Fadedwords

I went down to Plenty and Grace farm today to do a senior portrait session with Stephanie, a young lady I met through my friends Tracey and Emily.  I’ve mentioned Tracey here before, and I posted some of the portraits I took of Emily’s son Jeremy.  These two ladies are quickly becoming some of my absolute favorite people, and I always have a great time when I visit them… even if I’m working when I’m there!  I know that I’m incredibly lucky to have made a connection with them.

Today while I was doing the portraits of Stephanie, we were up in one of the pastures.  I had spent time letting all the horses get used to my camera before I started crouching down to take shots.  At one point I was crouched down and I felt the very distinct nuzzling of a horse on my neck.  I looked up and saw Three Socks, a horse I had fairly instantly fallen in love with when I walked into the pasture.

Three Socks is three years old.  He’s very curious, very sweet, and very willing.  Three Socks is also for sale and there’s actually a potential that I could afford him because Tracey would be willing to work out a payment plan.  I know that I would have to hold off on him for a little while, build my savings account back up a bit.  However… I plan to ride him the next time I’m down in Fayetteville and see how I like him.

I’ll say this… Three Socks can remain his “real” name, but his stable name will change if, for example, I bought him.  Don’t know to what, but I’ve never been one for obvious horse names.  Bet you can’t tell how many socks Mr. Three Socks has!

We shall see…

Quite some time ago I think I mentioned hearing about a program that paired rescued horses with at-risk girls in a therapeutic program.  The program is called Corral.   As it happened, I had briefly taken lessons with the founder of the program and decided to contact her to see if I could help in any way.  At first I didn’t receive a response and thought maybe they just couldn’t use my particular skill set.  I did get a response about  a week after I setn the email and she expressed great happiness at my interest and invited me out to the farm.  I did a visit and knew that I had found a program that I could really get behind, and after some discussion decided I would spend the summer volunteering at the farm.

I missed the first week of the summer session because I was in Washington.  I also missed this Tuesday because of continued car issues.  I have spent the last two days at the farm, working with the girls and getting to know each of them.  It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience so far and I can’t wait to go back next week.  It is a program that is doing incredible things to help at-risk girls.  It is also working with some incredible horses that might have had different outcomes had they not been rescued.

It’s going to be a big growth experience for me as a counselor, as well as a rider.  They told me today that I would need to become Parelli level 1 certified, because it is part of the grant the program recently received.  Parelli is a system of natural horsemanship that focuses on building a strong and positive relationship with your horse on a deep level.  I’ve always believed that the horse is such an amazing and important part of my reason for riding.  Yes, it’s fun to jump or do a dressage test… but the real reward is what you build with the horse.  Parelli really stresses the horse and your relationship with the horse.  I’m excited to begin learning the system and strengthening myself as  a rider.

So much to look forward to as this opportunity continues.

On Sunday I was exhausted.  I had been out the previous night for my friend Sarah’s bachelorette party.    It was a great time, but we were out until 3am.  A text message at 7 had me awake and pretty cranky.  I was looking forward to a day of laying on the couch.  Then I saw that there was a horse show at my barn at 5pm, and I grudgingly decided I needed to go photograph.  It was about 95 degrees out, and I knew that coupled with the exhaustion, it would make for a potentially miserable afternoon.  I put on some shorts and a tank top, and headed out.

I got focused on photographing pretty quickly.  There’s something about the atmosphere at barrel races that really gets me excited and motivated.  It was made more exciting by the fact that we were also racing against some weather that was rolling in and looking truly scary.  About halfway through the show I hear the announcer mention Bob, my friend/riding instructor’s husband as the videographer.  This is typical; Bob has been videoing the EZ Run shows for quite some time.  Then I hear, “We also have a still photographer.  Kate Moynihan is right down here by the second barrel.” At first I was so stunned that I lowered my camera and looked up at the booth.  I hadn’t expected them to do it, and it was incredibly overwhelming to hear my name.  They announced me once more before the show was over too!

