thought it was going to be. This little guy is looking like a tank and filling out. Not the greatest pictures but hope they satisfy the Taxes itch. I told him all day that MiKael had called him a Land Shark, I just love that analogy LOL. MiKael, thanks yes I did get the e-mail about the camera. I promise we will get together soon on that. I am sorry about your blog content, if there is any way I can help on that let me know I have become quite good at tracking people down on the internet. Give me a link to the stolen text and I will give it a go.

Our temps were in the low 60s this morning and by this evening it was 86 again with the next week expected to be in the upper 80s. I only got one more post set but I did get the stables finished in the main barn and the load of sawdust unloaded. Still working on the orders from the shows, we are starting to get online orders which is great.

That's it for today. More jobs piling up, I need to get some calendars made for next year to sell off the website and a thousand other things.

Hope you are all having a great week, great to see some of my old visitors popping in again!!!! I will get organised one day I hope :-(

(((Hugs)))

Lori

18 September 2007

It is going to be another short one tonight. It was really hot this afternoon and I tried cleaning a few stalls and got four more posts concreted in for the fence. I also worked on some of my print orders and the picture today is one of the win shots that I did at the backdrop.

Other than that it has been a bit of a blaah day. MiKael I LOVE your analogy of Taxes and colts in general going throught the "land shark" stage LOL. I had to giggle when I read that, it will now forever be known as the land shark stage!!!

We thought we had a good home for two mares in Iowa who are in foal to a Palamino World Champion. They and the one foal are due to come back here any day. Anyway we spoke to the lady today and told her we would consider the price she was offering if we had the pick of the foals born next year. She turned that down because she said she was only really interested in the babies and would "dump" the mares after the foals had been weaned. NNNOOOOTTTT. These are two really nice mares. I am so bumbed at this situation because I dont want my horses going to a sale but it is getting more and more apparant that I am fighting a losing battle.

Hope everyone is well and having a great week. (((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

17 September 2007

Another picture from the show this weekend, one of my better barrel shots, this young lady ran the pattern in 11.x seconds. Pretty quick!! I dont get many opportunities to shoot contesting so I enjoy it when I do.

I got two stables stripped and rebedded today, also got some of the picture orders done and caught up on a bit of the paperwork that I have been getting behind on. The weather is beautiful at the moment, no rain in the forecast but temps in the upper 70s and low 40s in the mornings.

I can't wait to get the fence finished, hope to get on with that by Wednesday, I really want to get Taxes out to have a run. I turn him out in the area at the end of the barn (32 ft x 40ft) which enables him to get a good run and play in but there is nothing like having them outside. He was always so active. I dont want to take any photos of him until I get him outside but he is filling out and is looking like a tank. He is sooooo naughty, going throught the I want to nip and bite everyone and everything. He is muscling up really nicely.

That is it for today, I am going to get an early night, lots to do tomorrow. Hope everyone had a great weekend and a better Monday. (((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

16 September 2007

(Click on picture to enlarge)

I missed yesterday because of my computer being packed in the bus for the show this weekend so that is day 3 missed since January 1st, not too bad LOL.

It was a strange weekend weatherwise. I had to wear a jacket on Saturday even out in the arena in the sun because the wind was so cold!!! Today was a bit better, cold to start off but it really got hot this afternoon.

The picture above is of a miniature pony called Little Bit and the doglette in the carriage is Lexi. I havent had time to look through what I have shot but it was a bit of a difficult weekend, my timing of my shots was off for some reason so I struggled. I will post more as the days go on when I have caught up.

It is late once again so I am going to sign off now and check in tomorrow with more pics.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. ((((Hugs)))))

Lori

xx

14 September 2007

(Click on picture to enlarge)

I am getting my post in earlier than usual because I have a lot to do to prepare for the show this weekend.


