Tag Archives: Horse

Dark Woods and Dressage

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Last weekend I found myself with time to spare as I waited for the Clydach Riding Club Dressage Show to start. Having turned up earlier than I needed to, I took the opportunity to have a short walk through the woodland next to the show field.

The weather had been pretty wet for several days but on Saturday the clouds at least had dried up, if not the ground, the plants and the undergrowth. The dry “crump” of my footsteps in snow (see yesterday’s post) was nowhere to be heard in the woodland landscape at Ynystawe near Swansea.

In amongst the trees the scene was dark as well as wet, making photography problematic. The dressage show photos can be found at StillWalks Photography.

Dark Wet Woods Dark Wet Woods 2 Ivy in the Dark Wet Woods Damp Seed Head Blackberry

One Happy Rider

One Happy Rider

Early Morning Sounds

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I am currently working on the photography and sound from a production day in mid Summer at Troserch Woodland, Carmarthenshire, South Wales.

The unique field recording of the walk is absolutely essential if a sense of the location is to be conveyed. This sound clip near the start of the walk has a time stamp of 4:43 on the morning of 20th July and whilst the the images remind me of what the sky looked like and that there was a horse in the field, the recorded sounds take me (and you too, I hope) straight to the time and place and give me so much more information.

Sunrise at Troserch

Sunrise at Troserch

Good Morning!

Good Morning, you’re up early!

Knocking Things Into Shape

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Indy, it seems to me, is a patient horse! I understand there were five horses being re-shod  at Cimla Equestrian Centre last Saturday. I wonder if they were all as accommodating as Indy?

I spent about ten years taking my eldest daughter to riding lessons at Cimla and although I don’t ride, I surprised myself by enjoying being around the horses. This is quite useful now that I am doing equestrian photography.

Hot Shoe – Farrier Style

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I was doing some equestrian photography training at the weekend and for the purpose arranged to use a group lesson at Cimla Equestrian Centre in the hills above Neath.

I can’t show the photography the students did but I managed to get some of my own shots up in the stable yard at the end of the session and this is a quick taster of what I found – a gallery will go up tomorrow.

Farrier Fire

Fire, if not brimstone!

Cimla Landscape

Cimla Landscape

The Tail End

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I usually take some extra shots when I am doing equestrian photography and last weekend I was looking at the opposite end to what I would normally.

More equestrian photography can be seen on the StillWalks Photography website.

light horse tail

light horse tail Dark horse tail Horse tail

Riding in the Rain

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And the rain came down! What more can I say. My equestrian photography at the weekend was shortened by the weather. The morning Dressage show was cancelled but they were able to go ahead with the jumping in the afternoon. Forunately it wasn’t like this for more than a few minutes but during that time, everyone got soaked!

Riding in the Rain

Riding in the Rain

Under Wraps

Under Wraps

At C Turn Left – the sound of dressage

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On Tuesday evening I was doing some equestrian photography of a small dressage show at Clydach Riding Club.

The judges of the dressage sit in their 4×4 to watch the riders and blow their horn to indicate that the rider should start. Every time they do this I jump out of my skin. On Tuesday evening I was recording some of the sounds of the show. These include the background sound of traffic from the A4067 but this could never drown out the birds.

I am sure the judges had a laugh when, with my headphones on as they beeped their horn, I very visibly jumped. I have toned it down in this recording.

And for the field recordists out there, you can hear more on SoundCloud.

The equestrian photography can be found on PhotoShelter.

field recording kit

IMG_2989 IMG_2782 IMG_2777 IMG_3001

riding conversation

Show Time

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Actually it’s not show time yet, not for the Pontarddulais Show anyway – that happens at the end of August and we have the Carnival before that in June.

I have put up this StillWalks video and photos because it was the starting point for the equestrian photography which I am doing again this year for Clydach Riding Club.

Here’s looking forward to a good Summer with fingers crossed.

show horse

show bull