Snippety-snap

A friend recently asked me why I don't post more pictures of the horses I talk so much about. There are several simple reasons.

• No flash. It be agin the rules at Rock Creek. For the most part, the horses at our very public facility would probably take camera flash in stride, but it takes just one freakout to make the others edgy (to say nothing of what it would do to the nerves of anyone having to deal with said large flailing animal). The barn and ring are dim, and these days it's dark outside when I arrive for class, so it's hard to get a natural-light shot.
• No angles. Assuming arguendum that there's enough light in the barn and the horse is standing still, you can shoot a no-flash pic and have it come out in focus, but it's beyond me to get a good angle on a horse on cross-ties in a narrow aisle.
• No hands. I've snuck glances in the ring's mirror and can confirm that Lear looks entirely adorable when he goes on the bit or floats over cavaletti. He's even kind of cute when he's at peak goony spasticness. But given his history of squirreling out over random things, when I'm working with him I try to keep both hands on the reins and all my attention on him.
• No skill. You get right down to it, a not-very-good photographer is a not-very-good photographer. I'm working on it, I promise.

When I rode in Canada this summer, the guide, Pierre, often walked beside his horse if there wasn't a trot or canter coming up. Eventually we learned that it was safe to drop our stirrups when he was on the ground; it is for that reason alone that my patellar tendons still flex.