Sounds like it's raining

[glenatron]

This afternoon we went over to Sussex to watch the last part of the Garden Of England Circuit western show in Bodiam. Considering it's one of the biggest Western riding competitions in the UK I was surprised how quiet it was ( and how few stalls there were for my fix of western tack shopping... *sob* ) but the venue is fantastic and it was good to meet some friends and watch some competition classes.

I even got a few pictures:


This horse had a massive mane and the spin here shows it off pretty well. It was slightly too dark in the arena for my camera so there are many blurry pictures, but this was one of the better ones.

I wasn't keen on this rider though- in a lot of the other pictures the horse is gaping his mouth. I know in competitions I've seen in the past the rider was penalised for this, but I don't know whether the NRHA rules work that way.


This girl was brilliant. Young but really good at what she does.


Three consecutive pictures from my camera's Continuous mode that just happened to show a lead change quite neatly, so I jammed the content together...


The same girl from earlier on a different horse. It's not reining if you don't have a picture of a sliding stop...


... specifically this picture.


The dust settles.

Comments

[penella22.livejournal.com]

The flying lead change pics are neat, and I can't believe that horse's mane!!

Nice sliding stop sequence too. I'll trade my kind of raining for yours...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

My kind happens in an indoor arena too, so it's compatible with bad weather :)

[oifonly.livejournal.com]

coo, dramatic piccies. I like in the sliding stop one, that the horse still appears to have its mouth shut, too.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Mostly they should- as I understand it the cue for the stop is a voice and seat one, the bit doesn't really come into it that much when its done right.

[serennig]

NICE pictures! I love the composite of the flying change!

What camera do you use?

Mouth gaping = definite penalty in NRHA.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It's a little Canon ixus- an 850IS I think. It was the best of their pocket-size digital ones when I got it, but it's a bit old now and starting to forget how to autofocus. I should probably be saving for a replacement...

[serennig]

I'm shopping now, I know I neeeed continuous mode (or sport mode, or whatever they call it) and I didn't even know you could get a pocket-sized one that would do it! Yours seemed to be pretty quick on the "redraw", I may have to check out similar models. I'm not expecting to churn out good pictures, there's a lot more to it than the camera, I know, but I'd like to have a chance at least.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I'm quite a Canon fan. think the newest equivalent is probably the Ixus 950IS or something like that. Maybe called something different in the US though. Also the Powershot range get highly rated if you like having a camera that does 90% of what you would do with an SLR but want something easier to carry around. They're bigger than the Ixus family but they're not massive.

I like that mine goes back to 28mm-equivalent wide angle so you can use it for big skies or pictures of ponies who are quite nearby - although of course the slight fisheye effect means that you tend to throw their proportions out then. Consequently I have many pictures where Zorro's head resembles an anvil. Come to think of it, those are probably the accurate ones...

[skiesfirepaved.livejournal.com]

...I didn't even know that there were Western riding competitions over here! *is an idiot*

And I love those 3 consecutive photos - what an awesome shot! I want to make one myself now. :3

I really like the palomino. ^-^

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I liked that one too- very nice looking horse and the girl riding it is outstanding.

I was really chuffed when I noticed the middle of those pictures had the hind feet equal so he must be right in the middle of the change there and then I was going to do it as one above the other until I figured I could join all three pics...

[penella22.livejournal.com]

Yay for more messing with photoshop!