A Very Quick Post

We are under a severe weather alert right now and the tornado sirens have just started going off so I am going to make this short and sweet. At lease we will have some rain for my new pasture.

The barn above is an old one down the road a few miles from me which saw when I went to fetch the grass seed from the people nearby.

Keep safe everyone and if we are still in one piece tomorrow, see you then.

(((((Hugs))))))

Lori
xx

Work, work, work - it just never ends

(Original photograph by Jeff Kirkbride and used with his permission)

It has been a very rushed few days since Sunday, so much going on and I am exhausted. LOL



We are trying to get the field down the road cut and baled so that we can take our horses out there I hope it happens soon.

One of our neighbors helped me till/lightly plough and disc the one field and plant horse pasture seed and oats, now all we need is some rain!!!! We have had very little, we always appear to be in the little pocket that the rain misses for some reason. Feast or Famine!



Well by the time we had finished that and I had fed the horses it was after 9pm! This is becoming the norm for me, I never seem to get to sit down before 9 at night.



I had some exciting news tho yesterday. I have always wanted a Palomino horse, I have just always had an attraction for the color. Well we still have two mares in Iowa with a friend that run with his band of brood mares (Quarter horses) and whatever stallion he wants to breed them to that year and it so happens that they shared the huge pasture which has a creek running through it with his Champion Palomino stud CK Sun. The picture is a trading card that Larry made of him for our friends, his details and their name and contact details are on the back of the card. I didnt take this picture, the original photograph was taken by Photographer Jeff Kirkbride who gave us permission to use the photo. Larry cut him out and put him on a new background for the card.



Elliot called yesterday evening to tell us that when he went to give the mares their grain he saw the one mare with a baby. She stayed up on the ridge but he could see it is yellow and possibly has a bald (white) face, so we could very possibly have a palomino paint horse (one with spots on it too). This mare is very protective of her babies so it is probably going to be a few days before she brings the baby down to get the grain they get each evening and Elliot can hopefully get some pics of it!!!



There is one other mare who is still expecting any day there too. I just want to jump in my truck and drive there, but with gas prices and the fact that he is in northwestern Iowa (about a 9 hour drive), puts a bit of a damper on that idea LOL.



Lots of other little things happening, I am still black and Blue from our battle with Blaze on Sunday and loading into the horse trailer. Darlene, the lady who purchased him is very very happy with him, says he has exactly the temperment that she was wanting. He would climb in your pocket if he could and is normally as quiet as a mouse and very clever.

Drew who bought Dosie is very happy with him too so maybe we will see him at some of the shows later in the year. The Indiana Pinto Assoc. has their next show in August and then one a month later in September.

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

Lori
xx

Kids & Animals - They Never Act Like You Expect!

I didnt get any pictures today despite my best intentions. My wonderful quiet laid back horse did everything I put him to, he bathed, got shampooed and conditioned, brushed mane and tail, clipped with the electric clippers like he had been doing it all his life instead of for the first time, looked beautiful and I put him in a stall with straw so he couldnt get dirty again. I put him in a stall with sawdust and the first thing he did was roll!!!!! so I had to rinse him all off and make another stall with just straw in it.

Drew and his client arrived at probably around 1pm and took to Blaze immediately. Darlene, the client, looked at Blaze and said he was exactly what she was looking for, could have done with a bit more white but was great. She also fell in love with Blue LOL. Drew fell for Dosie and took him (he is the 9 year old gelding) and he has also taken Dream to fit him up for basic halter and walk trot for us so that we may get a chance to show him at the next Pinto show in June or July. So instead of being one horse down I am three horses down!!!!

That was the beginning of the fun part, Blaze decided he was not going to go into that trailer for anything in the world. Even after we got Dosie out of the field and he loaded straight into the trailer, Blaze still wouldnt go in. We eventually after lots of bashes and bruises on Darlene and my part, and fighting decided to try Dream who also wasnt so keen. Only option was a bit of sedative so we got hold of our vet who was just on his way to the race track so we were lucky to catch him.

We gave them a bit of sedative and with lots of manual manipulation got Dream in the trailer, and even with the sedative we still couldnt get Blaze in!!! Here I have been raving about how wonderful this horse is, that he does everything calmly and well and he is turning into a nightmare. Well to cut a long story short we did eventually get him in, that whole thing took us about 2 and a half hours trying to load. They had an hour and a half drive and are at their destination now and everything seems fine. They waited a while so we were sure they were comfortable and the sedative had worn off before they left.