This is the part of my famous fence that I have finished so far. There is another stretch on the other side of the barn which is about twice as long as this :-( but I have a nice system going thanks to Larry's instructions and it is going a lot quicker. I was hoping to get the upright posts set in their holes with concrete today but just ran out of time. I also need to get a 12 foot gate to put into the gap you see. The drive drops away towards the fence which is why the far posts look so close to the ground, they are actually in an area that is lower than the drive. I am relatively happy with the outcome, at least this is visible (I will also run the white electric tape behind the top and bottom cross bars so that they don't reach over and under or chew the wood) and I will feel safer putting the babies and the studs out in rotation without worrying about them running through the wire.


I am off down the road to feed the horses there so I will end off for today. I hope everyone has a great weekend. (((Hugs))))


Lori
xx

13 September 2007

To make up for the other day when I didnt post a picture I am posting three shots of flowers from today. The pink ones are called Four O'Clocks. They usually stay tightly closed during the heat of the day and start opening in the evening so I was quite surprised to see them open this afternoon. They are in the garden at the place where the we rent the pasture for the horses down the road. Larry was up for a few hours today and he hasn't been over there since I moved the horses over at the beginning of May. He has known the owners since he was a small child and hadnt seen them for a long time so we decided to go and pay a visit and catch up a bit. It was a lovely day and while they chatted I snapped some shots of her flowers. The other one is a giant marigold, so pretty and bright. Wiggle is looking a bit better and the cooler days are helping. I am keeping her sprayed with special conditioner and sunscreen so hopefully she will continue to improve. BB and Cat are also looking better.

We got a late start this morning so by the time we had gone and had some lunch after our visit it was 3pm when we got home. We spent an hour or two on the wooden fence and I am getting there slowly but surely. Now that I have a better idea of what I am doing (thanks to Larry's instruction LOL) it is going a bit quicker. I think it is going to look really nice when it is finished. Can't wait so that I can put the three boys out in it. Blue, Gee and Taxes will all take their turns out there too. At least they will be able to let off a bit of steam safely without the fear of one of them getting tied up in the wire because they cant see it.

I have a stack to do tomorrow, I am behind on everything as usual. Feeling a bit better today. ((((Hugs))) everyone.

Lori

xx

12 September 2007

No pretty pictures today I am afraid. This is the rear end of Wiggle, poor baby. The rest of her body and BB and Cats are improving, but the worst areas were her hindquarters either side of her tail and inside her back legs. I have been spraying her with a conditioner solution and betadine and baby oil which seems to be helping but of course the dirt is getting lodged into the scabby areas and that is the black that you can see. Normally you wouldnt be able to see the pink at all. I have another ointment that I am going to put on her legs tomorrow to see if it will help. I sprayed her with sunscreen today as well. So I suppose it is a waiting game. It has been far cooler which had been a help.

I spent the whole day rebuilding 500 - 600 ft of old damaged fencing that has been slowly disintigrating. I had Cayenne escape two nights in a row and then the next night Lori got out too. Unfortunately my neighbor who we dont have a good relationship with, and who works until midnight came home on two of the nights at 12.30am to find one of my horses standing by their garage, she said that Lori was inside the garage!!! Not good!!! So I have had them stalled until I could get the fence repaired. I ran new strands and then ran a hot wire along the full length. I also put orange tape on it to make it more visible and only finished checking it and putting the horses back out at 8.30pm this evening so it has been another long day. I am once again getting far behind on my blogging visits, I am sorry. Didn't even touch the new wooden fence, that will have to continue tomorrow.

I have another horse show this weekend at New Castle. We wont be staying in a hotel, it is a 50 minute drive and with it only being a two day show we will drive back and forth each morning and evening. My last show will be two weekends after that but it is in Edinburgh which means two nights away again, and that will be it for the year.

Well that is it for today. ((((Hugs)))) to you all.

Lori

xx

11 September 2007

Another long day today. Didnt get any of the new fence built but did repair some of the fence where Cayenne escaped but managed to injure my wrist. Dont know if I have broken something or just bruised something badly just know it hurts like hell. We will see tomorrow. I havent had a chance to edit any photos today, wanted to do the plants ones from the field so will have to add a pic tomorrow. Cheating I know meant to be A Photo A Day Blog.

Wiggle doesnt look any worse and it has been overcast anf in the 70s all day so I am hoping that tomorrow will provide an improvement. Poor girl she is so uncomfortable. From tomorrow we will be having lows in the 40s and highs in the 60s and 70s until at least Sunday. Doesnt seem possible that it can change so quickly.

