Saturday 26 September 2009

Michelle, Kendal and I went to our last show early this morning. We got lost and arrived 10 minutes before the first class which was also our first class!!!! Michelle threw her clothes on and I tried to patch BB up and we flew into the fray LOL.

Unfortunately she didnt fare too well in her first two classes but in her three with Kendal she had started to warm up and she brought home a first in Color, second in Youth Halter (10-13 yr old) and a 4th in Youth Showmanship which was combined with one entrant with an older division. This show let us see how far Kendal has come in confidence and even though there werent stacks of entrants, she did a great job, watch out for them in 2010 LOL!!

The first pic is one I took of her after I gave her a leg up onto BB after her classes holding her ribbons, blue for first and red foir second, and the fourth place is hiding behind, and the second pic is of BB when we put her out in the muddy field about an hour later and she got right down and rolled all that beautiful cleaning off that we had done LOL. I swear she was smiling at us, look at her mouth, she is grinning LOL (click on pics for larger version).

We are going to take Kendal for her first Trail Ride tomorrow and they are going to have a small contesting show at the club which we are hoping she will ride in, even if she only walks for the first time (barrel racing, poles etc.). I have a feeling she will enjoy it, I know if it wasnt limited to kids I would sure be in there too!!!

Hope you are all having a great weekend. (((Hugs)))

Lori
xx

Thursday 24 September 2009

Here are a few more shots from my outing yesterday, more detail shots, I love shooting these, some of them work and some dont and it is great when you get one that does.



They also show you how much work goes into getting these horses ready for display. I shot these first two while they were tacking the horses up getting them ready to hitch up. They prepared one horse at a time and put it in it's traces then they moved onto the next and there were 8 of them!!

Bud the dalmation was still quite energetic here, this was one of the few shots I got earlier on when they passed the first time (thanks to the two darned 18 wheelers that got in the way!!)

Well need to get more work done, hope you enjoyed these (((Hugs)))

Lori
xx

Wednesday 23 September 2009 - Second Post

Just had to post this which was taken earlier in the afternoon while they were still preparing the horses. Man are these guys gorgeous and kudos to the handlers for the pristine condition that they are in!! ((((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

Wednesday 23 September 2009

I had a break from the norm today, Lisa telephoned me asking me if I wanted to see the Budweiser Clydesdales which would be in a town a few miles from us. These are fantastic horses!!! and boy are these guys on the ball. The Budweiser Clydesdales are visiting Jay and Randolph counties in Indiana this week to honor Jay Miller for his many years of service with Anheuser-Busch. The owner of Jay County Beverage of Portland, Indiana, Jay Miller, has sold Anheuser-Busch products for more than 60 years and you can see him here riding shotgun with the drivers today during a parade in his and their honor. Bud the dalmation can be seen behind them. I have stacks more to edit.

I also got to photograph one of our other local celebrities from a local Country Music radio station (102.5 WMDH). I just started listening to this station a few months ago so it was a nice surprise to see them represented there.

So I didnt do too much constructive work today, but it was a nice break despite the high humidity and big trucks getting in the way!!! Long story you dont want to know LOL.

(((((Hugs)))))

Lori
xx

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Not without much battling my last show of the year is photographed and proofs posted at http://loriprophoto.jalbum.net . All four shows are up if anyone is interested in some of what I do LOL.

This morning Herbie and his daddy Blue were big buddies out in the pasture. It was so cute, momma was nowhere in sight and there were the two of them standing on the hill, when they saw me they came running towards me and then stood in the corner of the "pasture" together and later I shot another one of them grazing together on what is left in the field. As usual click on each pic to see a larger version.

Nothing much to report, just catching up on everything, the carpet that was given to me is in and I am slowly getting through all the filing and paperwork that has piled up over the past 5 months and some of it longer.

The leaves are already turning and it feels very autumn/fall like which of course it is, but it is different this year as it is every year. Stan is cutting the one large field for hay so we should be baling in the next few days again. I hope it is going to give us enough to get through winter. Then we just have the field next door to where I live to do and we will be done for the season.

I hope you are all having a good week. ((((Hugs)))) to all of you that come to visit.

Lori
xx

Wednesday 9 September 2009

On Sunday Michelle press ganged me and hauled me and Wiggle, Dosie, Kendal and herself off in the trailer to the 4H grounds about 2 miles from us to do a bit of riding in a decent arena as we are limited for space here. These first two pics were taken right before we were getting ready to come home. I had been plodding around on Wiggle bareback while they were working, you will also see their pics further on in this post. Of course it was the second time I had ridden Wiggle ever so I didnt really know what to expect. She is a bit lazy and had to be wacked on the butt with the end of the reins to get faster than a walk out of her. Michelle grabbed my camera and just shot a few frames, these are two. It had just started to rain too.

