Thursday 11 March 2010

It has been a long absence! January and February were tremendously hard months for me both with the terrible weather we experienced for such a long period and thus my mental frame of mind. It has finally started warming up after 5 weeks solid of sub freezing temperatures, snow and ice (not nearly as bad as some of our surrounding states ... but with 13 horses here and caring for 11 of my friends' horses 5 miles down the road it made it unbearable). We have gone from below average temperatures to above average temperatures in a matter of days. Indianapolis topped out at 72F yesterday, there are still patches of ice and snow all around despite the warmer temps which is a good indicator of how fast it has changed. Of course the mud has come along with the thaw!!! One can just never win LOL!

I put Gee and the two babies (Goldie who is now a two year old and Herbie who is 9 months old) out for the first time in a while the other day and they had a ball. Below is Gee, all 17 hands of her, elevated at least 2 feet off the ground!!!
(Click on each pic to see a slightly larger version)
She has such a joy for life, she is the TB mare who has boarded with me for the past 4 years. I love her to bits, she has such a wonderful disposition and mind for a racehorse! With Larry passing last year (can u believe it has been nearly a year) I havent had much time to bond with my little palomino mare, Goldie (yeah I know that is original but her Daddy is CK Sun, and I had just seen the most beautiful sunrise minutes before I first laid eyes on her that her name CK Golden Sunrise was a must), and have NEVER seen her roll. She rewarded me with a few rolls on this occasion, this one was in a drier area of the pen, you will see further along that she found the wettest, muddiest part of the area and promptly rolled there too! She is not going to be a big mare, might just make a horse but may still stay short enough to be a pony but she is a tank.

Gee just loves to find any water she can, paw it into a muddy mess and then roll in it. There is a small pool that forms at the base of this tree when it rains, and she found it and did her thing. You can see the results, oh yes she made sure she laid down in it on both sides!

Herbie found the Jolly Ball in the mud and had a bit of fun with that. He and Goldie are also best buddies, my next job is to get him gelded, poor boy. He hasnt displayed any studdy behaviour yet but then spring is young that could change quickly.

He also had to coat himself in the mud. It is one way of getting that winter coat to shed out, and when it does start shedding it probably itches like heck so they love to roll all over the place and when I look out in the pastures there are white and brown patches scattered all over LOL.

Here is a picture of the three of them after they had all had their bit of fun in the mud, you can see how muddy and wet Gee got and Goldie too.

I have hardly touched my camera in months. I was looking at my photos the other day and since the beginning of January I have only shot a few more than 100 frames. This is very unusual as I normally shoot hundreds every week. I am hoping that with the arrival of the warmer weather, my passion for photography and life will improve. It has been a long battle the last 11 months. I am still looking for a job and have no income so have become an expert at shuffling money between accounts in order to get the bills paid!

I am not going to aim too high to start with, hoping to maybe get a post a week up. I miss all my blogging friends. (((Hugs)))) to you all.

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

Friday 28 August 2009

I spent the day yesterday thinking it was Wednesday!!! Dont have a clue why but that is just how my brain is or isn't functioning at the moment, so while I thought I still had plenty of time to prepare for the weekend photographing the Welsh Pony Show in Rochester, I in fact didnt!!

Herbie is only 2 and a half months old but is a very busy curious and rambunctious colt and his poor mother is really feeling the pressure. He is eating so well and yesterday I just decided that in order to get his little mind occupied it was time that he learned to socialise with other horses so that when I wean him from his mother he wont be like Taxes and Goldie were being only babies and unable to socialise with the bigger horses because I was worried they would get hurt.

His arrival with his mother in the field got all sorts of activity going, I put him with Gee and Goldie because I felt they would be the best to start them out with and Sonny protected her colt beautifully and we had no mishaps and it quickly got to the point where she realised, hey this is cool, that little monster that is always biting me and jumping on me has something else to keep him occupied because he headed straight for the other mares. They were very gentle with him and Sonny had a nice break from his attentions and didnt seem to mind that he was on the other end of the field from her just glad of the peace and being able to munch grass. Blogger as usual has posted the pics in reverse order so the one below is of Herbie when I first put him out, the one below is when they all got racing around, it is so cute, Gee always lets Goldie win LOL, now and again she will stretch out and run the full length of the field and outpace her by miles, the 3 on the other side of the fence are Cat, BB and Wiggle.

