Horse Country

While visiting my sister recently we couldn't resist taking a drive around the countryside in search of a few "roadside horses" as I like to call them, to photograph. Found this willing pair in a field close to Palgrave. I think the white one would make a good unicorn ;o)

Balls or Butterfly?

Not much horsey action going on during these cold winter days so I shall digress for a bit. Being Mom to 2 active teens is keeping me fairly busy these days. They each have their passion, the older daughter - volleyball, playing for her high school team as well as a city team, the younger daughter - swimming (and she also plays public school volleyball). So every day as I sit transfixed to my monitor, staring longingly at photos of horses frolicking in summer fields, I hear far away voices..."Mom I have a __________ "(insert practice, or game here) "after school so you have to__________"(insert drive us to the game, or have dinner ready for me when I get home here). "Lalalalalala" go the voices in my head, and the faraway voices add "and I have a ____________"(insert swim meet or volleyball tournament here.) "this weekend remember, so we have to drive to ___________"(insert some faraway town which will undoubtedly be engulfed in the worst winter storm of the year the day we have to drive there) "and we have to be there for _________"(insert ungodly early morning hour). "Okay Mom...are you listening??"......"sigh....isn't this a beautiful horse girls....I took this last summer when...." "lalalalala..." go my children as they head for the car..."come on Mom, we're gonna be late!!!"

Cats are People too...

My past blogs have been heavily in favour of horses, and even dogs. So on this stormy last day of January, let us celebrate the kitties.
Leslie
"Come out, come out, leetle birdie..."















"Dum de dum...just sitten here minden my own beesness..."













"Just...make...da...magical...fud...bowl...fill...up...@#*!"













"Don't hate me cause I'm bootiful Dahlink..."



















"Even God wants me to eat you..."

Jazz's Snow Day

Winter is here with a vengeance now, with temperatures plummeting to -25c today. So yesterday (being balmy in comparison at only -16c) seemed the perfect day for Lauren to cash in her photo shoot gift certificate. Nope...she couldn't have waited for a warm spring day... ;o) That's ok, I was bundled up nice and toasty...but Jazz was bare naked, well except for his Canadian winter coat. So we only made him run around a "leeetle" bit. He was a good sport. Well with a name like "Northern Jazz" he should be expected to enjoy the winter! Leslie
p.s. See Jazz in his summer duds here.

From the kitchen...

Just a few photos from my kitchen the other day on a rare occasion (these days) when the sun was streaming in.

I love glass, especially coloured glass. I think I was a glass blower in another life.

This orange just looked so beautiful in the light I had to photograph it. My mouth is watering just looking at it!

Every winter since we've lived in this house I have photographed the frost on the windows. This south facing window in my kitchen seems to be the best "host" for stunning frost patterns. There's something to be said for drafty old windows ;o) Leslie

More from Sunday

I wanted to post a few more photos from Jan B's...

Henry was the littlest mule, a pinto pony mule, who gave my daughter and niece a good ride several times around the barnyard. Henry also pulls a cutter and carries packs sometimes when Jan trail rides or camps on horseback. What a talented guy! My daughter took the "nosey" photo, great job kiddo!

It was a chilly day and when the paint stallion galloped a couple of laps around the field, you could really see his steamy breath!

Another Paso of Jan's; a beautiful black gelding.













Jan's main mount: FS Classique, or "Junior" is a talented and handsome dun Paso Fino gelding. He was Horse of the Week on my site. See his page here.

Mules, Minis, Pasos & Paints!

