Category Archives: Horses

Camera Critters – Tulsa State Fair

I went to the Tulsa State Fair Friday.

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I don’t go for the food, the rides, or the cheesy merchandise.

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I go because I like looking at the critters, especially the cows, and horses and the goats are interesting also.

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Many of the animals were raised by young people. I think that it is great. Anything that takes kids away from their electronics is A-OK with me!

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I don’t know a thing about these animals. I can generally tell a horse from a cow but don’t bet on it. These though are Belgian Blues. I think they are beautiful. According to wikipedia they are “double muscled” which gives them a muscular appearance but also means that they are very good at converting grass to lean beef. They are more pink in the photograph than what they are live. They have a beautiful blue color to them.

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My sister Ellen posted in her blog the other day that she took a photography class and learned that when photographing critters the eyes should be the focal point. It was a revelation for me. There is a real difference  in the “emotion” of the photographs where the eyes are the focal point and where you can’t see them. That Ellen, she is one smart cookie.

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Herefords or “white faces” are another of my favorites. They have fallen out of favor I think because of the trend toward leaner beef. I think they are beautiful. Sorry, I couldn’t get one to look at me. I don’t blame them.

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The goats are something else. Cows pretty much ignore everybody, the goats are checking everybody out.

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Would you buy a used car from this goat? I wouldn’t.

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The goats and cows both were being bathed and trimmed by their owners.

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I came upon some young people showing off their horses. The tension level was high during the judging.

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The horses and the handlers both were dressed to the nines.

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The animals are beautiful, you can tell the young people and their parents had worked hard to get to this show.

If you live close to Tulsa the fair runs through October 7.

Camera Critters

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SuperPizzaBoy Goes on a Ride

SuperPizzaBoy has been participating in Therapeutic Horseback Riding for some time now. But it was time for a change.

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His old therapy place had volunteers lead the horses while the clients rode. It works wonders but SPB was ready for a step up. Something the old place couldn’t do for various reasons.

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So Sweetie went to work researching the issue, hard, as is her style. She was looking for a place that was safe and dedicated to the kids. After calling and checking and researching and then visiting she found All Star Therapy out of Ramona, a ways north of Tulsa on the way to Bartlesville.

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So Sweetie and SPB went up and checked it out and we got SPB all signed up. Today was his first ride.

He has a little ways to go before he joins the pro rodeo circuit but guiding the horse is a whole new ballgame compared to sitting on the horse while somebody leads it.

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I don’t know a thing about horses and even less about riding horses but I think a horse is looking for a little leadership from the rider. So the rider just can’t check out.

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They had son guide the horse around the arena for a while while doing various exercises and then he went out for a ride on a short trail.

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It was about ten minutes but SPB had to guide the horse along the trail.

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Sweetie couldn’t be there. A family baby shower in western Oklahoma had to be attended. But hey I was there to document the affair. So I guess she did all the work and I get the glory, right? She’d say “So, sounds about normal to me.” And she’d be right.

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Way to go my gentle giant of a son, take a bow Sweetie!! You both are wonderful.

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