I was so embarassed that this little horse was such a butt head LOL, he showed a bit of his grandma's stubborn streak (Girl Sonny, Taxes' momma).

So that was the full day because by now it was 5.30 and I needed to start the feeding all over again I am exhausted. The horses are safely installed in their new homes which makes me so happy, and now I just hope that they perform like all their siblings have in the past, like stars LOL.

I have just picked a picture out of the archives to post today. If I had caught our battle on film it would have been quite a series of shots!!!!

Hope you are all enjoying your long weekend. (((((Hugs))))))

Lori

xx

I Have Been Slacking

Not a horse today again guys, havent had much time to pick up the camera, I have been taking advantage of the good weather and gettting the barn tidied up. It becomes a dumping ground if you give it half the chance and that is how it looks now LOL.

So here is a yellow jacket (hornet/wasp like insect that hurts like heck if it stings you). It was on the flyscreen of the kitchen window. Nice splash of color, but I let him go on his way after taking a number of shots.

We are having clients coming over tomorrow to see Blaze (the foal that is in my profile picture with me but he is two years old now). I have always had a special feeling about this colt, he has the mildest, calmest most loving disposition out of any of the babies I have bred. Take for instance, I have not done very much with him other than to teach him to lead from the barn to the field so he is as stiff as a board LOL but when I took out the electric clippers to clip all his excess hair off around his hooves and legs and make a bridle path behind his ears, he just stood there like he had done it all his life!!!!! I was amazed, any other horse would have been climbing the walls just at the sound of them let alone the feeling they make when they are clipping. He wasnt too sure about the shaving the long hair in his ears but he did that too without too much resistance.

I will get a nice photo of him tomorrow as he has nearly shed all his winter hair out and is filling out nicely, but I need someone to hold him so I can take the picture. If he is sold, I will take a goodbye picture of him too. I really hope that they like him he is so gentle.

I went to look at the pasture down the road that we had the 4 mares at last year and the grass is long. I moved them there at the beginning of May last year but have held off this year. It needs to be cut so we are going to try to see if we can get it baled and then move the mares onto it. If we keep up the good rains it will sustain all of them adequately all summer.

Well that is about it, muddling through each day, keep losing my to do list and then having to start another one!!!! The weather has been lovely, actually on the cool side, but mostly sunny, we seem to have avoided the bad weather again east and west of us.

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

Lori

I Love Your Blog Award & Puppies

I have received numerous blogging awards over the past 17 months of blogging and have never gotten around to following them through, and especially when I have got so far behind in my blog reading and commenting and even posting. I am sorry for that because each one has been special to me from my new blogging buddies.

I recently found two wonderful blogs that I try to visit as often as possible which are actually written by the same person but the author of these blogs, Strawberry Lane, has offered me this "I Love Your Blog" award for which I thank her. I love your stories and humour and it makes for a pleasant place to have a giggle and a relaxing stop over. Her other blog is Simply Marvelous and is a mine of information and interesting stories.

So basically I am turning over a new leaf or trying to and get a blog posted most days like I did last year, there is always something going on here, and I have found it quite a useful way to keep a diary of sorts. If and when I get back to my routine of reading and writing I will pass this award on to three people but at the moment there are so many that I like I cant choose!
(click on picture to enlarge)
(click on the picture to enlarge)
At the horse shows I always find that people will have their dogs and over the years they have made for interesting subjects to shoot. I had the pleasure of meeting this little guy this weekend, he is owned by Alex's family and the dalmation too. I still have more to edit so there are a few more but thought 2 for today would be enough LOL.

Still havent unloaded the sawdust!!! So that is on the top of the priority list for tomorrow. Larry has got all of the pictures up on my website ProPhoto By Lori under the subheading Shows. Most of them are last years pictures still but we will be taking those down and making space for this years'. My next show is another of my favorites which is another stay overnight in Rochester for the Heartland Welsh Pony and Cob Club, (they dont have a website that I know of but the person who originally contracted me for this show was Lisa Brezina of Castleberry Welsh Cobs and Sport Ponies where you will see many of my photos LOL), which I have been shooting for since they initiated their show in 2004, so this will be my 5th time shooting for them.

Well that is about it for today, I promise I will take up on my stories of my travels sometime soon, I just can't find any photos, I had scanned very few before coming over to USA and the negatives and slides are in UK with my "friend" who is avoiding me for some unknown reason. Hopefully one day I will get my hands on them again.

Have a great Wednesday all. (((((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