The first pic is of them when Sonny first started letting the other horses get close to her baby, she only chased them off once then just let him do his thing and he thought he was just the main man.

I havent had a very good few days, so have not been online much other than to do what I have to do and will be away until Sunday night. So I hope you all have a good weekend, ours looks as if it will be pleasant and cool. (((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

Wednesday 26 August 2009

A few posts ago I posted a pic of a butterfly crysalis that was just ready for the Monarch Butterfly to emerge. I took the crysalis pic and had to go out for just over an hour and this is what I found when I got back!!! The butterfly had completely emerged and dried its wings the works, I missed documenting the emergence. Anyway here is the little butterfly that came out of the crysallis, the second pic you can see its clear cocoon/crysalis right next to it.

Balieve it or not this is my little darling born this year, Herbie!!! Just look at the color he is turning. We are not sure if he is going to be tri color (brown black and white) or dark chestnut (liver chestnut), time will tell, in the meantime I can't register him cos I have no idea what color to put on his application! Just look at that attitude, reminds me of Taxes who is 2 years old now and looking awesome. Herbie is about 2 months old here, this was taken a few days ago

Gee loves water and she drinks from the hose, wish I had her with her lips going drinking it but she loves a bath too.

We finished baling and putting the hay up in the loft at 9.15pm last night!! 198 bales. Stan and I were on our own for this one and even though I did the driving of the tractor during baling it was still very tiring and hard on my back. We took this hay to Stan and Val's house (the guy who normally bales it took 108 so we only had 90 - 66 bales from that field and 24 from another small field that we did at the same time - to put up) and Stan has bought an elevator to get the hay up into the mall of his barn which is much higher than ours, so I had to lug it onto the elevator so it could go up where he caught it and stacked it at the far end of the barn. Who needs a sauna, I can tell you I was dripping by the time we were done, but really pleased that we got it done I am getting some of my stamina back at last. Needless to say I slept very well last night LOL. It could have been worse we thought we would get about 300 - 400 bales and misjudged thank heavens, we would have been out there until midnight! Must check if the tractor has headlights LOL.

Pleasant mild day today. Hope you all have a great week. (((Hugs)))

Lori

xx

Tuesday 25 August 2009

I am on a roll what can I say, now all I have to do is catch up on my fellow bloggers' blogs as I am seriously behind with my reading too.

A few weeks ago I got my favorite thoroughbred back to board. I dont know if any of you will remember Gee. More to come on her later but here she is eating her hay this morning out of the hay feeder in the field, she has become great buddies with Goldie and considering that she is about a foot taller than Goldie it is an odd couple indeed.
Also taken this morning is a shot of a Coopers Hawk (?) which I saw in the apple tree in the field early this morning as the sun was coming up. Not great quality on the photo as the sun was only catching the bird from the one side as it was very early and he was pretty far away, I tried to get closer but he caught on and flew away. He came back in about 15 minutes but caught me again and I didnt get a chance at another shot. He was eyeing the birds in the bush in my front yard and was perched on one foot until he saw me which is when I shot this shot and then he was gone. I have some of him on the one leg but the quality is not very good. The small birds of course were all atwitter which is what first caught my attention to the fact that something was going on outside.

I took these a few days ago, this is Dosie who we sold last year but I managed to do a trade on one of my other horses to get him back because Michelle has always loved this horse and I wanted her to have him and I knew that Drew was looking for a brood mare to breed to a particular stallion and as they have had my filly Lori there since Larry passed, they had got to like her and her bloodline a lot so we did a trade. So in a way I cut down on numbers because I gave Dosie to Michelle so although he is still here she takes care of his needs and helps me a lot around the barn and Drew and Tanya cut back on one mouth too. That is Cat in the background and as you can see we had a small rainshower and the first thing they did was roll in the mud!!!

Well we tried to bale hay last night because they were calling for rain this evening, but that appears to have been extended til tomorrow and the hay was still a bit wet last evening which would have caused it to mould, so Stan and I are going to get back to it at midday today and hopefully that will have been enough time for it to have dried enough to bale. We are looking at about 400 bales maybe a bit more so it is going to be a long day. It is also going to be in the 80s again which we need to dry the hay but makes it unpleasant to be doing physical labor in LOL (although truth be told poor Stan will be doing the loading and I will be driving the tractor and baler!). Oh well we can't win them all I suppose.