This second picture is a case of Wiggle being a rodeo horse when I wacked her to get her to canter LOL, I was whooping up there rodeo style LOL, michelle loves the way her mane and my hair were going in the same direction (click on pics to see larger views). After she had got that out of her system she cantered across the arena beautifully. (note the crooked saddle pad and the stirrups too short LOL and the hand holding the rein so I could get more than a walk out of her, in other words dont look at my form it is dreadful but it was fun and next time I will do better.

Here are two pics of Kendal on Dosie who is Wiggle's father although he is no longer a stallion. She was very nervous about cantering him but they got the job done and by the time they were finished Dosie was tired but she wanted to carry on so is over her fear.

Here she is trotting nicely along the rail on Dosie

Michelle was the first to ride her boy though, she hasnt ridden in 6 years and very little in the past 30 and they looked really good out there, he was a breeze thanks to Drew for his work and to Michelle for her work and her love for this horse. I am so glad he is back with her because she loves him dearly.

Here she is cantering with him. This was just after we had arrived and his head should have been lower but he was checking everything out but he still rode like a champ and Michelle was so happy.

Well that was Sunday, lots more happening but I will end for now. My last show of the season to shoot is this weekend, the Pinto Futurity in New Castle. I hope the almanac is right is says we are going to have snow for Thanksgiving, but after that we should have a pretty dry mild winter, we can only hope.

Hope everyone is doing well, please remember to check my Etsy site out, link is at the top of the page of this blog, some of the items would make nice gifts. I am planning on putting up some more Christmassy stuff and also a 2010 calendar in the near future. ((((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

Thursday 3 September 2009

Lisa and I had a very pleasant weekend in Rochester shooting the Welsh Pony and Cobb Show, (the weather was gorgeous), that I have been shooting for 5 years now, or it may be 6!!! Wonderful group of people, they always look after me and whoever is with me so well. Of course we both shot far too many pictures LOL, Lisa is WORSE than me LOL and that is saying something!! I have about 3000 proofs to post on a website so that people can go and look at their pictures and order if they find something they like.

On top of that I am still trying like crazy to get orders edited and filled from the show 2 weeks ago (Pinto) and to make matters worse I have another Pinto show the weekend after next! That will be my last show. Larry always used to get this up on my website and I never learned how to use the software and manage my website (lack of time and we would usually end up taring each others hair out because we frustrated each other LOL) so I am having to do everything the long way and it has been very time consuming. I spent a day trying to figure it all out then decided it was just not worth it, I need to get the pictures up asap.

I shot the picture above this morning about half an hour ago, as you can see little Mr Herbie has made great friends with Goldie and Gee, his mother is about 30 feet away to the left of the screen munching away enjoying the fact that she has two baby sitters I am sure (not the prettiest pic because of the electric fence and tape). He and Goldie have started getting really attached and he is starting to play with her like he does with his mother. She was another foal that grew up with no foals her own age to learn from and play with.

Goldie and Gee are already joined at the hip, so I can see problems in the future when I want to do something with just one of them and have to take one out of the group. I am planning on turning Wiggle and April out with them in the next few days so that it will increase the herd in the one field and hopefully get them more used to being around a large number of horses and not get too attached.

Unfortunately it normally works out that horses will pair off even in a large group, it is just a natural instinct and if there is an odd number of horses, one will always be left out and the rest of the herd will chase them off. This is what happened to Taxes when I tried to put him with the older horses at the beginning of the year, poor boy, but he is doing great down the road with the other 4 horses and is fat and sassy again. Will post pics of him as I get time too.

The shot above is of my one barn cat who was drinking out of the water trough last evening. I am always scared that he will fall in LOL but he and Sylvester the B&W barn cat are always drinking here. He is recovering from a really bad abscess on the left side of his face that blew up like a balloon and thanks to Michelle, who was able to get it opened up and cleaned out. I wont go into the details but it was gross and fortunately I wasnt here because he wasnt a very happy kitty, but it would definitely have killed him if it hadnt been taken care of immediately. I zapped him with a course of penecillin which I always have in the house for the horses.

Well there is tonnes more to say but I need to get to work, can't believe it is Thursday already, I have orders I need to get off to the printer so I get them back in time for the next show for delivery.

Hope you all have a great rest of the week, our weather has been very nice and another thing I have been fitting in is hay baling, which we will be doing again tonight, and have a great Labor Day Long weekend ((((Hugs)))

Lori
xx