barn – Decaseconds

Kentucky Summer

2021-Aug-092021-Aug-07 adohertyhLeave a comment

We’ve finished Kentucky Summer at the Kentucky Horse Park and I thought it was time for a mega-post of my favorite shots from the week.

A lot has to happen around the barn to get the horses and ponies ready to compete… But everyone needs a break from time to time. The ponies seemed interested in Will’s snacks.

Will’s family dog, Slick the corgi, joined us in Kentucky this year.

Rider Lexi Miller was out schooling ponies in the shadow of the Rolex Stadium.

Maya Thomas likewise had her ponies to school. I really like this pony’s mane, which prefers to stick straight up.

Piper Klemm was jumping Reuben in the schooling ring. Her trainer, Emily Elek, looks on from the background.

Lexi relaxes around the barn on a step ladder…

…Or on a trunk.

Piper heads out on Reuben for a class.

A father and daughter have coffee-and-phone time in the morning.

This horse’s whiskers were caught perfectly in the morning light.

Piper tightens Reuben’s string girth, a signature of Balmoral.

In a parallel to the “dogs look like their owners” trope, I like photographing cases were riders match their clothes to their horses. Unsurprisingly, this seems to happen most with gray horses.

Back at the barn, boots need last-minute polishing before heading to the ring.

Will wait to ride. The step ladder gets a lot of use for both climbing onto horses and waiting to do so.

This horse is drying after a bath; the curly mane is a sign that braids have recently been removed.

Julia Rossow, here watching action in the schooling ring, is an assistant trainer at Balmoral.

That schooling ring can be an exceptionally chaotic place.

Following an under-saddle class, the winner is called forward to receive her ribbon while the rest of the large field watches.

A Gucci belt is quite the warm-up accessory.

Piper gets some training advice from Emily Elek.

David Vega is an incredible horseman; Piper was honored that he made it to the ring to watch her show.

Hard work pays off with a wall of ribbons.

Goodest Boy

2021-Feb-192021-Feb-18 adohertyhLeave a comment

A friendly barn dog is ready to qualify in the running for title of Goodest Boy.

Fields of St. Lawrence

2020-Feb-282020-Feb-27 adohertyhLeave a comment

Battling the breezes of late summer above the fallow fields of the North Country, this image might appear to be capturing the edge of a farm. In fact, this is the southeastern reach of St. Lawrence University’s rural campus. The stables, home of our IHSA riding team, are off in the distance.

Hay Bales at Sunset

2019-Aug-262019-Aug-25 adohertyhLeave a comment

Haying a field in midsummer leaves behind an image with a certain impressionist style, reminiscent of Monet’s haystacks.

August at the Barn

2019-Mar-042019-Mar-03 adohertyhLeave a comment

Big green fields at the edge of a forest are perhaps not what I normally associate with a college campus, but St. Lawrence University’s barn (technically the Elsa Gunnison Appleton Riding Hall) is indeed on its campus. Though the main halls and dormitories are off in the distance at the right of the image, effectively this entire picture is St. Lawrence’s campus. The perks of being a rural college.

Trail to the Barn

2019-Feb-20 adohertyhLeave a comment

St. Lawrence University’s enormous campus includes both the barn and horse fields in the middle-distance and the Kip Trail that leads to it. A stroll through the woods and grassy fields sounds pretty nice in the depths of February.

Christmas In Salisbury, Connecticut

2018-Dec-242018-Dec-25 adohertyhLeave a comment

Christmas in the Berkshires brings a whole lot of classic, rustic sights.

The Christmas tree is glowing inside, where it’s warm.

Outside, wind tosses snow from the branches.

English Riding

2018-Aug-242018-Aug-24 adohertyhLeave a comment

Every sport has its distinctive style—just has Western riders are known for cowboy boots, chaps, and denim, English riders have their own garb. Though the style is very formal when in the ring, I’m particularly interested by the array of patterns and colors hidden under collars and sleeves that are revealed when in the barn.

Wyoming Homestead

2017-Mar-06 adohertyh1 Comment

Even on this bright afternoon before a winter blizzard clamped down on central Wyoming, the cold and isolation of the state is astonishing. Each homestead seems mostly isolated, and the rolling hills give the illusion that the curvature of the Earth has been flipped inside-out. First settlers on a ringworld?

We Prefer the Snow

2016-Dec-192016-Dec-18 adohertyhLeave a comment

Horses don’t seem to mind the snow. Wintery Vermont afternoons, with the appropriate amount of horse treats, are just their style.

Dawn at the Barn

2016-Oct-072016-Oct-07 adohertyhLeave a comment

The Sun rises over the Adirondack foothills and St. Lawrence’s Elsa Gunnison Appleton Riding Hall. I was up early to fly the Phantom for a very particular reason: This weekend marks Derby Day, the completion of the 2016 St. Lawrence Summer Horse Show Series. Spectacular riding is on tap for Saturday!

Gracelynd in California

2016-Sep-212016-Sep-21 adohertyhLeave a comment

The shapes of the hills of California are odd and impossible by the standards of the Northeast. In spite of my time spent there, my brain has still not adjusted to the angles—either in the distance or under my own feet when I’m there. On a charming horse farm that might be at home in the early twentieth century, the sunbaked scene is too real to be real.

Barn and Birches

2016-Apr-25 adohertyhLeave a comment

Suddenly, the grass is infinitely green and thick and the trees have buds again. There’s this fundamentally Scandinavian feeling to the rolling hills and pine forests of the North Country that is best captured in spring and early summer. The world looks like a Bob Ross painting.

Midwinter Llama

2016-Feb-08 adohertyh5 Comments

Livestock of the North Country are, well, lively, even in winter. The shaggy coat and the bright sky must help. On a night with a sunset like this one, I share the llama’s need to go out and investigate.

Kentucky Horse Farm

2015-Aug-12 adohertyhLeave a comment

The grassy, rolling, limestone-based Kentucky countryside looks too perfect. Precise fencing geometries and gently rippling ponds are just too much. I’m reminded of the famous Microsoft Windows XP default wallpaper, “Bliss.” The key to making both images work, I think, is an overall very clean image with just enough small details and imperfections at the edges to show you that it must be real.