I have the Welsh Pony Show to shoot this weekend. Lisa is going to be coming with me and helping with the computer side of things and the shooting so it is just non stop. The Club put us up in a motel which is great so there is no running back and forth each day and we will leave Friday evening and come back Sunday evening. It is going to be a hot one then too so I should have a good sportsman's tan.

The photos in this post and the last few have looked a little dark after I have uploaded them to blogger, let me know how they seem your end because if this is the case then I need to do some monitor calibrating because in Photoshop they look fine.

Have a great day everyone. ((((Hugs)))))

Lori
xx

Thursday 30 July 2009 - I'm Baaaaack

Who knows for how long, have been taking lots of odd shots over the weeks but just havent got to edit and post them.

Below are various pics of my new boarder Gee. I have had her boarding here a lot over the past 4 years and she is back and helping to pay the feed bills. I loved this filly the first time I saw her. She is a thoroughbred (bred for flat racing on a track) and a lot of these were taken very late in the evening after the sun had gone behind the horizon so with her dark color they appear a bit dark. She is a very tall horse, easily 6 inches taller than my tallest paint horse. Below is Kendal leading her out into the field, her surroundings are a bit strange so we are babysitting her until she gets used to the lay of the land.

April, Goldie and BB enjoying the fresh air and bit of grass amongst the weeds.

This is BB and April coming in for feed time.

These below are more of Gee enjoying stretching her legs. Boy she can run!!!!

Well that is about it, so much happening, some good some bad, just not enough hours in the day.

((((Hugs)))) to those of you hanging in and continuing to visit my blog.

If you like my photos, I am offering a very inexpensive way to have a small copy (trading card size) of them as collectors items which I am doing using my Etsy site or if you are looking for inexpensive gifts for you or family or friends please visit my Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6874447 here you will find all sorts of goodies from my photo trading cards to crocheted dish wash cloths (which I highly recommend asonce you have used these woollen ones you wont use anything else).

Lori
xx

Thursday 16 October 2008

I am very sad today as Gee, the thoroughbred filly that we have been boarding for the past 2 years and who I love to death, went to her new home today. I was very sad to say goodbye to her. This first picture is one I shot of her on one of her excursions into the turnout area, saying hello to Taxes through the bars.

I had to put a horse photo up of one of our horses as I have been neglecting them for a while. This is one of the "3 babies", Dee. She is a two year old right now and has started with her education to be a riding horse. She has a beautiful face and is very refined, almost dainty. I think Larry is wanting to keep her unless someone expresses a huge interest in her LOL.

I have been trying to get shots of the milkweed seeds suspended in the air but they always seem to blow in the wrong direction and I cant get a clear shot. This was the best I could do unless I had someone to blow on them to make them float while I shoot LOL. The Milkweed plant is a very important part of the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly.

Fall is finally coming and this is the view down part of our driveway looking towards the woods on the other side of the road and you can see our mailboxes at the end. The leaves on the trees and bushes lining the drive are starting to turn and I thought made a nice scene, despite the electric pole!
As usual you can click on any of the pictures o this page to see a slightly larger version of each one.

I have made some more family contacts today and am thinking of starting a journal. I am remembering experiences and people and places that I had supressed a long time ago and am finding it very therapeutic to remember right now and deal with it in order to move forward with my life.

Abraham, I meant to post a response on the fact that my leg was more leg than you had seen in a long time other than your wife's LOL, Hey I have knobbly knees as you can see and I was wearing shorts!!!! The leg has healed and I only have a smallish lump on my leg now but the bruising has gone. My neck is still a bit stiff mainly at night when I am trying to sleep.

Well nothig exciting happening, we did have two tenths of an inch of rain last night which was very welcome, not nearly enough but I am not complaining, although when it finally does start getting muddy and wet especially like it does during the winter months, I will be complaining about all the mud LOL.

