Tag Archives: Horses

Saturday’s Critters – Urban Horses

Grazing Horses

I love horses and the people that work with  them. Thy are so graceful, even the nags are graceful to me. Although from an engineering point of view, it seems to me that their bodies are way too big for their slender legs. I also enjoy watching people ride horses. There is kind of a mutual feedback between the horse and the rider and subtle changes in a rider’s posture and how they hold the reins and how they respond with their bodies to the horse’s movement affects the movement of the horse. We have put Logan’s therapeutic horseback riding lessons on hold for a couple months because he has a lot going on at school including some Saturday rehearsals at the same time that his riding lessons were. I am already missing the long drive to Pioneer Woman country to take his lessons and occasional talks and walks with the director Bob.

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Bob had a way of simplifying everything and when I asked him why riding was such a great therapy for people with autism he said basically that when you get on a horse and it starts moving that you need to adjust yourself so that horse doesn’t move out from underneath you. It is this responsiveness to an outside force and feedback that is so important to people who don’t have that response instinctively.

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So Logan had those lessons for a few years and I took literally hundreds, if not thousands of photos of him riding the horses and I think the lessons “worked.” Just what they did, I don’t know exactly but I could tell that Logan loved riding the horses. People ask what the horses “do” exactly. I say, they make him better. How, I don’t know.

Well, I’ve kind of digressed a little bit. Now I have to feed my horse jones via the horses in the top photo. They are in a pasture next to Logan’s school and after I drop him off and the horses are close to the fence and there are no cars behind me I’ll stop and take a quick photo of them. It is a good way to start out the day, looking at horses I mean.

How do you feel about horses?

Linking with Saturday’s Critters

Saturday’s Critters – Macho in the Afternoon

Afternoon Horse -Topaz Impressions

This is Macho, a horse stabled near where my son goes to school. Don’t worry about his ribs showing, I have it on good authority that he has bad knees and they limit his eating in order to keep his weight down and make it easier on him. So he is well cared for. Notice all the bright green grass? We have had some great soft rains and good sunshiny days lately. Things are really green around here.

I took the pic on late in the afternoon Thursday and I liked how he had a little bit of afternoon color on his flanks.

Linking today with Saturday’s Critters

Sunlit Sunday – Out on a Ride

Saturday the weather was glorious. Nice and sunny with a steady cool breeze. It was  perfect weather for a horseback ride at All-star Therapy Group north of Tulsa near the little town of Ramona.

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Cisco even posed for a picture and Logan had big smiles. I love the shadows in this ic also.

Logan and Russ at All Star

Logan and Cisco, closely attended to by Russ went on a ride across the pasture and through the woods.

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And then we headed back to the barn under a big blue Oklahoma winter sky. A great day for a ride. At least for Logan, Russ and I had to hustle to keep up with Logan and Cisco. Logan did a good job keeping his horse under control though.

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Saturday Critters Update

Meet Cisco at #allstartherapy in #ramona #oklahoma #igersok #therapeutichorsebackriding. #horses #hoesesofinstagram

This is Cisco, the horse rides at his weekly Therapeutic Horseback Riding lesson. Cisco is a sweet horse but he is a little lazy. If I’m in the arena he always heads for me especially if Logan has zoned out in the saddle. I’ll have to say, “Hey wake up, get your horse off of me!” Oh yeah he says. Teenagers, you know what I mean.

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Here are they are in the arena, around and around they go, Logan with a big smile on his face. I’m told that that the horses head being down so low means the horse is relaxed. Sounds good to me!!

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The stables had one old kitty who was something else. He slobbered all over everything. He won a fierce fight with a hawk who tried tohaul him off and was a proficient mouser. He died last year and now they have a whole bunch of cats to replace him, all males. This one is either brave or dumb. He likes to get out in the arena and run in amongst the horses feet as they go around and around. I think he is going to be dead and we’ll never know whether he is dumb or brave. He’ll be just as dead either way so I guess that it doesn’t matter.

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This is Abby, sound asleep late at night. She is a sweetheart. She loves to eat. She got groomed yesterday so she is not as shaggy now. She is not the smartest dog we have ever had but she is very sweet. She likes to go out frequently and update her Barkbook status. Drives our neighbors crazy, me also.

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Here is a collection of photos most of them with our critters, from my new Fuji polaroid style camera. I love the pics but I’m still trying to figure out how best to post the results. It seems a lot of people just strew them similar to what I did. It seems better than scanning them one by one. Anybody else out there have such a camera? What do you do? The black dog that I’m holding is Rascal our very black pomeranian. I have to get do some sort of HDR thing with him in order to keep him from looking like a big black blob.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters today. Go check it out.

 

2014 US National Arabian and Half Arabian Championship Horse Show

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My sister Ellen and niece Jillian were in Tulsa this weekend to attend to the U.S. National Arabian Horse Show held this weekend. I don’t know a thing about horses but I sure do love to attend the show. It is quite an event.

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There is lots of money involved in Arabian horses. Jut look at this horse trailer.

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The various horse farms that participate decorate up the their stalls very nicely. Televisions, bars, comfy furniture. It is really quite remarkable.

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But the real attraction are the horses. They are incredibly beautiful and graceful and they have attitude. The best of them have the air that they are not quite under control.

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The final event Saturday night is quite elegant. Green sawdust and the judges are all dressed up.

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You can tell that the horses and their handlers have spent a lot of time training together.

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I’ll repeat myself, the horses are incredibly beautiful. I tried to get good photographs of them during the riding events but they are all very blurry.

I did take a 12 second video that is not too bad. The horses are incredibly graceful.

I’ll keep going to this event as long as they have it in Tulsa is what I think. And you know something. The event is free for spectators. You just walk in and sit down in the general seating area like you owned the joint.

Have you ever been to a horse show? Tell us about it.

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Our World – Up the Hill with Bob

Cisco getting ready to work #horses

Last Saturday Logan and I ventured up to All-Star Therapy Group in Ramona. Ramona is pretty close to Pioneer Woman Country. We got there and Cisco was getting prepped for Logan’s lesson.

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We went outside, which is always my favorite and stopped for a brief photo op.

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Bob, the guy that runs the place and who has an incredible heart for the kids that take classes there grabbed three of the kids and told me to c’mon and off we went across the pasture.

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And then up the hill through the trees and brush. And these kids know that you lean forward in the saddle just a hair when you go up the hill.

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We got to the top of the hill, where on a clear day you can see downtown Tulsa, and got everybody arranged and then told everybody to smile.

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It was my turn to do my thing.

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And then it was time to go down the hill. With Bob reminding everybody to lean back just a little back in the saddle.

Our World Tuesday