Oh look, sun!

 Yesterday was a taste of the warmer weather coming; almost to the above freezing mark! Beautiful and sunny was good enough for a visit to Shayla while Ted visited his dad. 

It was mostly a visit about photography, as she has a new camera to figure out- Canon TR7. So off we went to see the horses!

Lots of straw bedding for the mares whose date is the closest to foaling. Jayne is in with Concho and Daphne, who are both beyond safe foaling date and will probably go another couple of weeks. 

Concho (MY Buckskin Concho)

Mama Belle is having trouble with an arthritic knee so she is in a different pen as she is now having a bit of trouble getting around while we wait for the knee to fuse. 

She is, as usual, hugely in foal, and we got to see her baby bouncing around! She is at least a month away from foaling; knowing her history, probably another 6 weeks. 

Then we headed to the big pasture where the Percheron mares are, along with Gussie and Shayla's palomino mare who are both in foal to her black stallion, although Gussie isn't due until later in July. 

 Enjoying the sunshine!

Gussie recognized my voice and came over to visit me and get her scratches. 

Dolly looks more like a sorrel than palomino at this time of year! She is due end of April.

Dolly (DF Sunfrosted Te)

I'm getting to know the draft mares by name now. This one is Kate:

She has the longest mane of them all! There is one mare I like the most, a 3 yr. old that looks like a blue roan but may go grey. Eva! She is so friendly and huge!

We have matching hair!😆

Afterwards we spent some time exploring photo editing; Lightroom. It was interesting! Can sure do a lot to clean up a photo. 

What programs do you, my photographer friends, use and what would you recommend? Ease of use, efficacy and budget are the needs. 

I love my telephoto lens, as I shoot mostly outdoors, but what lens do you think is best for, say, outdoor wedding portraits, horse photos both action and still, for Shayla's Canon TR7? She already has the 50 mm portrait lens and is exploring how to use it; the above photo was taken with it. 

12 years

Today marks 12 years of blogging. Many changes in those years and some things have come full circle, like Belle and Gussie.

Gussie is starting to show her age a bit, she is 17 this year. She is such a rock steady horse for me; I even took my Nikon camera riding yesterday, hung the camera bag off the saddle horn because I trust her not to do anything silly like slam me into a tree. We had a short ride because I tried out a saddle pad combo that wasn't working; as I rode it slid back a bit and was digging into her. It was a thin neoprene pad that had extra padding where the bars of the saddle sit. I had it under my Diamond Wool pad. I did get a couple of nice mountain photos from her back!

I zoomed in for this one

A longer view featuring our house. Yes that's a house, not a barn!

I am really looking forward to some big trail rides this summer. I don't have any particular places planned as a lot of it will depend on who I have to ride with, but there is a lot of country here that I'd like to explore, and plenty of places that I can haul to. Also in my plans is to buy a set of Cavallo hoof boots for Gussie. I ride barefoot, but I like to have the option of boots if the ground is too jagged.

Belle is due to foal any time from the 3rd week of April to the middle of May. She was bred May 18 & 19 last year. She is getting big as per usual!

She is in awesome shape considering she is 16 this year and is on her 10th foal. She is so easy to handle, easy to breed and foals easily. All broodmares should be like her!

Bff's. 

Riding day 2

Outtakes

I always try to get good photos, - you know, well centred, correctly proportioned , good lighting, interesting subject, etc.
Well I actually like some of my outtakes - the ones that don't have all the horse in the photo, or something is just a little off. Like these:
In this one. Kai's ears are cut off- but it helps to focus on his beautiful eye.

In this next one, I was focused on Kai, on the left, as he galloped away, when Rio ran into the picture, resulting in only half the photo in focus.

Here I was panning along with Josie and Rio as they were goofing around, I like the angle Josie is on as it makes her look like she is just "dropping in". I could have cropped it from the withers forward, but decided to leave it as is.

In this one, I was trying to focus on Tess as she watched the horses, but instead got the grass in focus- an interesting oops!

This photo, I was trying to get Josie and Kai in full flight; I like the stretched out photos, but in this one they are all tight and goofy- but it does express their personalities. Grab a mouthful of grass, and dance around being silly!

Had to add in one more that I took early this morning. This is Beamer's girlfriend who was enjoying the early morning rays- darned if she didn't close her eyes just as I snapped the photo- but it adds to the sleepy morning vibe.

Mr. Predictable

I can always count on Beamer to perform. He would have made a good movie horse, because he is so easy to pattern. Take, for example the 3 things I can always get photos of that most people rarely get a chance to . Like the rear...

He's airborne!

Then the leaps with all 4 feet off the ground; this one is a front view:

And next- the yawn- or horse laugh, as some like to think of it. Someone on Facebook said I was lucky to get a yawn shot. Not hard at all, he yawns regularly and predictably!

Several yawns in a row, actually!

Yes, Beamer, the camera was turned on. Yes, I got the photos you posed for. 

Yes, I'm quite sure. Now go eat your hay!!!

Sunday Stills

The final challenge for 2012, is our favorite photos from this year. I spent a lot of time looking through them, and while it might be expected that there would be a photo of Beamer in this bunch. actually, there isn't.
But there is Nitro!

and my pretty Pearl....

a January morning....

spring flowers....

more Nitro....

Geese flying in.....

a sunset....

Gussie strutting....

 and my most favorite.... horse drool....

Sunday Stills

Take something bad and find a way to make it look good/find some beauty in it – at least photographically.

Not too hard to find something I consider bad- barbwire,

and mud puddles.  

Sunday Stills

It's all about shiny things, and I have to blame Ed for this one. At the fair, I walked by a table and did a double take- Oh look! Shiny! There was a table full of costume jewelry, chock full of shiny items! Thanks goes out to Hennie Webster, of Unique Jewelry for letting me photograph some of her items, like this bracelet,

and this bracelet too-

both of which sold; I went back to buy the little cross bracelet today, but it was sold. So I'm blaming Ed for getting me look at shiny things because I just had to have a little bling and bought these earrings:

She had plenty of unique items, so her business is well named; like this set, which is made of rutilated quartz:

Yes, Mikey, it's still for sale- pink - it has you written all over it!

But there was plenty of shine going on , especially in mother nature because we have been having beautiful clear, cloudless days for quite some time. I especially like the morning sun for it's soft color.

The shine defines!

Shines in your eyes....

No matter which way you turn!

Fair Photos

I submitted 6 photos for the fall fair, and I'm happy to say that two of them took first place, and two took second place. In first for domestic animals we have:

In the category of farm equipment, this one took first place:

The second place ones were this double rainbow, in local scenery:

And also, this photo of the owl we rescued, taken the day it came back and hung out in the tree for the afternoon.

The ones that didn't place were the columbine, and a photo of my nieces, which I don't have permission to put on the internet.
They had an auction this evening of local agricultural products with all the proceeds going to an Agriculture Bursary, and I bought a half ton of small square bales of horse hay for $50. So I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow!