Tigger and Ragtime: Buddies

After a cold night, what a horse wants is a good breakfast and then a sunny day without too much wind…the two of them stood side by side, broadside to the early sun to catch the first warmth of its rays.  Then they burned through a good amount of hay.   And then, full and at peace with the world while R- was picking up manure in their lot, they did this:

Tigger, muzzle on ground, snoozing, taken with 200 mm zoom

But then noticed R- across the field

And spotted me as I moved near the carport.  R- said Rags lay down first, even stretched out, before Tigger decided it was OK to lie down.  But he’s the alpha and therefore the one on guard duty.  “Are you bringing more food?”

I tried to go back into the house, through, out the front door, and then–using the carport and hay barn for cover, get to a better angle to show both horses without being noticed.  You can see how well that didn’t work.  Tigger was staring at me when I got to where I could see him again.  And Rags took his cue from Tigger.  This was taken with a normal lens, then cropped…I wanted the two white stars to show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is also taken with the 200 mm zoom extended.  These days I need something to lean against to keep my hands steady.

Here Rags is already lowering his head to snooze some more, but Tigger’s keeping an eye on R- and out beyond the fence.

The next time I went out, an hour or so later, they were up again.

Tigger’s definitely buddy-bound (he gets upset when I ride Rags out of sight) and Rags is a little buddy-bound (will move away from Tigger, but reacts to Tigger calling for him.)

11 thoughts on “Tigger and Ragtime: Buddies

  1. They are so lovely! Of course, when you want their photo they don’t really want to cooperate. Did you watch Megan Elphick’s vlog today?

    L.

    1. YES! Ari is amazing! He looks SO much more mature and “settled” than a couple of months ago. And his jumping form is phenomenal…SO much potential. Wishing him all his dam’s ability and way more soundness.

  2. They really are beauties! I don’t ride – tried to as a child but didn’t enjoy it – but with a niece who would probably have been in the 2012 Olympics had her wonderful horse not broken his leg and had to be put down (and who trains with Charlotte Dujardin), and a brother who is, or was, Chair of the British Hanoverian Society…. well, one can’t help liking the beasts, even if one end does kick and the other bite!

    1. Vast and heartfelt sympathy for your niece in that situation. This is the niece who has some young Hanoverians for sale? And I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy riding–it’s certainly not for everyone, but having family members who are into horses must’ve made it harder on you.

  3. To avoid blurry images on a sunny day as it looks like you had, Set the ISO to 400. This should give you more that enough sensitivity to get a good exposure with a fast shutter speed and enough depth of field to have both horses in focus. If hand holding set your shutter speed to twice the amount of the power of the lens. In this case with your 200mm lens set the shutter speed to 1000 and there will be no blur unless you have a bad case of the shakes.
    Hope this helps. Almost 40 years as a professional photographer.

    1. Thanks. Long ago I knew some of that, but years have eroded old skills, esp. since my eyes aren’t that good anymore. (I no longer trust the focus out of my better eye and use autofocus, which tempts to using auto-everything.)

  4. They do make a pretty pair!

    How long did revision usually take, before the concussion? Also how much longer did the book take to write? I am obviously guessing, but I suspect that you are still ahead in post concussion terms, even if you are behing in pre-concussion terms if only because, as you have told us, your mental capacities increased while writing the book. This is meant to be encouraging, though I know it may simply be frustrating!

  5. How long revisions used to take is…variable. There are two distinct stages of several rounds of revision, because usually no one sees it until I think it’s close to submission. Then it goes to the alpha readers. Alpha reader and (sometimes) agent comments contribute to the final revision before submission. This is usually quick (a few weeks) though the book with 12 or more viewpoint characters spread across multiple spaceships and multiple planets, whose “voices” had to braid into one coherent sequence took a lot of sleepless nights. Holy whopping migraines. So my personal revision before submission would probably average under a month, but be longer in more structurally complex books.

    Then comes the editor’s letter (and in some cases, multiple letters, which frankly drives me nuts. Tell me *everything* the first time, so I can try to make everything smooth together…dropping in “Oh, and I meant to mention” stuff later means a much harder and longer revision process. Like the client who says, when the house is under construction and all the plumbing and wiring is in the walls, “I meant to tell you I wanted a really large pantry between the kitchen and utility room, so can you just move that wall about four feet? And I’m thinking add a little half-bath here, it would be handy…”

    Also, for me, it’s definitely the editor’s job to tell me about a problem they see…but not their job to fix it. It’s my job to fix is. IME, which is now long enough to count, it’s not their book, and some have been way, way off in their suggestions. “Just have character A do this and say that to character B and that won’t take you any time at all. I need it by Tuesday.” Never mind that it’s against character A’s established character to act like that, a complete break in characterization, and also has no way to make such a break fit in with anything else without rewriting half the book to make it believable.

    But still, yeah, I used to do it faster, and used to be quicker to spot problems myself.

  6. Yes, this is the niece with Hanoverians for sale. If and when you can get back on Facebook, check out Longdean Stud. Meanwhile, this is what she posted:

    Longdean Stud 9 December 2020

    We have 2 lovely four year old geldings looking for a new
    Both of them are currently being backed by Jason Webb! (your.horsemanship.com)
    They can’t get a better start than that!
    Legend (Luke) is a beautiful bay Dutch gelding, he is approx 16.2hh
    Falstaff (Patch) is a striking British Hanoverian chestnut gelding approx 17hh
    Please pm for details and video.

  7. They look so calming together. Such a wonderful photo! I own a horse farm in Texas and take photos of my horses all the time! I really can’t handle myself=DDD How can you not take pictures of your horses every day?

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