((((Hugs))) thanks everyone for your visits.

Lori
xx

11 September 2007

I am just doing a quick post now with a link to an article which sounds as if it is describing exactly what my horses are experiencing in the field.

http://www.petalia.com.au/Templates/StoryTemplate_Process.cfm?specie=Horses&story_no=1288

I have hunted through the field for something that may be causing it but I can see no clover, St Johns Wort or Field Bindweed which they say are the main causes. I have got two plants which I have photographed and am going to edit and post in the hope that someone may know what they are. Very strange but it looks as if I am going to have to bring at least Wiggle home, she is having a lot of discomfort, poor girl.

I will do my regular post later.

((((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

10 September 2007

I took this shot of the girls down the road today. I have converted it to B&W because it just looks better that way. I am still really worried about the sunburn look on the three mares. I searched the field today and found nothing out of the ordinary other than two other plants which I am going to research and see if they are a problem if I can identify them. I went over this morning and sprayed her down with a baby oil, betadine and water solution which kept the flies and mosquitos at bay but you could just see that she is dreadfully sore. I am going to have to fetch her home I think, I will make that decision tomorrow morning

I got some more of the fence built today, am about a third of the way done. It has been hot and humid but I dont think the hot flushes are helping and I am really exhausted and down tonight so this will be short.

Hope everyone is well ((((Hugs))))) I will try to answer the questions asked soon I promise. Thanks for all your visits and messages I appreciate them.

Lori
xx

9 September 2007

I am using an old picture again, this is Cayenne when she was a few days old, such a sweet little baby (but then they all are LOL). I havent touched the camera for days, been too busy and unmotivated.

I am having a problem with the horses down the road, there appears to be clover in their field although I have never seen it, because Wiggle has turned pink, the skin under the white hair is pink and susceptible to sunburn but this has only been in the past week or so that I have noticed it and tonight when I got there she was looking dreadful, scabby and pink, thin hair in the white areas. Apparantly there is a particular type of clover that makes the horses with pink skin more sensitive to the sun and this is what is happening with her. I am going to have to try to load her up tomorrow and bring her home. Cat and BB are showing signs too although they are nowhere as bad as Wiggle. I am going to have to try to take some of the brown horses over in place of them for the last month or two that I will be using this field. I would hate to have to bring them all home now when the grass is starting to grow. With the hay situation I was hoping to be able to take advantage of it until at least the end of November. I have a picture of her but she looks too dreadful so I am not going to post it. I am amazed at how quickly this has developed. They say that the clover is prevalent when it is damp which makes sense because of the rain we have had over the last two weeks. Before that it was so dry and this is obviously why we are seeing it now.

I am heading for some sleep, i got some of the fence built today with Larry supervising but it was very hot and I am exhausted tonight and sunburned. I will take a picture of it as soon as I have finished the one side so you can all see my handiwork LOL.

Thanks everyone for your visits (((((Hugs))))))

Lori

xx

8 September 2007

I promised to post a picture of the little girl that I shot the portrait of the other day, riding. She is soooo cute on top of this wonderful horse. She and her Mom both ride this mare, they just swap saddles because hers is so much smaller LOL. These children are our future champions and boy can this little one ride. I am so lucky to have three or four children that I have been photographing since they were tiny until now and it is great to see their progress.

We had rain on and off all day which was wonderful. It was dreadfully humid but I will take it if it means rain. I had to go over to Muncie to get the screws etc. that I need to build the fence and did a bit of shopping at the same time because I only get over there about once a month. That took up a huge portion of my day. I hope to get the fence underway tomorrow again if it doesnt rain. I also mowed the one field so at least I got something done today LOL.

Another day over, thanks Mike for sending the rain our way!! MiKael I hope that the weather is being good to you and that you are coping with all the pressures. You are all always in my thoughts. ((((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

7 September 2007

I can't believe that another day has gone by. Still way behind on everything. I got all the fence post holes dug this evening, the neighbor came over with his auger and dug them in record time. Cost a bit more than I had expected to get them done but sure a lot easier than digging them by hand!!

Today's photo is one that I was preparing for a side challenge on DP Challenge. We are doing a Black and White photo a day for the month of September and this is a picture of a braided mane that I captured last weekend. I loved the shapes and textures and thought it would work well in B&W. Hope you like it too.

Again I am going to have to cut it short as I am really tired and it is late. See y'all tomorrow. (((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

6 September 2007

At the horse shows I will often shoot pictures of the other animals around and 9 times out of 10 the owners love the shots and buy a copy of it which is great. Here are two doglettes that I captured at the show last weekend.

I got the fence marked out finally and hopefully a friend of ours will be able to come over tomorrow with his auger which runs on his tractor and we can get the holes dug so that I can start building the fence and finally have a safe secure place for Gee the race horse and the studs to get some exercise. With not being able to use the area for so long the grass has grown and I know they will be eager to get their teeth into it LOL.

We had a much cooler day today but it was still very humid. We have chances of rain over the next few days, I hope we do see some of it.

The Indianapolis Colts (Last year's Super Bowl winners) are playing the season opener tonight against the Saints. At this time they are slightly behind so here's hoping that they start the season on a good note and don't lose this one. Lots of excitement over this game. As Susan would say GO COLTS!! I know that you non Americans will probably wonder what I am talking about LOL.

Hope all is well with everyone. Abraham identified the white thingys on my tomato worm as wasps which hatch from eggs laid in the worm and spin cocoons. When they are ready to emerge they open the end of the cocoon and start their short lives too. The poor tomato worm doesnt get a very good deal on this one. If you look at my links on the side you can check out more details, his blog is Abraham Lincoln and he has some really great stuff on it.

I am going to turn in for the night. ((((Hugs)))) for everyone and see y'all tomorrow.

Lori
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5 September 2007

This is the last shot that I took at the show this weekend, I love it!!!! This little girl is so tiny perched on top of this big horse who is so good. I will post another picture of her tomorrow so you can see just how tiny she is. She and the other children got these little horse toys from one of the classes that they rode in and they were all playing with them.

Another very hot day, didnt have a great one, feeling a bit yukky, hot flushes and nausea so dont know if it is the heat or the change of life LOL.

Cayenne got out of the field last night just after midnight, got a call from the neighbor to tell us she was outside their garage LOL so I trudged out in the middle of the night to capture a wayward horse. She is an escape artist and now that she had escaped once (I stil dont know where she got out) she will do it again until I mend all of the fences so she is going to have to stay inside until I have done that.

Well that is another day over, the year is just flying by. Hope you are all well ((((Hugs))))

Lori

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4 September 2007

I have run out of time again. Thanks so much everyone for your visits, MiKael, CG, Mike, L and a new visitor, Cathrine from Norway (I will check your blog out tomorrow I promise). I did a small quarter horse shoot at the show on Monday too so I have posted the shots that they chose for their advertising. This is a couple who train and they needed promo shots for two of the horses that they train so they took advantage of me being close by and brought the horses over for me to photograph while I was in New Castle.

I got two trailer loads of hay today and they were $6.25 a bale unloaded into my barn which is a bit better than the 7.25 I was expecting to pay for this cutting. It was in the 90s again today so I didnt get much done outside again.

((((Hugs)))) everyone.

Lori

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3 September 2007

For the first time since January 1st I have missed not one but two days of my blog. The weekend was long and I just didnt have the time or energy to try to get the internet access up while we were in the hotel, still dont even know if they had it.

This is going to be short because it is late. I will post more about the weekend tomorrow. Int he meantime the picture today is one taken of a mare that used to belong to a friend of ours. She was leased and then bought by this young lady who has been showing her. She only has one eye and is 24 years old (the mare that is LOL) and won enough classes over the weekend to win her owner an award in her catagory. I didnt know that the mare had been sold, her name is Blondie, so I was really pleased when I saw what a great home she has. She has also had numerous foals in her lifetime. What is really great is that the mare loved being there as much as her owner.

See y'all tomorrow. ((((Hugs)))))

Lori