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

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

13 January 2008

I am afraid it is another muddy horse image of two of the "babies" playing again. We had a beautiful sunny day yesterday and today was the exact opposite. The only picture I have managed in the past few days is the one below of Huggy Cat sitting on the seat of the riding mower.

I actually managed to get to visit all of my favorite blogs today and leave long overdue comments on each of them so I feel that I have achieved something today LOL.

Abraham, I have started visiting Pioneer Woman's blog regularly, she is very entertaining and her photos are wonderful so thank you for pointing me in her direction. For any of you who have not been there yet, her blog is worth a visit. http://thepioneerwoman.com/ . You asked about the metal curry combs, yes we still have them but I use a rubber one, flexible and better for their coats. When the horses have been out in the mud and it is cold, I bring them in at night and close the barn up to stop draughts so they can dry out and not get sick. Once the mud is dry it brushes off quite easily and actually cleans their coats. That is one way that they get rid of dead hair and skin, roll in the dust or mud. When I put new sawdust in their stables that is the first thing they all do, roll in it and you would be surprised at how quickly they clean themselves up. On the subject of seeing my horses go to their new homes, yes it is really hard even if I know it is a good one, they are like my children, I am just a bit softie I am afraid.

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes I appreciate them.

Mike Happy Birthday for the 12th, who would have thought LOL. Believe me my horses arent really that active, it is only for short periods when I first put them out after they have been cooped up for a day or two and then just bursts when they feel good, they only last a minute or two at the most so they are not easy to capture with all the elements for a good photo in place LOL So in other words mine are mostly like those ones you pass on the highway, browsing lazily in their fields.

CG none of my horses are kickers either, this is just play fortunately. On the subject of being kicked or bitten, I was once bitten really badly on my chest by a mare who had just had a foal, she had never shown any agression in her life but she turned on me and believe me you dont want to be bitten by a horse either if they really mean it. My whole chest area was bruised, black and blue for 6 weeks afterwards and I felt like I had broken ribs and had difficulty and pain for weeks when I was breathing. This was Wiggle's mom, the mare we lost last year while she was foaling. She must have been having a hormonal problem because she never got her milk in and I had to hand raise the baby. The baby also arrived a few weeks early which didnt help her with her milk production etc. and the vet had given her a hormone shot to try to bring her milk in. She attacked me with all of her 1100 lbs behind her and believe me it hurt like heck.

Well I am making a concerted effort to catch up everyone's questions and visits over the past few months. I hope you all had a great weekend. (((((Hugs))))) see yall tomorrow.

Lori

xx

23 November 2007

Huggy Cat on the new fence

L-R : Wiggle, Cayenne, Lori, BB & Girl Sonny

Cayenne, Wiggle and BB (these three were born the same year)

Dee and Dawn, two of the yearling fillies.

After a couple of very soggy days and a pretty cold one yesterday, dank and dreary, we had a beautiful day filled with mostly sunshine today, with some periods of cloudy weather but in general it was cold but pleasant.



I fed the starving masses and then put them out in the fields and they were very happy to be out in the fresh air. The one new spicket (water hydrant) that I had replaced in the main barn had started leaking during the night and I got into a barn under water this morning, just what I needed with the cold and no chance of it drying very easily. I baled water, threw down sawdust to soak up the remaining water and managed to make an adjustment to the faucet which seems to have solved the problem, we will see tomorrow morning!!!! I also managed to get five stables cleaned and filled with sawdust, will get the remaining 8 tomorrow. We also had some snow last night so there was a nice dusting on the ground this morning, makes everything look so clean until it melts and turns to mud LOL.



The pictures today are a few that I took this morning, had to get the kitty one in for Catblogging Friday. This is Huggy Cat on the new fence next to the electric tape. Good thing he didnt zap himself. Muddy horses LOL I love muddy horses.

Hope you all have a great weekend and are recovering from Thanksgiving dinners. ((((Hugs)))) to you all.

Lori
xx

29 October 2007

I lied when I said I hadnt touched my camera in weeks, I just remembered that last weekend (sunday before this one) a friend of ours who had taken her yearling to the Quarter Horse Congress in Ohio phoned as they arrived home to ask me to come over and take some quick shots of him while he was still all dolled up. This is a portrait I did of him. The kitten is one that adopted them over there and they didnt want to leave it there as it was raining and muddy and it was such a sweet little thing. What a little character. I just wish It hadnt been so late in the evening or I would have tried to get more shots of her because she was playing so nicely and had settled right in with all the horses and other cats. She travelled back with the horse, she sat on the hay in the back of the trailer, quite happy!

The boys are very happy with their new enclosure. I put them in and let Blue out there this evening for a few hours. He discovered the electric tape quite quickly poor boy but he also had a nice run around and enjoyed being out and able to stretch his legs. I will try to get pictures tomorrow. When I first put them out I am always cautious about them being in an unfamiliar area so dont always have my camera with me in case I have problems.

We woke up to 30C and frost this morning as predicted but it warmed up into the upper 50s so was a nice day overall. We turn our clocks back this Sunday, yay an extra hour to sleep, the downside is that I have to start the chores earlier in the evening because it gets dark earlier.

I have to do my sales tax return tomorrow!!! Cant forget that, yuk. Also expecting about three tonnes of feed to be delivered so have been cleaning the feed barrels frantically and getting everything tidied up. I meant to get hold of my hay man today to see what he has available but forgot.

I got my issue of "The Horse" magazine today and I have two pictures in it this month. Doesnt pay a whole lot but it is nice to get a monthly check(cheque) in the mail when they use shots. I have had photos in the August, October and this month - November, issues.

That is about it for today. (((Hugs))) to everyone.

Lori
xx

4 August 2007

I missed my catblogging pic yesterday, my brain is like a sieve, cant remember from one minute to the next LOL. This is one taken a while back of the one barn cat "Yellow Cat" when we still had some green grass.

It has been hot again today but not as bad as the past few days, the humidity was down so it was bearable. I got some of the barn work done, moved Taxes and Momma into the big barn, put up a partition between them and Blue because his momma fights with the horses around her and kicks the walls and if he is in the way it is just too bad. Prevention is better than cure. Taxes is eating like a little pig so I have also had to put them into a stall where I can creep feed him (give him feed that he can get to but his momma can't). I am glad he has such a good appetite.
I made a good start on cleaning the barn today so hopefully tomorrow I can get it finished.

Well that was my day, nothing exciting to report other than the starter motor in my truck has packed in and I got stuck in town. Had to get some young chaps to push me so that I could jump start it (it is a manual gearbox or a "stick shift" as they call it here).

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

Lori
xx