Saturday 27 June 2009 - After the chaos

Well that was quite a week, dont know how Kendal and Michelle do it because they were out there in that heat showing one animal or another since Sunday last every day, I have been hiding at home a lot of that time with the airconditioner!!

I did spend Thursday at the horse show in 92F heat and I suffered a little after that, on top of which there was a storm that night and the apple tree took out my powerline so with a minimum of about 80 even through the night and no fans or anything was not a happy experience.

The pic above is of Kendal and BB. This particular shot was taken in Showmanship where she didn't place, lots of lessons learned in a class of 18 horses. The moment of glory was before this was taken, I will edit a pic and post it later, was when BB took Grand Champion Halter Horse at the show!!!! We were thrilled because she beat some really good horses. The rest of the classes were not too successful, she took a 4th and 5th in riding on April (walk/trot) and took a 3rd on April in Pony Halter.

We learned a lot over this past week about the dos and donts of showing horses LOL but overall Kendal did a fantastic job all week with all of her animals. A very hard working a dedicated 12 year old for sure and she deserved every bit of it. I have stacks of pics to go through and hopefully will get them up a few at a time on my blog over the next few days. With this extreme heat I am avoiding being outside as much as I can. In amongst all of this we baled hay and spent 2 days putting haybales in the barn (or should I say Stan and Zack and Kami did). I wasnt much help because I can't tolerate this heat. I have had heat stroke before and after you have had it once your tolerance is even lower and I have been feeling it.

Enough about me, this post is dedicated to Kendal, her mom Michelle, April and BB and all the other critters for a job well done!

(((((Hugs))))))
Lori
xx

Monday 11 August 2008

It has been a very long weekend, looks like my blog is becoming a weekly affair. I was thrilled to see Dream and Blaze at the show this weekend and while they still have a long way to go they certainly didnt embarass us. They were both perfect gentlemen and were not phased a bit by the fact that this was their first time at a show. Dream is still a stallion but he was the only one there so unfortunately he had to compete with the geldings. We only had them in halter classes and Darlene also rode Blaze in the walk trot class to make up numbers as they only had two entries and need three to make it a point earning class.

My highlight of the weekend, bless Drew (Dream's trainer) heart, he made sure I got to ride Dream before they left, they must have been exhausted after all the work leading up to and during the show but I rode my baby!!!! You will have to excuse the form on my part, I havent done much riding in recent years, am used to the english style of riding, although I love the western style and tack, and I was trying not to mess with his mouth so my hands were forward so that I wasnt jabbing at his mouth. We just did a short walk and trot each way and he was such a star.

The photos were taken by Lisa and I will treasure them. I have very few photos of me with any of my horses.

I am going to make this short and sweet because I have a lot of catching up to do and print orders to get out. I hope that you all had a good weekend. ((((Hugs))))))

Lori

xxx

Monday 4th August 2008

I have again been very remiss in my blog posts, this, I think, is the longest period I have gone without posting anything.

So much has happened since my last post, The Welsh Pony Show went very well, the weather was good to us and I think Lisa had a good time, she is nearly as bad as me when it comes to how many frames she shot, but she also helped out with the downloading and the customers. They were long days, both days finished up at about 8pm and 7pm respectively. We only had one lunch break on the Saturday and no breaks on Sunday.

I have been messing around with Wiggle most days, putting a bridle on her and walking her around the turn out area bareback, and yesterday I actually took her for a walk down the drive, also bareback!! She was so good. We were only walking so there is no telling what she will do if I ask for a trot, but I am not as young as I used to be when riding without a saddle was the norm, so I am not goiing to find out and wind up hurting myself. She loves the attention
I have a 2 day Pinto show this weekend which Lisa is helping me with again. This show has a special bonus in that two of our horses Dream and Blaze will be in the halter classes at this show. I am looking forward to seeing them, they have both apparantly filled out and grown like weeds.
We have been dodging most of the rain over the past few weeks and the temps have been fluctuating between the 80s and 90s but we had a nice downpour this afternoon (only one tenth of an inch) but we will take it. The grass in the pasture needs it.

The fillies down the road are doing well but all the horses have been battling those big black horse flies we get every year at this time. The fly in swarms and bit like crazy, they are about an inch long and target the area just above the tail on the horse's butt where they have the most trouble getting their tails and mouths to and drive them nuts. I found Cayenne yesterday with a whole bunch on her butt and the poor little thing going frantically around trying to get them off but once there is blood there it atttracts more. So I played fly swatter for a while until they had calmed down a bit. These flies are tough, you have to make sure you have squashed them or they will just get up and fly away again.

Today's pictures are of a house near Lisa's that she calls The Munster House. They always have lovely flowers and the house is brick with metal railings around the garden and porch, and the storm that was blowing in taken with the old railway station in the foreground. I didnt have a clear shot because of all the buildings and trees to show you how dramatic the sky was, but it turned pitch black in seconds and had this line between the two types of clouds, difficult to describe. By the time I had got home it was raining and the dramatic look had gone. The other two are of the peacock feathers that Lisa got for me from her mother's male peacock when they fell out. I took these two before the Welsh Show but havent had a chance to edit them until now.

Well that's about it for now. I have resigned myself to the fact that I am never going to catch up on everything I want to do. The corn is tassling at the moment and I am suffering with all the pollen flying around!

