mudlocked

This spring has provided us with soaking rains almost every week. Two of my favorite horses, Newt and Reagan are turned out together daily in a large pasture for several hours of romping, stretching and, of course, rolling. The soil is essentially clay. When a long mane contacts this wet clay, the result is a horse that resembles a Rastafarian.

He looks so innocent, doesn’t he?

Here is a detail of his dreadlocks. We have nicknamed him Bob Marley.

Can’t you just hear him saying “Hey, it wasn’t my fault – those gobs just attacked me!”

After giving him a warm bath, massaging the clay balls until they melted and applying a detangler called Cowboy Magic, this is the result.

His mane is generally much longer. Luckily it grows fast.

Well I just heard, rain is in the forecast. I have an idea I’ll be doing this all over again!

what our horses endure!

We always want the best for our horses. That’s a given. However, some of the contraptions we put on them border on the absurd (in appearance).

This beautiful mare likes to crib. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cribbing_(horse)). This is her second bucket – the first was hot pink. I missed photographing it before she smashed it against the fence.It was created by the fine folks at West Brothers Tack & Feed. (http://www.westbrothersinc.com/West_Bros._Inc./West_Brothers_Inc..html)

The horse in the next turnout teases her.

It reminds me of an I.D.D. (Improvised Diet Device).

This guy has light sensitivity.

Good thing there isn’t a mirror in his turnout – he’d be mortified.

On a different note, this mare named Major has definite opinions about the speed with which her dinner should come.

Can you just hear her saying “Hey……..move it!”?

When that didn’t work, she resorted to smiling.

All these critters live at Shiloh Farms (http://shilohfarmsequestrian.com/) in Golden.

Along with Leroy Brown, the barn blood hound.

Can you say “saliva”?

ibn’s new toy

Yesterday I stopped at Shiloh Farms to see my friend, Sally.  She had been given a ‘stall toy’ to entertain her horse while he recovers from some lameness.

Ibn is a bit ADHD anyway and being confined wasn’t helping.

You can see from the smears on the mirror, he likes it.

He didn’t need any encouragement to start batting the rider around or attempting to open the lock.

We let a guest in to try out the toy. He chomped down on the mounting for the lock!

Ahhhh, the things we do for our horses.

poppy

I purchased Poppy on June first, 2007. As I drove to the “closing”, I passed a bank of poppies beside the road to the barn. Of course, I grabbed a handful to give to her teary owner. Now, when the poppies bloom in June, I fondly remember that day.

Yesterday when I returned home, I spied a splash of color behind my trumpet vive. Sure enough it was the first bloom – a month early.It felt like a wonderful sign to me, even though my rational mind knew winter ended early and spring was pretty hot, so all the flowers were ahead of schedule.

Today, all the care of the past ten months paid off.  Poppy got a visit from our favorite vet and she pronounced that my girl was ready to start walking! So for the next two weeks, I will walk her by hand. The following two weeks, I can hop on her for the walks. After a month, we can begin to trot and she can return to the pasture with her girlfriends.

So today has been one of celebration for me and my sturdy little mare. Thank you all for you constant support as we’ve gone through this journey.

Pictures to follow!

building my portfolio

I had the chance to photograph two more volunteers yesterday. It was a warm morning with just the right amount of cloud cover.

All four models got into the spirit of demonstrating their connections – human to horse and vice versa.

It didn’t hurt that they had their horses polished to a fine sheen.

What I’m attempting to capture is the uniqueness of each horse and how their people recognize and respond to it.

The deep affection is obvious.

And so is the humor!

I have registered the domain name: NaturalHorsePortraits.com and will begin to build the site with some of these images.

Sometimes I catch a tender, quiet moment.

I would still love some more volunteers. If you’d like to have some fun, please contact me.

kathryn

This post is going to border on shameless promotion of my friend, Kathryn. But to anyone who begins another career at (approximately) my age,

I say “you go Girl!

Several weeks ago, after she became a Certified NIA Instructor, I offered to take some pictures of her for future marketing material. We shot in her home studio. It was challenging with the mirrors and trying to bounce the strobe off the correct surfaces. I just said “Keep dancing and I’ll just keep shooting.” The pictures aren’t my best, but one can’t miss the joy Kathryn feels as she teaches the different routines. She sent an email to her friends describing NIA and I include it here in italics:

I’m a Nia Technique instructor.  Nia is a fitness/dance class that any body and every body can do regardless of age or size or ability.  Any body!  It was co-created thirty years ago by fitness pro Debbie Rosas, who was tired of seeing her students getting injured and bored.  Nia won’t hurt you.  And Nia certainly won’t bore you. In fact, 

Nia is the kind of exercise your body actually craves!

It’s based on 52 moves that draw from dance, martial and healing arts.  What does that mean?  It means your body will love doing it, it wants to do it, it knows how to do it.  Nia puts “no pain, no gain” to shame.  There’s no reason to hurt your body while you’re ultimately trying to help your body.  That simply doesn’t make sense.  And all of the moves are done to music that you simply won’t be able to resist.

I would love to invite you to take a class.  I would be delighted to talk to you by phone or email.  I would be thrilled to arrange a demonstration.  The best part of Nia is sharing it and seeing how quickly one can get in shape physically, mentally, and yes, even spiritually.

I am teaching Nia at a wonderful studio, Dancing the Soul, located at 905-C Jersey Street here in Central Denver (very near Rose Hospital).  

Check out the Web site!  http://dancingthesoul.com/ Beginning May 7th, my teaching schedule will be:

Wednesdays @ 9:00 am

Thursdays     @12:15pm…..this one only $5 drop-in fee for a limited time

I would love to have you try a class as my guest the first time around! Come join me in this amazing path towards healthy minds, bodies and spirits!

Lovingly, Kathryn

So here she is looking pretty great for her (ah-hem) age! I think the photos could be aptly credited as “Clothing by _____; Body by Nia”

If you’d like to reach Kathryn, leave a comment and I’ll contact you with her phone number.

miscellany

Back in the olden days, when I was growing up, we took Life Magazine. My favorite page was the last one called “Miscellany” (which I pronounced “Mich-ell-eny”).

This post is like that – just some pictures I like.

Spring in Colorado is an olfactory feast. Driving through the neighborhoods, the scent of lilacs fills the breeze. Yesterday I cut a few from my yard to enjoy in the house.

I was practicing for my Natural Horse Portraits (NaturalHorsePortraits.com) and caught this handsome guy. His name is Bandit and his mane is called “flaxen”. I love the color.

Then I spotted Jesse in another pasture just resting his head on his pasture mate’s back. Doesn’t he look content?

We had some rain this past week and the horses that have turn-out time just love to roll in the clay mud. This is a mild version of what results.

You can only imagine the clods that twist themselves into the tails.

The joys of mud-season!