Friday 22 August 2008

My new header on my blog is a picture I shot yesterday of three of the 4 girls down the road at the rented pasture. We have had very little rain this summer so the grazing hasnt been as good this year as it was last year so I am subsidising a bit of hay once a day to get them fattened up before winter raises its ugly head!

Mike you may be surprised to know that this handsome young man is your little buddy Taxes. He has become a wonderful little horse but still with the mischievious side just not dangerously so, since the brain surgery (that is what our vet calls gelding/castration LOL). He is now sporting a cribbing collar, he started cribbing when he was 7 months old!!! I suppose being an only baby last year and then being stalled because of his cuts on his legs it was inevitable.
While I was watching Taxes (I turned him out with Wiggle, tried to put him with all 3 but they ganged up on him so i am going to have to do this slowly) and wanted to keep an eye on things for a while to make sure Wiggle wasnt a total witch to him, I saw this buzzard walking across the hay field behind us that had just been cut and baled in big round bales. After a bit it took off and came flying over towards the barn and I managed to snap these two shots as it flew over.

It was extremely hot this afternoon after starting out really nice and comfortable this morning. I hope all you Floridians are staying safe from the storms you are experiencing we willl hopefully get the tail end of them in the ext few days, we really need the rain in this east/central section of the state. Everyone else has had floods and tornados but we just seem to miss out on it every time, not that I am complaining mind, the tornados can stay away, I just want a little of the rain.

Hope you all have a great weekend. (((Hugs))))

Lori

xx

Tuesday 19 August 2008

As promised here is a picture of BB's daddy, A Blue Dude (he was a Quarter Horse). BB's registered name is IMA Blue Dudette. I still get goosebumps when I look at these pictures, seeing him in the flesh was truly amazing. While I am not overly fond of the overmuscled Halter horse of today, he was still at an acceptable level for me but then he was only 3 years old so hadn't fully developed yet. Some of them look like Arnold Swartzenegger (sp) with muscles bulging out all over the show. Of course they are fed diets which promote their size so if they went onto a normal diet would probably look a bit heavier than your average big horse.

These horses are bred specifically for showing in halter classes and a lot of them probably never get ridden ever, or see a pasture or outside of a stable while they are being shown. In days gone by horses at shows were more versatile, you would show them in halter then do a western pleasure class on him and go on to run barrels in a barrel race and maybe even rope a cow or jump in a jumping class!! Now everything is very specialised which is a shame.

I dont have much to report today, didnt do very much LOL other than work on the final few orders that I had queries on and a bit of shopping.

Hope you are all having a good week. Take care. ((((Hugs))))

Lori

Monday 18 August 2008 (2nd post)

I wanted to add that the lump under BBs throat was not strangles, she had had it there from the time she was a baby and no-one had ever done anything to try to clear it up. When she went out to pasture last year I started putting drawing ointment on it and within 2 weeks it had completely gone and has never re-appeared. This makes her not being able to compete at those two shows even more disheartening, they didnt refund the entry fees from either so our friend who had her in training for us and picked up the whole bill lost about $2000 between the two shows just in entry fees. I can never thank him and his wife enough for all they have done for us and our horses. They owned BBs daddy, A Blue Dude who was the most awesome horse on the planet (I am biased but he was really beautiful, he had to be euthenased after a bad roundpen accident before BB was born so she is pretty much his only offspring as he was only 3 years old) and grand daddy, How D Special Dude, who is also the father of the three filies out at pasture and Dream. I have pictures that I took of A Blue Dude when they were at a show I was shooting before his accident and will have to dig it out of the archives, I am sure you will agree that he was awesome.

Okay just wanted to clear that up and have probably confused everyone more LOL.

Lori

Monday 18 August 2008

I have been playing with some actions that I obtained recently and just havent had time to look at them until now, I still want to do a lot of experimenting but I shot a photo of this sunflower this morning and the back of the flower last evening. Here is my color pen sketch version and below is the original and the rear view. This popped up in the field that we reseeded right by the gate, unfortunately it is the only one and with our beautiful weather recently the sky is this lovely blue, no filters on the original photo (I dont use UV or Polarizing filters). I liked this a lot and am looking forward to spending more time experimenting with them.

Larry has been focused on getting our blue roan paint filly into the show ring. She was all geared up for the Pinto and Paint world shows two years ago and then had to be withdrawn because she had a lump under her throat and it had burst and the vets told us it was strangles, so that was the end of her two debutes and then she just went through the gawky stage and hasnt looked good enough until now. She is 4 years old now so has pretty much finished growing and I would love to get a few points on her before we decide to make a riding horse or brood mare of her. He has been working her every day with a bit of help from me and the girl that helps us at lunch time.

After he had finished lunging her, she is quite sassy and has a mischievious streak in her LOL, she is also pretty tall probably about 16 hands. I looped the lead rope through her halter and jumped on her bareback in the roundpen and got her walking and trotting in both directions!!! She has only had someone on her back for a few minutes at a time about 6 or 7 times in her life!

She has a beautiful easy floating trot and is really smooth. So if we can get her fattened up a bit, (she has come down in weight a bit this summer and is certainly not thin but she is not at the weight she needs to be to show at halter) we may take her to the Pinto show in September too and if I can get her working reasonably under saddle I might ride in the walk trot class with her. She has the advantage that she has already had all the exposure to shows and halter training and it is not new to her, whereas Dream and Blaze are still growing and two months ago had only ever had a halter on them and no other work done on them at all.

So the above pic is of Larry in the roundpen free lunging her. I would also love to have Cayenne ready for a walk trot class in September but she doesnt have the qualifying white markings to allow her to compete in the regular registry and is catagorised as a "breeding stock". The breeding stock do the same or similar classes to the Pintos or Paints but they compete on their own not against the spotted horses. We have had a few ladies recently who have breeding stock horses and they have been trying to promote them at shows (breeding stock is a paint and pinto breeder's nightmare because they dont have the spots and are therefore not valuable which I think is a crock!!) So Cayenne will help bring up numbers in those classes and make them worth more points and also maybe people will start looking at them in a different light.

Oh well if that all hasnt confused you LOL then I will call it a night. I am really enjoying the riding and think I am getting the passion back a bit, although it is still hard to motivate myself, maybe this is what I need to get me going. When I am riding it is so exhilerating.

I have a new visitor to my blog, Megan, who I would like to welcome, and I hope that she will start one of her own and share pictures as I know she does do a bit of photography too. Megan I left a reply in my comments on the one you posted to, I hope you saw it.

Hope you all had a great weekend. (((((Hugs))))))

Lori

Sunday 17 August 2008

Two old pics today I am afraid. This one is from the Welsh Pony Show. This lady is riding her little stallion without the bridle on, she is very talented. She asked me t capture some shots of her after the one class because no-one had ever done so, they were more in awe of what she was doing than thinking about hitting the shutter, I was too LOL

I am sure some of you have heard about The Extreme Cowboy Race here in US which is aired of RFDTV where they have all sorts of obstacles to do and tasks and the quickest time wins. It is held in a few elimination rounds and she got Reserve Champion at the one last year on a grey pony that she also rides. I know she competed on this pony this year but I dont know where she placed but know it was in the top 4. If you click on the link above you will be able to see a video of the race and most of if not all of her ride if you can sit long enough through the ads LOL. Definitely worth watching. My point is that This little stallion would rather ride without a bridle than with one, the only reason he is riding with one here is because it states he has to in the show rules!!

I didn't take my camera with me yesterday because I anticipated a green newly broke horse to be a handful in the forests and on the trails, first time out, boy was I ever wrong!!! Cayenne was an absolute star. We had a long ride and she stepped over all the tree limbs, went into the river for a drink and waded through parts of the trail along the river in knee deep water. I never felt her tense up once and you would have sworn she had been doing this all her life, I was so proud of her, considering that I have ridden her maybe a dozen times only in her life!

She wasnt too sure about the mud and the first mud spot we came to we were already in themiddle of it when she realised it was gooey and stopped, but I rode her through it and that was the first and last hint of unease that I had from her.

I nearly ended up in the middle of a hornets nest, literally. There was a downed tree on the one trail so we were going around the tree to make a new track and meet up with the original one and the next second there it was hanging in front of me about 12 feet away!!

I just about had a fit and one of the hornets made a B-line for me, it stung me above the right eye but fortunately it didnt get a good shot and my hair was not tied up because I swatted it off and kept swatting around my head with my hair flying all over the place so it got caught up in that, and yelled at the guy in front (who had stopped) to keep going, if the rest of the swarm got a hint of his attack they would all be onto me in no time. We put some mud on it and it is nearly gone today. I have been taking a lot of antihistamines because of the pollen so I think having that in my system helped a lot too.

The nest was about the size of a football, I have never seen anything like it. Thee was another one on the main trail hanging directly overhead of where you ride which we already knew about and they are going to have to find a way of moving it because you cant ride under it. I am just thankful it stung me and not Cayenne, she probably would have reacted to that LOL.

Well that's it for today, I may try to post again later to make up for missing so much time. If I dont hope you are all having a great weekend.

Lori

Friday 15th August 2008

Once again this is going to be a quickie. I havent been doing much shooting this week because I have been trying to catch up on the print orders, I am nearly finished with them now. I have posted another picture of Dream. I am so happy with him, he is growing taller so is not filling out as quickly but bearing in mind that he is just 2 years old I think he looks and behaved beautifully. The handler in the photo is Drew Sutton, who is training him for us and doing a great job. He is bringing him along slowly but firmly, I like his methods, no beating them into submission type of thing, which believe me goes on a lot in some training barns. He is based near Indianapolis and I recommend him highly, if you need contact details give me a shout and I can let you have them. The other photo is of Blaze who is also going through a growth spurt upwards, he is the same age as Dream, I think there is about 2 months difference in their ages. He is being shown by his owner Darlene who loves him to bits and is working with Drew on his training too.

I am going to take Cayenne trail riding tomorrow with Stan and Val so will try to get an early start (I am not a morning person) so that we can ride when it is still cool and then probably again in the evening when it starts to cool down again, wish me luck, it should be interesting, this will be her first time out other than the riding I did with her in the field.

Have a great weekend all and I will try to post on Sunday and let you know how it went.

Tuesday 12 August 2008

Wow two posts on consecutive days LOL. Still trying to get the prints done, it will take a few days to get them all out and downoaded to my printer.

This first pic was taken three weekends ago at the Welsh Pony show, it was crop spraying and kept circling above us as it sprayed the field.

This is outside Lisa's house between her and the neighbor with the "Munster House" it is the nicest group of black eyed susans that I have seen this year and the few day lilies gave it a splash more color.
This is a portrait I shot of Dream shsortly before he went into one of his classes. I am still on cloud 9 about seeing him and Blaze and seeing how well they are doing.
We are having fabulous weather, hope it holds out, only problem is I am inside trying to catch up on work so I can't be out there to enjoy it.

Short and sweet today, Mike (it was so good to hear from you I will visit your blog soon I promise!), CG, Luisa and Lisa thanks so much for stopping by, I know lots of others drop in too but dont leave comments, thanks to you all too, I hope you enjoy the photographs.

Have a great week ((((Hugs)))))

Lori
xx

Monday 11 August 2008

It has been a very long weekend, looks like my blog is becoming a weekly affair. I was thrilled to see Dream and Blaze at the show this weekend and while they still have a long way to go they certainly didnt embarass us. They were both perfect gentlemen and were not phased a bit by the fact that this was their first time at a show. Dream is still a stallion but he was the only one there so unfortunately he had to compete with the geldings. We only had them in halter classes and Darlene also rode Blaze in the walk trot class to make up numbers as they only had two entries and need three to make it a point earning class.

My highlight of the weekend, bless Drew (Dream's trainer) heart, he made sure I got to ride Dream before they left, they must have been exhausted after all the work leading up to and during the show but I rode my baby!!!! You will have to excuse the form on my part, I havent done much riding in recent years, am used to the english style of riding, although I love the western style and tack, and I was trying not to mess with his mouth so my hands were forward so that I wasnt jabbing at his mouth. We just did a short walk and trot each way and he was such a star.

The photos were taken by Lisa and I will treasure them. I have very few photos of me with any of my horses.

I am going to make this short and sweet because I have a lot of catching up to do and print orders to get out. I hope that you all had a good weekend. ((((Hugs))))))

Lori

xxx

Monday 4th August 2008

I have again been very remiss in my blog posts, this, I think, is the longest period I have gone without posting anything.

So much has happened since my last post, The Welsh Pony Show went very well, the weather was good to us and I think Lisa had a good time, she is nearly as bad as me when it comes to how many frames she shot, but she also helped out with the downloading and the customers. They were long days, both days finished up at about 8pm and 7pm respectively. We only had one lunch break on the Saturday and no breaks on Sunday.

I have been messing around with Wiggle most days, putting a bridle on her and walking her around the turn out area bareback, and yesterday I actually took her for a walk down the drive, also bareback!! She was so good. We were only walking so there is no telling what she will do if I ask for a trot, but I am not as young as I used to be when riding without a saddle was the norm, so I am not goiing to find out and wind up hurting myself. She loves the attention
I have a 2 day Pinto show this weekend which Lisa is helping me with again. This show has a special bonus in that two of our horses Dream and Blaze will be in the halter classes at this show. I am looking forward to seeing them, they have both apparantly filled out and grown like weeds.
We have been dodging most of the rain over the past few weeks and the temps have been fluctuating between the 80s and 90s but we had a nice downpour this afternoon (only one tenth of an inch) but we will take it. The grass in the pasture needs it.

The fillies down the road are doing well but all the horses have been battling those big black horse flies we get every year at this time. The fly in swarms and bit like crazy, they are about an inch long and target the area just above the tail on the horse's butt where they have the most trouble getting their tails and mouths to and drive them nuts. I found Cayenne yesterday with a whole bunch on her butt and the poor little thing going frantically around trying to get them off but once there is blood there it atttracts more. So I played fly swatter for a while until they had calmed down a bit. These flies are tough, you have to make sure you have squashed them or they will just get up and fly away again.

Today's pictures are of a house near Lisa's that she calls The Munster House. They always have lovely flowers and the house is brick with metal railings around the garden and porch, and the storm that was blowing in taken with the old railway station in the foreground. I didnt have a clear shot because of all the buildings and trees to show you how dramatic the sky was, but it turned pitch black in seconds and had this line between the two types of clouds, difficult to describe. By the time I had got home it was raining and the dramatic look had gone. The other two are of the peacock feathers that Lisa got for me from her mother's male peacock when they fell out. I took these two before the Welsh Show but havent had a chance to edit them until now.

Well that's about it for now. I have resigned myself to the fact that I am never going to catch up on everything I want to do. The corn is tassling at the moment and I am suffering with all the pollen flying around!

Hope you enjoy the pictures. (((Hugs))))

Lori