Riding + photoshoot with Maggie and Desi
On December 29th, Maggie and I finally got around to going for a horseback ride! She has two horses, a Brumby/Quarter Horse cross named Danny and an Arabian named Desi. Unfortunately, Danny foundered the day I arrived in Australia, so we couldn't ride together in the first couple weeks I stayed with Maggie. But with careful care and attention, he had recovered by the time I got back to Melbourne six weeks later. In the photos Maggie has posted of Dan, he looks like a sweet, sleepy old man who would require much encouragement to pick up more than an ambling walk. However, nothing could be farther from the truth! ...Except for the sweet part -- he's got that down pat. Once I was up on his back, he didn't stop moving for the rest of the ride. He had a quick, marching walk that felt very odd to me since I am used to much longer-strided, large horses (Danny is only about 14.1hh, I think). And you certainly wouldn't have guessed he was a recent founder victim, as he was more than happy to motor along at a trot a good bit of the time, whether it was asked of him or not!
The plan was to ride out to some nice scenery and do some portraits of Maggie and Desi. We hadn't gone far before I wanted to use the picturesque road we were on as a background. I tied Danny up to a tree so I could have both hands free for the camera, but he had a tantrum (remember how I said he likes to keep moving?) and we only got a few shots in. We thought he would calm down after a bit more riding, so we wound our way through the forest and onto a grassy stretch. Maggie warned me that there might be kangaroos around the corner, and sure enough, a few were grazing on the sunshine-streaked grass adjacent to the forest. The horses are used to the kangaroos, but just like deer, they can move suddenly and startle the horses.
I thought this would be a good place to take some action shots, and there was grass to distract Dan while I held his reins -- but now it was Desi's turn to be uncooperative, and we decided to work with what we had already taken and just enjoy the ride instead... although when we walked through a burned-out gum tree forest later, I just had to hop off and take a few more shots! This was not an easy task, however, as there was no grass to occupy Dan this time, and the light was rapidly fading from the sky. I bumped up my ISO to 1000, but some of the moving pictures are still a bit blurry.
Alright, enough words... here are the pics!
In the gum tree forest.
Our valiant explorers.
Who says Arabians are stuck up? Hmph!
That's better!
The next day, I made Maggie take some more in-hand pictures with me because there was this awesome bridge we got to ride across the evening before, and we hadn't done any shots on it as it was right at the start of the ride. We would have done some pictures with Danny, but he was way up in another paddock and we were short on time.
Hiding the halter. Next to Desi is her sweet old companion, Bundy.
The focus was meant to be on Desi's eye, but she only held this pose for a millisecond!
Her neat mane and tail colouration is part of the Rabicano trait.
Maggie says Desi is the only horse she's ever known who likes
having her ears scratched... it was a first for me too!
We left straight from the horses to the city to pick up Al from work and meet Jen, a girl who had been in the last family portraits I had shot before leaving Alberta. She has moved to Melbourne to do her PhD in neuroscience, and I thought it would be fun to meet up with her and see how she was doing. We all went to a food court and chose our favourite food, and sat together to eat by the Yarra River. We had a good chat, and then we dropped Jen off at her place, and Al and Maggie dropped me off at the airport for my flight to Perth. Yay, the next post will actually be about the same city I am currently residing in!
The plan was to ride out to some nice scenery and do some portraits of Maggie and Desi. We hadn't gone far before I wanted to use the picturesque road we were on as a background. I tied Danny up to a tree so I could have both hands free for the camera, but he had a tantrum (remember how I said he likes to keep moving?) and we only got a few shots in. We thought he would calm down after a bit more riding, so we wound our way through the forest and onto a grassy stretch. Maggie warned me that there might be kangaroos around the corner, and sure enough, a few were grazing on the sunshine-streaked grass adjacent to the forest. The horses are used to the kangaroos, but just like deer, they can move suddenly and startle the horses.
I thought this would be a good place to take some action shots, and there was grass to distract Dan while I held his reins -- but now it was Desi's turn to be uncooperative, and we decided to work with what we had already taken and just enjoy the ride instead... although when we walked through a burned-out gum tree forest later, I just had to hop off and take a few more shots! This was not an easy task, however, as there was no grass to occupy Dan this time, and the light was rapidly fading from the sky. I bumped up my ISO to 1000, but some of the moving pictures are still a bit blurry.
Alright, enough words... here are the pics!
In the gum tree forest.
Our valiant explorers.
Who says Arabians are stuck up? Hmph!
That's better!
The next day, I made Maggie take some more in-hand pictures with me because there was this awesome bridge we got to ride across the evening before, and we hadn't done any shots on it as it was right at the start of the ride. We would have done some pictures with Danny, but he was way up in another paddock and we were short on time.
Hiding the halter. Next to Desi is her sweet old companion, Bundy.
The focus was meant to be on Desi's eye, but she only held this pose for a millisecond!
Her neat mane and tail colouration is part of the Rabicano trait.
Maggie says Desi is the only horse she's ever known who likes
having her ears scratched... it was a first for me too!
We left straight from the horses to the city to pick up Al from work and meet Jen, a girl who had been in the last family portraits I had shot before leaving Alberta. She has moved to Melbourne to do her PhD in neuroscience, and I thought it would be fun to meet up with her and see how she was doing. We all went to a food court and chose our favourite food, and sat together to eat by the Yarra River. We had a good chat, and then we dropped Jen off at her place, and Al and Maggie dropped me off at the airport for my flight to Perth. Yay, the next post will actually be about the same city I am currently residing in!