Hope everyone is well (((Hugs))))

Lori

xx

Maybe I Am On A Roll (Fingers Crossed)

We had another beautiful day today, not cold but not hot and beautiful sunshine most of the day. I eventually managed to convince myself at about 5 to go and put the two stud colts into stables and let Taxes out into the fenced area for a run. I cannot believe how big he is. He is the same size as the two year olds!!!!!

He is still naughty though, and now that I am hopefuly improving I am going to have to start working with some of these horses. If you notice (click on the image to see a bigger version) he found a short stick and was running around with that in his mouth. He is one of those horses that has to be doing something with their mouths, some horses are not happy unless they have the lead rope in their mouth. He was full of beans as you can see.


When he had had his bit of turnout time I put Gee out to run and gave her hay out there but she wasnt interested in it. She hung around the gate into the barn. She obviously feels insecure in an unfamiliar place and wants to stay as close to what she knows. I lead her out a few times to get her to move away from the barn and see if I culd get her running and letting off steam. She eventually did and I couldnt catch her when I wanted to bring her in LOL.

After her little excursion I put Blue out for his run around and exercise. I need to make a daily thing of this, with 4 different horses needing to share the area at different times it is hard. to keep the balance.

I am hoping to be able to take 4 or 5 horses to the other pasture down the road soon which will also be a relief. Will try to arrange that tomorrow.

Other than that I think we are in for a very nice spring for a change, and hopefully it will last longer than usual, fingers crossed. I think the first cutting of hay will be on schedule, it is just a matter of seeing if the farmers will bring their prices back down a bit.

Larry is goig to visit his plastic surgeon tomorrow at 1 so the day will be pretty much taken care of with the trip up and back and the appointment.

I hope you enjoy the photos, it is so nice to see bright sun again, and it breaks my heart seeing that hay field in the background while my fields are absolutely bare! (((Hugs)))

Lori
xx

Better Late Than Never

I am really struggling to focus as you might have noticed. If anyone still comes to check here from time to time thanks and drop me a line so I know I still have a few blog buddies LOL. Today's pictures arent too pretty but it is what surrounds us at the moment.

Although the mud has dried up just about completely and we are having the odd shower of rain, the small acreage we have is not nearly enough to accomodate 11 horses, so as you can see, here is Wiggle having a nice roll which helps her get rid of her itchy winter hair and she loves to do. There is not a blade of grass to be seen in the fields.

(Click on pic to enlarge)

This second picture is one that I shot for stock the other day. The three two year old fillies spent the whole winter with access to the outdoors and a shelter and had thicker coats than the others and this is how much hair is coming off of them with plenty more to come!!!!!

(Click on pic to enlarge)

I watched the Kentucky Derby this evening with great anticipation only to be saddened by the fate of the filly who came in second. So sad, her owners and trainers must be devastated. I didn't know her and I am, but then as you all know I am a soft touch for any animal especially one in distress.

Nothing much happining here at the moment, the lilac bush is in flower, I will try to get some shots tomorrow if the wind lets up, it has been very gusty. I may set up a small studio because a friend gave me some peacock feathers and I am dying to shoot some pictures of them, so I can perhaps pick a sprig of lilac and get some shots of it too in good lighting.

I have been diligently working on archiving my photos and catagorising them all, and choosing some of the better ones for stock photos to send to the magazines and agencies. I try to do a few a day and it also helps me to just switch off and keep my mind occupied and not feel sorry for myself.

The horses are all fat and sassy and happy despite their slightly reduced rations (feed has tripled in price) and they spend all of their time outside so it has eased the burden on me as far as the stables goes. Gee is still with us, she still hasn't gone to the track so I dont know what her owner is doing but I love her to death anyway.

Taxes is as big as any of my other horses and he is only just one year old. I need to get him gelded but just have to find the cash to to it, as well as Blue. Taxes is still as pushy, nippy and naughty as ever. I will post an update pic of what the wound looks like now, amazing when you think how it started.

(((((Hugs))))) to you all, I do visit the blogs from time to time but dont always get time to leave comments.

Lori
xx

A Plan Comes Together

I love it when a plan comes together. This one has taken a long time to get it done but I think it will be worth it in the end. When I started having the problems with the yearlings getting through the fence (electrified) in the enclosure attached to the barn and getting i to the neighbors gardens, I decided that I had to make this area secure for the stallions and any babies and for Gee who is a thoroughbred who boards with us. My biggest fear is a horse running through a wire fence because it cant see it, similar to what happened to Taxes when he was 4 months old.


