Minnow Performs
On Saturday we had our big barn party to celebrate the opening of Iron Horse Farm. Despite the on and off downpours of rain we had a pretty good turnout. The rain even cleared enough so that Minnow could paint and perform for party attendees. Minnow seemed to be a big hit as all the children gathered around to watch him. He created 3 new paintings – one of which I decided to keep because it turned out to be a colaborative effort between Minnow and my Dachshund, Ammo (who ran across the painting while it was wet giving it some very neat paw print marks). Perhaps Ammo will be the next artist in the barn.
Minnow was definitely on his game on Saturday – as soon as crowds appear he becomes the little showman. He performed all his tricks flawlessly and even for the first time got on his pedestal with all 4 feet. I thought he was quite impressive and I was very proud of him!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
The Look of Understanding
So I felt badly at not posting much “trick horse” stuff lately. So here is a series of videos of a trick trained horse named Lukas. I love watching the connection Lukas has with his trainer, you can actually see him responding and thinking about her every cue. I’ve noticed that this particular connection between a trainer and horse is particularly present in clicker trained/reward based trained horses. You can tell the horses actually want and enjoy learning. All of my boys have the same look in their eyes that Lukas does. Its a wonderful thing when you can find a way to communicate with an animal – something amazing starts to happen.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Dirty Laundry
So unfortunately today I don’t have much to share. I didn’t make it out to see the ponies yesterday because I worked late, got a haircut, and baked tons of chocolate chip cookies for tomorrow’s barn opening party at Iron Horse Farm. Oh and I also did some laundry :-).
Sorry to be so boring – but all I can offer you are these funny photos of my dachshund, Ammo, and I doing laundry.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Mounted Games in the News
Recently some of my riding companions/friends were featured on the news for our sport of choice, Mounted Games. I think its great that our sport is making strides to get Mounted Games noticed by the world – we all have high hopes of someday having Mounted Games added to the list of equestrian sports in the Olympics. What an accomplishment that would be! Anyway enjoy the videos! WATCH HERE
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
A Photographic Life
Boomerang
One of my passions is photography – you may have guessed from my overwhelming amount of personal photos I include in all of my posts. I graduated college with a degree in Fine Arts and concentration in Photography. I even started my own equestrian photography business for portrait commission while I was still in college – I find myself not photographing as often now because I’m busy with my frame shop and training the ponies and well life. I constantly have thoughts of new photography projects I should take on – but rarely find the time to start them. I do however always carry a compact digital camera with me at all times. I never leave home without it!
Nitro
Jet (and no she’s not pregnant, just fat)
On Monday I decided it was time to break out my Digital SLR from hiding and snap a few photos around the farm. I think I caught some really nice shots (as you can see scattered through this post) and it really made me want to get back into taking more photos with my professional camera.
Blitz
I’ve been dying to do a series with my dachshund, Amm0. I won’t give away the details, but I have a clear idea of what I want to do….perhaps I will push myself and get to it this weekend. My husband always gives me a hard time when I start projects on the weekends, he thinks I work too much. I can’t help it though, if I’m not being productive it drives me crazy. I’m not one of those people that can sit around on the weekends (as much as my husband would like me to be). I do enjoy watching movies and my husband and I go through netflix movies like nobody’s business…but while I can relax for that hour or so the movie plays, as soon as its done its back to work for me.
Minnow gives Ammo a kiss (my favorite photo of the day)
So I guess lucky for you that I’m so “productive” otherwise you would only be reading these posts about once a week – and I wouldn’t have these nice photos to share with you. 🙂
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
