Dancing White Horses

[coraa]

I finally uploaded my pictures from Horse Camp. There are more pictures, courtesy of tcastleb, that are very lovely, of me and Khepera playing together, that I will post later with her permission. I warn you that I am grinning so hard in them that it looks like the top of my head might fall off.

But these are just of the horses, not of me.



I'll tell you in advance: I have a hard time telling the horses apart sometimes from pictures. They're very distinct, but a lot of the time what makes it so I can tell them apart is the way they move, or the way they behave toward each other, or who they hang out with. (For instance, I can usually tell Ephiny because she and Tia hang around together a lot, being sisters. And Khepera spends a fair bit of time with Capria, who's his mother.) So it's possible I will have mislabeled one or more of these, and dancinghorse and tcastleb, if you see any places where I mis-identified a horse, let me know!

So first, there's Pandora. As I mentioned, Pandora is a truly magnificent horse: she's a tall, Baroque girl with an impressive set of withers, and at 23 she has the patience and perspective of a mature riding horse. She's the horse I rode both in clinic in October and in pony rides this March. She's a sweetheart, strong and patient but still with enough independence and spirit to keep her interesting. She's been lovely for me.

Here she is, watching me patiently as I take her picture:

From Horse Camp, March 2010

Here you can see her elegant Roman nose and withers:

From Horse Camp, March 2010

Here, she's moving away from me, and you can see the line of her back and the shape of her body:

From Horse Camp, March 2010

Next there's Khepera, the horse I played with in the 'communicating with horses' section. Khepera is a half-Arab gelding (the only horse on the farm who isn't 100% Lippizan), who's very social. He's an Opinionated Horse, but he's also a good creature and a lot of fun to spend time with.

And I can identify him by the whorl on his forehead:

From Horse Camp, March 2010

Here he is a little bit away, so you can admire his beauty:

From Horse Camp, March 2010

And I have my suspicions this is him too ;) :

From Horse Camp, March 2010

Bad hair mane day!:

From Horse Camp, March 2010

Interlude: Pooka, the Magnificent Stallion, aka the Ur-My Little Pony, aka the Brown-Eyed Companion, is ignoring me because I haven't worshipped him properly. Hence the bad photo. Sorry, Pook. Next time:

From Horse Camp, March 2010

Finally: Tia. Tia is a young mare, not yet of riding age. You can see in the pictures that she's grey, not white. Lippizan horses are born dark and lighten with age, becoming pure white sometime between ages 5 and 9, according to dancinghorse. Tia's very bright and extremely inquisitive, with alert ears and a bossy manner. You can tell she wants to be a riding horse. Right now, I'm her sponsor, so I feel a particular kinship there, but I also just plain like her attitude. I hope to heck that someday, when she's ready for it and I'm ready for it, I'll be able to ride her.

See? Inquisitive ears:

From Horse Camp, March 2010

And such an elegant head and neck:

From Horse Camp, March 2010

And a total princess mane:

From Horse Camp, March 2010

Yeah, she's a princess—just look at the Disney eyes:

From Horse Camp, March 2010

Anyway.

Here's what I imagine to be the horses' opinion of my photography:

From Horse Camp, March 2010

You can see the rest of the pictures on my Picasa page:

Horse Camp, March 2010

I'm too much of a grey-and-green Seattle person to move to Tucson (I thrive in the rain), but I swear, if I could afford it, I'd fly down to Horse Camp one weekend a month. Love, love, love.

Comments

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yay! :D :D :D I will do that tomorrow. I love those pics, because even though I look like a total dorkface with a big stupid grin, I look like a total dorkface who's having fun with a wonderful horse. ♥