As the reader may or may not know I am a horse photographer without any horses. There may be a span of several weeks where I don't get to be with a single horse...I know...outrageous! Well this past Sunday I got my fix; a mega dose actually. Jan B was kind enough to invite me to her farm in Waverly, Ontario (well if truth be known I invited myself...an absence of horses in my life brings out the pushiness in me). This visit became an outing when the other "horsey" members of my family tagged along - my sister, youngest daughter and niece. Jan B is a wonderful lady with many talents from training mules and making saddles to snowboarding and camping with her horses. I wanted to share a few photos of her menagerie.
Leslie

The Lightfoot Trail, Orillia

As mentioned in the previous post, the Lightfoot Trail is one of my favourite walks. There is an abundance of birds; I have spotted chicadees, robins, bluejays, cardinals, juncos, red winged blackbirds, crows, and grackles to name a few and on several lucky occasions, a Baltimore oriole, which I happened to get a (albeit blurry) photo of. The squirrels thrive here too. Unfortunately for me, poison ivy thrives here as well. Thinking it was dorment in the winter I was rather careless about inspecting some trailside plants just before Xmas. I am paying for it still as I have some nasty rashes now to show for it. If flora is more to your liking there are many different wildflowers along the trail as well as not so wild flowers that have escaped, either on purpase or accidentally, from local gardens. Once I saw a beautiful snake, and a couple of times some feral cats. Here are some images from the trail. Happy (Lightfoot) Trails! Leslie






Are these really Gordon Lightfoot's feet?















Brandy knows the way...



















People: USE THESE!!!!!!


















Queen Anne's Lace looks like fireworks in the winter!



















Leaves of three, let it be...

Couchiching Park, Orillia

One of my favourite things about Orillia is the town's lovely waterfront and boardwalk as well as several parks. I love to walk here with my dog and continue along the Lightfoot trail (named for Orillia's favourite son, Gordon Lightfoot). Brandy never seems to tire of sniffing along the edge of the trail and must have the bladder capacity of a small firetruck based on the amount of times she stops to pee! Ever wary of other dogs, we often crisscross from the gravel trail to the paved trail to avoid other canines as Brandy is a bit of a b**** when it comes to other dogs. I blame whoever owned her the first 4 years of her life... Anyway, we never tire of these lovely walks and I often bring my smaller digital camera to snap photos of whatever tickles my fancy...Happy walking and try to notice the little things that may pass you by. Leslie

Deadly cans - Please Read!

I had a horrible experience tonight I want to share. I'm sure by now you know I am very passionate about animals and not just horses. I was on my way to drop my daughter off at swimming, and tonight happened to be one of the few where we are having any snow. It is quite a blizzard out there at the moment. As I was getting in the car I noticed something on the driveway behind it. I could see a cat food can (the larger 14oz size) surrounded by what looked like a little pile of snow. I cursed the neighbour's dog who is constantly loose and steals cans from my recycling box to scatter them around my yard. Thinking I'd pick it up when I got back (and I would have backed up right over top of it) I suddenly have the chilling feeling that it's not snow. I slowly walked up to it and with horror realized it was a snowy white cat lieing very still with it's head lodged completely into the can. To make matters worse, we have a white cat who, although she is an indoor cat, once every couple of weeks she manages to make a break for the outdoors through a door left open just a fraction of a second too long. I put my hand on the cat's snow covered back (it must have been there for awhile as there were no tracks in the snow surrounding it) and gently pulled the can off it's head. I thought for sure it was dead but perhaps it was unconscous from lack of air. Suddenly it shook it's head (it wasn't, thank god, my Cleo) and bolted away into the snowy night.
I am sick to my stomach thinking that beautiful cat would have died had I not come along. So my message to you is if you have an open recycling box like we do, to pinch the tops of your cans together, before putting them outside. This is an awful thing to happen to an animal...any animal. Thanks so much!
Leslie

Season's Greetings!

My oldest, dearest friend, Patty, read and enjoyed my blog recently, and unknowingly reminded me that I have not added any new posts in ages! Shame on me!! Not much happened in November anyway...well winter came and went. And now, with a week till Christmas, spring seems to be imminent.

Ahh Christmas. For me a big part of this holiday is memories. In particular, childhood memories of Christmases past. It is not surprising that some of my favourite memories revolve around horse related toys. How is it possible that a child who rarely ever got to see real live horses could be so passionate about them at such an early age!?

My earliest memory of Christmas is this morning, many years ago, when "Timothy" came into my life. He was named after a colt in my favourite storybook at the time (which I'm a tad embarrassed to say I bought on eBay last year because I just had to peruse it's pages again). Oh the hours we logged on the "trail" together! We had many happy years together, and when my knees were finally level with my ears while riding him, I knew it was soon time to say goodbye.














