Super-modeling

I was out and about the other day with only Cedar along for the ride. I decided to stop at one of my favorite parks in Leesburg....Morven Park. I have photographed Jimmy and Wilson there several times and loved the photos.

On this occasion, Cedar really stepped up to the plate as far as being a model for me. He looked into the lens a lot of the time, and even when he didn't, I still liked the results. Despite being October, our leaves have not started to change yet. I am thinking it is a result of all this summer's endless rain. The photos look pretty summer-y......

Sometimes......

....I just can't come up with a clever blog post title! Today is one of those times!  During this period of unemployment I've found myself in, I am trying to make the best of the new freedom and free time I have, and have been taking the boys around to walk in new areas. We all enjoy the change of pace. The fall season is such a great time to be outdoors, with the heat and humidity a thing of the past.

So here are some shots taken on a recent walk......There is a bonus to being unemployed....places that are packed full of people on the weekends are blissfully empty on the week days! I had no trouble taking pictures without other people in the way!

This was Sunday's black and white picture.

This gate was beautiful but I couldn't do it justice.

This tree is on FIRE!

Be sure you don't miss my giveaway of Jackie's  newest book! Go HERE to enter!

Black and White Sunday: Perfect Posers

Be sure you don't miss my giveaway of Jackie's  newest book! Go HERE to enter!

Left Overs

Looking for something to post today, I came across a couple of shots from our day at Morven Park. I'm not quite sure why they got left behind, but it does give me something for today. The boys are posed on a horse jump. I just loved all the woodgrain......

Have a great weekend, Everyone!

Training for All Contingencies

When you start training to compete in agility with your dog, one of the points your instructor will probably make is that you need to train for possible oddities you might encounter at a trial. Obviously you can't think of all the weird stuff that might happen, but some of the more likely. An example would be that the judge might wear a flamboyant hat, or have a hood pulled up. A weirder one that lots of dogs have reacted to is at indoor soccer fields (where most agility trials in my area are held). These fields hang advertisements along the walls of the fields, or in some cases, paint them on the walls. At one facility, there is a painted life-size male soccer player running/kicking the ball. More than a few dogs have been unnerved by this, and had their runs go bad.

 I imagine the same type of training is needed in the horse world as well. Now, I've only ever trained one little western-style colt and that was when I was 15. I didn't know much about breaking a horse and just learned as I went. If you plan to compete in Hunter/Jumper events, I am sure you need to de-spook your horse as much as possible. Which leads me to ask the question.....

How the heck do you teach your horse not to fear the GIANT SEAL ???? (or whatever it is!)

This comically carved log was in a barn full of various horse jumps at the park we visited on Monday. I can only imagine a horse flying across the field, jump, jump, and then slamming to a stop with a big WTF?!


Have a great weekend, Everyone! And be sure to train for those giants seals!

Benched.....

....But with no judge in sight!

The view is so much better from up here!

Wilson's Wetland on Wordless Wednesday

We've Decided to Move...

The Washington, DC suburbs are a pricey place to live. Real Estate takes a big bite out of your budget, and you don't get much of a yard despite how much money it costs. That being said, we've decided to move a bit further out into the countryside where you get more for your money, both in land and house....

What do you think? Pretty nice, huh? The boys sure think so!

The front yard is so big, the boys are just tiny dots!

Here they are guarding the front gate:

It's going to be a BIG job keeping the front and back forty safe from intruders! All eyes are peeled!

Camouflaged for stealthier sentry duty!

The mailman won't make it past this spot......

Of course, I jest! While I would love to have a much larger yard, that house is way too big. Can you imagine keeping it clean? But the hallways would be great for indoor fetch!

Yesterday, being President's Day, meant I had the day off from work. I wanted to walk the boys someplace new, and have some good photo-ops. It was a beautiful, warmish day, so we headed out to Morven Park just outside of Leesburg, Va, and only a short drive away. The house was the home of a wealthy former Virginia governor and is now a National Register Historic Property. It sits on about a 1000 acres of land, and is a combination of historic buildings and an equestrian center. The land is used for steeplechase events and has  large horse jumps scattered throughout the fields. I've even come to the park for an outdoor agility trial a couple of times.

