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FENCE Horse Trial
Since there do seem to be a few more horsey people in Sports, I thought I'd throw up a few from the past weekend... It was beautiful finally, and most importantly, everyone who started finished safely and unharmed, horses and riders all.. These pics are of a horse that rode at Training level, the third recognized competition level, but the horse is green and at his first show, the rider being one who has in the past ridden "Advanced," at the top of the sport.
I'm proud of these first two pics mostly because they were taken by my daughter, who works on my staff occassionally on what I call the "Action Fer Yer Allowance" program:
For the one coming out of the water, it is a good example of the angle for a "Up Water Bank," as it's best to position yourself so you can hide the rear hooves. On a bank, especially out of the water, the horse tends to throw itself up, but this discipline appreciates the athleticism of it all.
This one is my own, also an "Up Bank," but not our of water. Shoot it just like a regular jump going for the correct foreleg position..(Please ignore my recently acquired bad habit of twisting the camera CC when panning with a subject.. I'm working on it.. Like a bad golf swing..)
This one below is a "Drop Shot," and the timing is what you want to achieve, front hooves not yet on the ground, but also lucky that the rear hooves are off.. This shot at this level and below is the most difficult in equestrian, as the drop is not much of a challenge for the horse, so they will often just stop off, creating not so good a picture. I make new staff members learn this shot on higher levels as the horse is suspended for a longer time, a more forgiving shot:
ENJOY!!!!
I'm proud of these first two pics mostly because they were taken by my daughter, who works on my staff occassionally on what I call the "Action Fer Yer Allowance" program:
For the one coming out of the water, it is a good example of the angle for a "Up Water Bank," as it's best to position yourself so you can hide the rear hooves. On a bank, especially out of the water, the horse tends to throw itself up, but this discipline appreciates the athleticism of it all.
This one is my own, also an "Up Bank," but not our of water. Shoot it just like a regular jump going for the correct foreleg position..(Please ignore my recently acquired bad habit of twisting the camera CC when panning with a subject.. I'm working on it.. Like a bad golf swing..)
This one below is a "Drop Shot," and the timing is what you want to achieve, front hooves not yet on the ground, but also lucky that the rear hooves are off.. This shot at this level and below is the most difficult in equestrian, as the drop is not much of a challenge for the horse, so they will often just stop off, creating not so good a picture. I make new staff members learn this shot on higher levels as the horse is suspended for a longer time, a more forgiving shot:
ENJOY!!!!
Mark
www.HoofClix.com / Personal Facebook / Facebook Page
and I do believe its true.. that there are roads left in both of our shoes..
www.HoofClix.com / Personal Facebook / Facebook Page
and I do believe its true.. that there are roads left in both of our shoes..
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And your daughter popped off a couple of good ones too. Awesome!
For the record (since we were discussing this in the other thread), your first shot and your daughter's 2nd shot are what I see as close to "perfect" timing. Your daughter's might be perhaps a microsecond too late, but not by much (I'm gonna guess his legs were just starting to unfold in this one although that said I can see from your shot that he jumps with a fairly airy style and leg position). Of course, I was a pantywaist show-ring hunter type where it was all about the pretty-pretty and less about the sheer strength, stamina and courage you need in eventing and these variants on timing give FAR more of a sense of the actual physicality and size of eventing fences. Fabulous stuff.
These are fantastic - all these horse shots are brightening a very dreary spring day here. And I'm getting so horse-broody it's not even funny!
I hope I'm not coming through too preachy here, as this isn't really the tutorial area.. I'm probably hastening my demise! I put together a little photomerge of two shots to show how it looks from the photographers view, and to show that these are two successive shots in a combo... The second one is a microsec late, but also keep in mind that eventers are taught to ride combos collected and launch more closely to the jump..
Most importantly is to get in front of the jump and hide the rear hooves, shoot for the correct front legs, and you'll have a higher percentage of photos that look right (thereby putting me and my competition out of business.)
www.HoofClix.com / Personal Facebook / Facebook Page
and I do believe its true.. that there are roads left in both of our shoes..
Don't worry - my life doesn't allow for it any more... and if I wound up ringside I'd probably get so desperate to ride that I'd blow the family budget (and my aging, pudgy leg muscles and no doubt a few broken bones) to start up again!!
Great conversation, and absolutely superb examples - thanks for sharing!
Totally agree - including my wobbly leg muscles
http://www.imagesbyceci.com
http://www.facebook.com/ImagesByCeci
Picadilly, NB, Canada
Leaving aside for the moment that UK horses are trained to a surprisingly different set of aids than I was used to and I was struggling to communicate the simplest things to this rather nice animal they put me on (he was glorious, actually - a very attractive and rather well-schooled dressage bay... just schooled entirely differently than I had been!), I launched in with full physical commitment to get him nicely balanced and flexible between hand and leg, exactly as I had for the previous 12 years of my life... forgetting that I hadn't ridden in over 2 years.
I was fine until I dismounted ..... when I hit the deck because my legs couldn't hold me up and simply collapsed under me! Thankfully we all saw the funny side, but BOYYYYY was I sore - I was hobbling for over a week. Yowza! I shudder to think what it would be like if I tried now!
That said, all these lovely shots are seriously making me wonder if it might be worth the agony .....
What do we need to do, pay for a few lessons?
www.HoofClix.com / Personal Facebook / Facebook Page
and I do believe its true.. that there are roads left in both of our shoes..
http://www.imagesbyceci.com
http://www.facebook.com/ImagesByCeci
Picadilly, NB, Canada