So I planned this wooden fence which everyone thought I was crazy to do, had to go with cheaper lumber and landscape posts were cheap at that time so that is the direction I went. Then to protect the wood from chewing , white electric tape fence to add security. That way I knew it was secure, could be seen and was unlikely to have escapees. Gee (racing name Geared)was my main motivation.

Her owner has not been able to find a trainer to take her on, he has been messed around by trainers for the last 2.5 years so G has spent most of that time with us. Her only free time out of her stable has been in the roundpen where I was terrified she would put a foot through a rail while she rushed around madly because she had so much energy, or in the bottom half of the barn before I had to make it into stables for the winter again.

The day Gee arrived I fell in love with her, she is now a 17 hand 5 year old mare and has one of the nicest minds I have come across in a thoroughbred, she is amazing and I would love to ride her but dont have anywhere here where that would be safe. Yesterday for the first time I relented and put her out. It is very muddy at the doorway to the barn and generally the horses dont like the mud and will avoid going out rather than run through it. She is also now very stall bound from spending so much time in the same place and surroundings and her insecurity kept her close to the barn which was a blessing.

At first she ran a round like a mad thing, but the fence was perfectly clear to her and she knew exactly where the boundaries were which is exactly what I wanted to achieve. She stayed close to the barn and when I went out into the area she walked around with me. There is absolutely no grass here at the moment, just mud and dried lumps from the hoof ruts which hurt their soles inside the hooves to walk on.

Within 2 minutes she was puffing like a steam engine and sweating like mad but this is just the type of exercise that this poor mare needs, a few weeks of regularly being turned out for a few hours and she will be far easier to handle and probably ride. So hopefully when this becomes a regular exercise she will stop wanting to hang around a the barn door and learn to move around a bit more out there, I am going to start feeding her out there which will settle her too.

The pictures are ones I took late yesterday afternoon while she was doing her thing LOL. I love this mare and only hope that if he decides to get rid of her that he will give me the option of having her even if I have to pay her off.

That's it for today, it has been another long day, we started with an earthquake this morning at quarter til 6am. There is a fault line that runs from southwest Illinois in a north easterly direction up through Indiana and affects us when it moves which I dont think happens very often.

So that is the excitement for the day LOL. I have been running i mad circles all day trying to get things done, am finding a bit more energy and motivation but there is so much to do. It was 9.30pm when I sat down here to look at my computer eventually. ((((*Hugs))))) have a great weekend everyone.

Lori
xx

8 December 2007

A short one today, it has been hovering around 28 and 32 all day and the freezing rain started at about 4pm this evening. I managed to get Gee out again today and she made a slightly longer excursion than yesterday but still stuck close to the barn for security. I am glad of that because that way she will get to know the lay of the land before she opens up and runs around like a mad thing. I have a few pics but havent edited them yet.

Below is a pic of Taxes today, he had Eb the B&W colt hot on his heels. I turned Blaze out with Taxes first and they seemed to be okay but didn't have my camera, Taxes went flying in biting and jumping on poor Blaze and give him credit he took it very well. After that worked pretty well I turned the other two out but they all seemed to be too much at one time for Taxes so I pulled him straight out. I think I will just put him with Blaze for the time being so that he can have company and learn about mixing with other horses, he is a little tyrant and needs to learn that another horse will retaliate when he bites or jumps on him/her. He was just so excited to have another horse with him. The second shot is a second after the first when Eb gave him a swift bite on the butt. No marks or damage fortunately. Eb has been a biter since he was born too, just plays rough, never left marks just a brat, I have tons of pics of him biting his siblings when he was born trying to get them to play with him. He frightened poor Taxes a bit as can be seen from his expression.

(Click on pics to enlarge)

The third pic is of Blaze and Eb having a rough and tumble after I had put Taxes back in his stable. I was amazed when I turned Taxes out with them that he is just about the same size as them and there is a year difference, Taxes just 8 months old on the 15th.


