GETTING THE GROOVE BACK

Trying to get things settled again and think forward. Hard to do. I keep going back and looking at the horse photos and thinking of all the ones I missed-- all the 8 hitches, and yeah, Susie wanted me to stand outside the barn in the morning and photograph the horses being walked, and I didn't, because it was cold and I'm a wuss. And the people I didn't take photos of, and the dogs I missed...

And all the questions I had that I never asked. And yes, they dock the tails when the foals are very little--a day or two old or maybe even before that I am not sure at all. It is similar to removing dewclaws on a puppy which is done at 3 days. Not all of them are docked but for halter classes they are. This is a handsome little filly.
While the Judge looks at all of the horse, the rear is the part we saw the most. I think it was our seating...
There were professional photographers there running around in the ring. Two that I saw. One was French altho he spoke English.

Just like always, the Percherons have sheets and blankets that they wear a lot of the time when they are not working. Some had hoods (I do not know the proper term) as well, as did this one. Several belonging to one stable had wild hoods-- zebra prints and geometric designs. I tried to photograph them but ended up deleting those because you really could not tell what you were looking at. Photography in the barn is always a bit trickier than outside, plus these were black horses (for the most part) in a dark place.... This was early in the morning. Wake-up walk. The horse is a colt or filly, not nearly grown

Again this is early morning. Someone walks the horses and someone cleans the stalls. Then they are fed and watered. There was a lot of traffic in the barns so early in the morning. Intersections were always jamming up with horses waiting to come back in and horses going out and coming around the corners, so everyone was especially alert, or tried to be.

And then there was the job of cleaning the horses-- some methods more orthodox than others,(I had a photo in here of a young man vacuuming a horse. However, he is a minor and I do not have waiver and so decided not to use it. He was standing on a bench vacuuming the back of the horse. Use your imagination.) and inspecting and cleaning and polishing the harnesses. Worth thousands of dollars, these pieces of equipment are kept absolutely spotless, cleaned before and after use, inspected for wear and tear.

And finally, they are off to the ring.