I went up to talk with Elizabeth and Carol (the owner of the barn) after the show was over.  I thanked Carol for having them announce me, but I don’t think she’ll ever understand just how much that meant to me.  She, Elizabeth, and Bob have been some of my biggest supporters with my photography and it’s something that I will never forget.  As we were talking I told Elizabeth that I would have more lesson money for her on Wednesday when I came.  She asked why and I said that Wednesday is the last lesson I’m paid through.  Then she said, “I was going to mention… since I bought Missy do you want to just stop with the lessons like we’d talked about?” She also told me about what that would mean for the financial end of things.  If I hadn’t been sweaty and disgusting, I would’ve hugged her.

I have been incredibly lucky the last months.  Despite some difficult decisions, some hurt and pain, some serious stress?  I have been surrounded by people who go out of their way to build me up, who support my passions, and who will do almost anything to help me achieve goals.  Elizabeth is one of the most generous people I’ve ever had the good fortune to know.  The fact that she is willing to let me ride her horse is an incredible gift.  I’m still in awe of what a good friend she is, and I sometimes wonder how exactly I will thank her for all she’s done for me since I began riding with her.  Not only has she taught me more about riding, but she has built me up and helped me to see my strengths.  She has been a cheerleader always, about riding and about my photography.  She has been a friend that has said, “Anytime you need a place for dinner, just call me,” when I first moved and things were really bad.  She has inspired great things in my life.  I am lucky.

You can see the photos from the show HERE. Some favorites:

I love the motion of this horse.

Here’s Eliz and Missy.  They got first place in the 3D!!

I love this photo.  Click on it so you can see the expression on her face.  Her horse came in to the ring pretty wired and on the second barrel got a little zippy.  When she turned him he went straight past and broke pattern, but she turned him back… and ran over the second barrel!  Her attitude was amazing though; she just laughed and kept on schooling him.

My good friend Tracey, who has been so very supportive of my work, riding her amazing horse Willie. He is my second horse crush.  My number one love, Pacman, didn’t run Sunday!

This is Casey and Brooke, the daughters of Carol and Elizabeth respectively.  In this photo they were telling each other secrets.

It’s time to ride!

I was lucky enough to get hired to take preschool portraits of the grandson of one of the women I have frequently photographed at barrel races.  I was a little apprehensive because it was my first paying portrait session.  As it turned out, I had no reason to be worried.  The little boy, Jeremy, was very outgoing and a willing participant in the shoot.  His Mom Emily and I hit off right away and had a great time.  It was great to see Tracey, his grandmother, and I really enjoyed the time spent with her!

The icing on the cake is that these pictures turned out really, really great.  I’m not usually one to toot my own horn, but when I saw these images on my computer I knew that my clients would be happy because I was proud of them.  Really proud.

Some examples:

You can see all the photos from this shoot HERE.

I’ve received such amazing compliments about these pictures and feel so great about them.  This shoot really helped to boost my confidence level and I really cannot thank Tracey and Emily enough for their support of my work, as well as the wonderful day with them.  Not only did they hire me for this job, but they also took me on a fantastic trail ride after it was all over!

This is me on Princess, the giant Percheron cross that they let me ride.  She belongs to Mr. Jim, Tracey’s hubby.  She was used to having beginners and little kiddos on her, so I had to be a little stern with her when we first started.  Once she realized that I meant business, she was a great partner!  It was a great experience for me because I rode without my stirrups 90% of the ride simply because it was more comfortable than trying to reach for them! (your stirrups are a little longer when you ride western, and I just am not used to riding western anymore.)  I did discover that woods freak her out a little; it was made very evident by how far she jumped to the side when we were loping past!!

This session was a really wonderful experience and I’m feeling fantastic about my work.  I hope to book some more sessions over the summer and continue to improve my portfolio.  Emily has already asked that I do fall photos of Jeremy, and she wants me to do portraits of her as well!

So I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before around here, but I love horses.  More importantly I love riding horses.  I’ve been doing that since I was about 11, and there hasn’t been even a moment that I thought that it was anything less than the coolest freakin’ thing ever.  That’s 18 years of horse craze for those of you doing the math.

And now I present: A riding lesson- a foray into photojournalism

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