I have a couple more pictures to share from our day, but I'd best save them. Blog fodder is always at a premium so I had better spread them out just a bit ;-)

Leftovers from the Weekend

Here are a couple more shots taken at the lovely park. The property was originally owned by Westmoreland and Marguerite Davis in the early 1900's. How wonderful they donated/preserved this gorgeous place for posterity. Morven Park encompasses over 1,000 acres of gardens, fields, lawns and wooded areas. This shot was taken in a highly manicured boxwood garden near the mansion. The boys are in front of a small reflecting pond with fountains. It was so lovely and very private. It was completely surrounded by boxwood hedges so the boys couldn't see out, however they could hear and smell some nearby horses and as a result have the silliest expressions. You can really see the wheels turning in their brains! Click to enlarge for the full effect.


Sitting near one of the fenced pastures.....

The Weekend Report

Well, another trialing weekend is behind us. This trial was originally scheduled in an indoor horse facility. At the last moment, the club had to relocate. Short notice being what it is, they had to opt for an outdoor venue. But, oh, what a lovely venue they chose! Not only was it 15 minutes from my house, it was in a gorgeous park! And the weather was stunning fall temps and sunshine.

Now, despite the relocation, we definitely did not lose the horse theme. Morven Park is, first and foremost, an equestrian park, hosting many international level events, as well as housing a university equine medical center. So, our distraction du jour today for all of the competing dogs was this...

Here's Jim, striking a pose with the lovely fall scenery.....

We even had a blog collision at this trial! Do you recognize this beauty from over at Life with the Horde?

But, of course, this is the report on how Jimmy did......Well, when he is good, he is VERY good! He, bless his little heart, on Saturday finally gave me a table in Open STD! And other than a botched weave entry, we were clean! Only one mistake gave us the Q! YE-HA! This is leg #2 for Open and it even earned us first place!

Unfortunately, the rest of the weekend was not as successful. John came Saturday morning to watch our Exc B JWW run. I quess the added pressure was too much for me. I cued a turn too late and that made Jimmy mad! Once he's mad, he has a hard time refocusing. The rest of the run was a disaster. I was sad and disappointed as I really wanted to make John proud. He is now forever banned from our trials!

Today, it was a bar down on a rear cross, followed by a bar down on a triple, for our JWW run. Fast, but no Q. In Open STD, Jimmy was going good til the table, hit it with his front feet and bounced off, but on second try, he did get on and stayed. We were still OK with only the dogwalk to an easy tunnel. Alas, the little bugger blew his dogwalk contact, something he never does. Crap! Run done! or should I say undone :-(



Sometimes, I really feel like we've hit a brick wall when it comes to our Standard runs...

But, by tomorrow, I'll be hot to try again! If it was too easy there would be no sense of accomplishment!

My next highly anticipated agility event is a full day seminar this friday with Daisy Peel. She is a Sixteen Time National Finalist, Five Time Regional Champion, Three Time National Champion, and Three Time USA World Team Member. It doesn't get much better than that! I am psyched to say the least!

This was shot from the car as I headed home. It's hard to sulk for too long when surrounded by this beauty!

Jump!

Wilson and Jimmy are standing on the first in a series of cross-country jumps on a horse trail. This tree they are standing on was above my waist. Behind it is a stream gully dropping down several feet, back up to that next jump, then only one stride will bring the horse to that final jump at the back. I've ridden horses my whole life (lucky me, my dad loved horses so I had them growing up!), but I can't even imagine the iron nerves it would take to direct my horse over obstacles of this size! And the stream bed below makes it even more incredible! Coming from the other direction, the horse would be traveling downhill across a big field, with tons of momentum, jump, one stride, jump, landing way down in the gully, and up hill to catch the tree the boys are on. Simply amazing that they can do it!

Country Road