Now "Barbie" may have been the choice of doll for most little girls but she was far too girlie for me. My kinda gal could be found in one "Jane West" doll. She was part of the "Best of the West" series of toys by Marx. She and her man "Johnny West" (were they married, or just from the West?) provided me with endless hours of playtime scenarios. Of course They each had a horse, she a palomino named Thunderbolt, he a bay with a poseable head (high tech I thought!) I called Buckskin. The set kept growing as I added a palomino colt named Thundercolt (how original!), a buffalo, an English Setter dog, a corral, and a covered chuckwagon! I recently saw many of these toys on eBay...oh my how lovely it would be to hold them again, to fiddle with the plastic saddle and bridle, to place the replica coffee pot in Jane's stiff hand so she could pour Johnny a plastic cup-a- jo (well come on, Johnny had a long, hard day shooting buffalo!). If anyone's looking to get me a Christmas present...


















I never did get the real pony I begged for every year, although I never failed to peek out the window first thing every Christmas morning, just in case one was tied out in the front yard with a big red bow around it's neck. Did that really happen to any kid? Do me a favour, if it happened to you, I don't want to know...lol ;o).

My hope for you is to have some wonderful memories of your own about holidays' past. Maybe you'll create a few new ones this year.

Merry Christmas, and all the best for 2007!
Leslie

Who let the dogs out?!

I have come to an unscientific hypothesis about horse owners and please feel free to prove me wrong. Most (I mean 99% of the horse owners I have met) have one or more dogs as well. Dogs and horses seem to go together like turkey and potatoes (ok I'm still thinking about Thanksgiving...). This past week has been the busiest of my entire equestrian photography career and as a bonus, I think I have photographed as many dogs at these farms. Let me give you a sampling of the past week.
It started at Hopeful Farms in Bracebridge on Friday (they are hopeful they will pay the mortgage Jayme says ;oD). I pulled into their driveway after a lovely drive through the country. No one seemed to be about so I stayed in the car for a few minutes with the driver's side door open while I went over some notes. Suddenly there was a lttle white dog in my lap, wagging his stub of a tail and subsequently his whole behind in welcome. Ah...this is the kind of farm dog I like, small, friendly, welcoming, small, cute, small...I continued looking over my notes when a large shadow fell over my page. Seemingly apparating out of thin air, a large German Shepherd was now mostly in my lap as well. Now I have a theory about farm dogs; I am quite sure they would not just outright attack me just for pulling up in the driveway, as I'm sure many people are always coming and going from horse farms. With this thought comforting me I said my hellos to the curious beast and extricated myself from my car. No sooner had I closed the door when a third dog (this creature was moving so fast it took me several seconds to recognize it as canine) was launching himself at me. A whisp of a shaggy border colllie, he circled me at the speed of sound and then shot off like a rocket through the nearby paddock. Did I just imagine that dog I wondered? I made a mental note to ask the owner what kind of rocket fuel she was feeding him.
Well I found the owner and with pack of dogs in tow (another dog joined us, a sweet buxom lab, seemingly a chew toy for the others) we started our photo shoot. My first error of judgement was to choose a spot in a field at the far end from where the rest of the herd of horses grazed. Jayme may be a collector of canines but the equine collection far outnumbered the dogs! My perfect location, a grassy knoll with the distant fall colours in the background, soon was as crowded as a Tim Horton's on a 2 for 1 muffin morning. An assortment of dogs and horses freely walked back and forth in front of or behind my subjects. I was breaking out in a cold sweat thinking of showing my client the proofs, every frame with another horse or dog's body part jutting into it. I realized then how comical the situation was and how much more it just made me love my job. The problem was eventually solved with some treats scattered down by the barn. The dogs did find their way into many a photo but that is life on the farm where the people, horses, and dogs must live in harmony...and share the spotlight sometime.
Leslie

p.s. I wanted to share a few other photos of dogs from that week: Sue's sweet Golden, Laurie's beautiful Wheaton Terriers, and all those hilarious Jack Russels at Erins, man can those dogs jump!!