It is becoming evident that I am going to have to split all the stud colts up after winter if they arent gelded. What is play and acting out right now will become serious when there are mares around and they mature a bit more and it could spell trouble. Blaze would have been gelded at the same time as our older stud Dosie earlier this year but his one testicle had not dropped yet and still hasnt which could mean a surgery in a vet hospital to geld him because they will have to find the other one. In a normal gelding it can be done at the ranch with the horse under sedation/light anaesthesia with little risk of problems. Poor boys!!!!

Well that is it for today. Yukky weather the next few days. Stay warm everyone (((HUgs)))

Lori

xx

7 December 2007 (1st post)

Wow another day almost over. It is my Brother's birthday tomorrow 8th. I have not seen him or my Dad for such a long time and know I am really slack with keeping in touch with them. They are both in South Africa, brother in Johannesburg and Dad in Cape Town. So if either of you are reading this I love you lots. Today I got the hell in with Gee's owner (the thoroghbred mare I board). She is bouncing off the walls because she has nowhere to exercise now that I am using the bottom of the barn for stalls. I have been nagging at him to come over earlier before dark so we can try her out in the new field I have just fenced, partially for her benefit and he just never does so this morning I thought to heck with it I am just going to have to take a chance and I turned her out and kept a close watch. I did it before I had put any of the horses out so she just really wanted to stay close to the barn but she made a few excursions. These are some of the shots. We will repeat the process tomorrow, it went very well.


(click on pictures to enlarge)

I normally dont leave halters on my horses but I did as a precaution this morning because if she had gone through a fence or something stupid I would have been in big trouble if I didnt have something to get a hold of her with. I will do this for the next few excursions and when she knows the boundaries I will start taking it off. They kind of spoil the pictures but I still love them. I love this mare she has such a great attitude for a race horse and considering she has spent the past two years with virtually no out time she does really well.

I am going to end this post off for now and do a second one which will feature our Brat baby, the infamous Taxes. He also got his little bit of time out today and I snapped a few shots of him too.

Lori

7 October 2007

It was a very long day today and extremely hot. Indianapolis has set record highs the last two days with temps in the upper 80s when they are normally in the low 70s. We set out at 8.30am after feeding the horses and getting Larry up and about. The first shoot went fairly well but as said before very hot. The young stallion was very co-operative bless his heart. I posted the first shot of him, just a portrait, I have others but we only got back ater 7pm and after unpacking etc. it was after 8pm so I am exhausted.

I browsed briefly through my pics and picked a few but I can't say I am blown away by any of them. Not really ideal conditions or the right time of day to shoot these types of shots but I hope the owners are happy. The second shoot was a lady who I have photographed at some of the Pinto shows, Cheryl, she is a lovely energetic lady and we had fun despite the heat. The one with the white stallion is of her and the stallion an Arabian is now 27 years old. He looks good for his age but she really wanted some shots of him before he starts going downhill. The next one is a yearling that she has just sold to a young girl who she is giving lessons and instruction on his care and eventual riding, he was a bit of a handful so we just got some of him running, this trot one I liked, looks like he is floating. The next one is of one of the geldings that board with her, he is a Pacer and bless him he had quite a thick coat already from the cold spell we had and was sweating quite badly but I liked this portrait of him. The last one is of a mini pony foal!!!! It is soooo cute, tiny little thing, only about 20 inches high and very spunky. Cheryl is like me, she cant send any of her horses to a sale and she has quite a few that she originally bred many years ago who are now living out their twilight years with her after being returned to her on her farm, fat, sassy and healthy. She also has over 20 horses at the moment, four are minis the rest are paints and pintos of various ages (5 stallions!!!). She is a soft touch like me, and loves her horses LOL. I hope when it cools down some I can get another chance to go there again and get more shots when it is not so unpleasant to spend time outside. Maybe some snow ones!!!!

Well I must get some shuteye, Larry has arranged for a young lad to come and help me tomorrow to get the post holes filled with clay and tamped down well to make them sturdy and secure, help clean stables, mow grass and finish the fence. It is going to be another hot one but then it will cool down quickly in the next two days and we will be more at our normal temps.

Gee is only going to the track on Wednesday now, I really hope the trainer comes to fetch her I will be very happy when she is doing what she is bred for and I am sure she will be too.

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

Lori
xx