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

After the Horse Show

Photographing my first show of the year is over and I have a few weeks before the next one. This was a Pinto show (Spotted horses and ponies) and I have been doing their photographs for the past 6 years. They usually have 3 shows a year. While I was wandering around these tulips caught my eye, I thought they were nice and bright so here they are, I have never seen varigated colors in tulips.

Usually I would travel home on the Saturday evening as this is only 60 odd miles from home but with the gas situation being so bad, nearly $4 a gallon one of the members Bobbie Anne (BA) and her husband Nick put me up for the night for which I was very grateful. The picture below is of the pony Little Bit who was bought by the little girl next to him with her own money, Alex, and her great aunt BA. Little Bit has started rolling barrels around in the field at home so we were trying to capture a pic of him doing it here after the barreracing classes on Saturday evening. This pony is amazing, he pulls a cart, jumps while being lead on a lead rope and competes in just about all the events that the Minis do and very well. I am always looking for unusual "things" at the shows and love spurs. Although I have never seen any of those really ornate ones that some of the people wear here is one from this weekend and the second one including the horses, head LOL, have to have at least one picture of a horse!!
I love the ornate toolwork on the saddles and bridles and the bling that goes with the western riding classes both on the horses tack and the people. The outfits that the riders wear are as important as how the horse performs and looks.
Saturday started off raining, I arrived a bit late and missed a few classes but it was indoors so the pictures werent going to be wonderful anyway, I tried my best under the conditions. In the afternoon the sun had come out and they had managed to get the arena dry enough for us to be able to walk in it. It was quite warm but very blustery which was pretty unpleasant to say the least because the maple trees are just dropping their seed pods and we were bombardered with those all weekend.

We had an inch of rain on Saturday night which put the arena back where we started but we managed the first classes in the makeup arena which was pretty dry. They were the jumping in hand classes and trail. Then we moved into the large arena for the ridden classes. It was absolutely freezing the whole day. The wind had an arctic chill and I was wearing two shirts and my jacket which thank heavens I took with me and my hands were still freezing. When the wind dropped it was pretty pleasant but it blustered both days unfortunately.

I was pretty tired by the time I had driven home and fell asleep at 8pm and woke up at 8am this morning!!! So that is my weekend in a nutshell. Larry is busy getting all the photos up on my website because I was on my own there so couldnt do the sales too. I gave everyone cards with the website address and they can see their proofs there. It started to work pretty well with the shows last year.

I am catching up on blogs and mail and am just going out to start feeding the horses their dinner.
Hope you all had a great weekend ((((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

A Bad Day Turned Good

I started the day out feeling a bit blaaaahhhh again LOL, but then got together with a friend I have met recently who likes photography too and we went down to the elk farm to see what was there. I have only ever been there in February when it was cold and the grass brown and snow on the ground.

They don't have many animals anymore and we could only see this one small herd of young ones. There were 3 white ones (or it might have been 4) and I thought it looked so cute the way their antlers were starting to grow.
They were a little wary when we first drove up and got up and moved away but we crouched by the fence and they started getting curious and coming closer. Wish I had a 1.4x converter for my 70-200 2.8 LOL.
So that is all I have to report today. Am getting ready to close everything down and start packing for the horse show as I will be away from early tomorrow morning until late Sunday. It is one of my favorite shows, the Indiana Pinto Assoc. and I have been shooting for them for the past 6 years now I think it is (this will be the 6th).
Just hope I dont forget anything, it is going to be a bithard not having Larry there to help me with the computer side of things while I am shooting, but I have cards to hand out with my website on it and hope that if I dont get the time to do anything at the show, I will at least get some online sales. It is about 1 and a half hours drive from here (70 miles) and I will be staying with one of the members overnight so that I dont have to drive back and forth.

I hope you all have a great weekend, will be thinking of you all. Hopefully I will have some nice pictures to bring back with me, they are predicting scattered showers all weekend and this is an outdoor arena.

(((((Hugs)))))

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

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

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