HDR Photography
The world of English riding has a history of recruiting Thoroughbred horses rejected from the race track to be hunters and jumpers. Though the preference for warmbloods has made this practice a bit less common than it used to be, Thoroughbreds continue to make it into the hunter world. This particular horse was just a few weeks away from time on the track.
The smooth, glossy coats of horses are no accident—they are body-clipped during the warmer months. Between combing and body-clipping, there is ample opportunity for cool patterns (as in this three-day eventing competitor at Land Rover Kentucky.)
I didn’t see this particular rider’s round in the dressage portion of Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Eventing, but based on the look on his face, I’m assuming it didn’t go as he’d hoped.
White Hollow Farms have become, over the past few years, the site of the Saratoga Horse Shows. At the edge of the property, turnouts are a little array of springtime growth.
At Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Eventing, the dressage portion of the competition takes place in this tightly constrained box that, rendered against the footing of Rolex Stadium, looks like some surrealist dreamscape.
Kentucky Horse Park is an almost unreal expanse of stables, rings, and fields. During Three-Day Eventing, those fields are converted to a cross-country course.
The look of a mogul at the show—Publisher of The Plaid Horse, Dr. Piper Klemm—has changed a bit in 2021. The Bane-esque jacket for an unusually cold day at Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Eventing was combined with a Clarkson University mask (perfect for promoting her summer courses.)
I hear that ponies can have a lot more attitude than horses, and that the amount of attitude can get larger as they get smaller. I don’t know if that’s true, but this particular small pony seemed to have attitude to spare.
Seen here from the One World Observatory on a sunny Sunday morning, Governors Island has been mostly transformed to park space. On the right side of the island, you can see the Longines Global Champions Tour grounds are still in place from the day before.
When an afternoon of riding at Fox Rust has finished, it’s back to the barn (in the distance), accompanied by a barn cat escort.
I’m told that visualization is key to a great hunter round, but I’ve never before captured quite so literal a photograph of the process in the warm-up ring.
Two weeks ago, I showed you this series of six images of Payson and Piskor Halls, with the eventual idea of assembling them into a dynamic wallpaper for macOS. I’m happy to say that, after some troubleshooting, that process is done. The result is available here.
While horse shows aimed at English riding don’t tend to have an excess of cowboys present, this hat perhaps suggests otherwise.
Hand grazing is a delightful treat, but patience may be necessary.
When it’s time for their rounds, riders have to be ready to head into the ring and perform. Being late is not an option, so “hurry up and wait” is the standard: Lots frantic action to prepare, followed by lots of waiting. The sense of stillness amid chaos that goes with that waiting are captured well, I think, in this image.
Living in the North Country means a very northern feature to the seasons: wild swings in the amount of daylight. Even a month before the solstice, the sun has nearly vanished by 4:00 PM.
Decaseconds 