Hope you enjoy the pictures. (((Hugs))))

Lori

1 October 2007

Well I missed three days in the end. We left at about 1.30 on Friday but still got caught in a traffic jam while trying to go around Indianapolis and ended up taking 6 hours instead of 3, crazy traffic. The show was hectic but the weather was wonderful to us, last year this show was held indoors because it rained the whole day on Saturday. Got a bit hot in the afternoons, mid 80s but bearable. We only left Edinburg at 7pm on Sunday night and it was 10pm before we got home, I was exhausted and actually still am.

Todays pictures of of one of the Trail classes. I think I would like to do this with my filly if I ever get to ride her and compete. It is done in the western style of riding, sont be familiar to anyone outside USA. The horses have low head carriages and very slow walks, trots and canters. Most of the riders ride with only one hand on the reins (there are a few bridles which are exceptions) so all of the movements are done with leg pressure (most use spurs - not those mean old cowboy ones LOL) and rein pressure on the neck and of course weight adjustment. The first picture is of the horse going over the "wooden bridge". This is a pretty well times shot, with the rider giving the reins so the horse can put its head down and watch what it is doing as it steps up onto the bridge. The other three are a series where the rider has to open the gate (in this case a chain and rope), and while holding on to the rope with the same hand, back your horse up, pivot your horse through the gate opening, back the horse up on the other side and replace the chain to close the "gate" without letting go. The trail course consists of all sorts of other obstacles such as trotting poles which you have to trot over (they are evenly spaced laying flat on the ground) them without touching the poles. Another obstacle would be a four sided square made up of 8 foot poles which you have to trot into and halt in side, then do a 360 degree pivot without touching the poles and walk back out of the box. Lots of others which I wont go into or It will take all night LOL.

I only have a few print orders to mail out as we managed to get most of them printed at the show and the customers took them home with them. I have a few editing jobs in the process still from previous shows which are going to mean replacing bad backgrounds with nice ones and are a lot more time consuming so I do those here at home.

So guys I am still in the land of the living, am going to get an early night so that I can get started early tomorrow. I hope you all had a great weekend.

((((((((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

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

31 July 2007

I have been editing photos and getting them ready for Larry to put on my website. They are all up now but I had to share these shots with you. These classes were the last ones of the show on Sunday evening. They were the children's in hand trail class and Pet pony class. The one judge in the grey jacket was exceptional with all of the children, she was quite a character and kept us laughing all weekend. She walked through the course with the children as can be seen in the first shot, but she was jogging when they needed to trot and really made it fun for them all. The second judge is at the back.

This little guy was determined to do it because each child got a "prize" at the end of the course. His father was going to help him but he wanted nothing of it. The judge kept a close eye on him and guided the pony when it needed to be without letting on that the boy wasnt doing it all himself. He is so tiny and he did a great job.

This was his choice of prize at the end, complete joy and happiness LOL. These children are our future and it was so nice to see someone take the time to talk to the children in all of their classes, giving them advice and reasons for the decisions she made so that they could learn from it.
Taxes is doing really well, I managed to change his dressing today without too much drama, he is settling right down. It was dreadfully hot, in the 90s by 6pm this evening. I am still editing photos, will carry on tomorrow. I will also try to let Taxes have a bit of exercise tomorrow after I put all the horses in, I don't want a repeat performance so it is better to take the distractions away then he will have no reason to go through the fence.

Well my blogging buddies, I am off to bed, tomorrow is another day. We are expecting temps in the 90s for the next 5 days at least and everything is so dry. The pasture down the road is keeping the mares fat but unless we have more rain it will be turning into a dust bowl soon. The grass is very short now.

(((Hugs)))) Will catch up on a few more blogs and then turn in.

Lori
xx

30 July 2007

I havent shot jumping for years. A lot of my horse photography in South Africa consisted of show jumping, cross country and low level dressage. It was really nice to be able to photograph it again even if the fences were pretty low. So here is one of the smaller riders negotiating one of the jumps in fine style!!

I managed to get all the photos sorted and Larry is busy putting them onto my website tonight. It was a good weekend as far as sales goes which is great because all of my other shows are on the decline as far as photo sales goes. I love this club and they have been very good to me over the past four years that I have been shooting for them. I have also shot some of my best show photos here as well. It is a nice venue (despite the lack of shade) and I can get some decent backgrounds while shooting in the arena (usually cars, people, trailers, wires and general chaos).

I was really tired when I got in last night but had a reasonable nights sleep. I got Taxes leg redressed without too much trouble on my own this afternoon. It is not looking too bad as far as infection goes so it was a good thing that I got the dressing on so soon after it happened and he didnt chew it. I have a feeling that he is going to have a large scar though, time will tell. I would post a picture but I am not sure everyone would want to see it. It is about 5 inches long and two inches wide at the widest part.

Now I need to get the prints all prepared and mailed off and catch up on the barn work again.

I have posted a picture in yesterday's blog so am up to date with that.

((((Hugs))))

Lori

28 July 2007

Just a quickie, we have internet access at the Motel and I didnt bring my laptop so am using Joyce's and unfortunately she has no card reader to upload one of my pics to her computer so I am posting a shot that she took today which I think is awesome (I taught her well LOL, no really she has a great eye for people, has never been around horses so this was new to her). I am glad I got to post because I didn't want to miss a day.

Things are going pretty well, very very hot and humid but at least good weather for an outdoor show.

Talk tomorrow night when I get home. (((((Hugs)))))

Lori

xx