drumroll, please! (pro pics)

I present to you the pro pictures!

Photographer: Dawn Marie Temple/Bellaria Designs
Make-up and Hair: Jennifer Syverson

I'm just proud of my leg here...

I'm sad that I'm slouching, but I am smiling! and
not falling off! so that has to count for
something.

wheee!

she is so pretty. how did I end up with such a good
looking horse?

"thank you for not tossing me, Lu. ps: nice dapples."

I love this one!

awww Lulu

Lauren was working her magic with the crinkly
candy wrappers!

this was kind of an accidental shot --
she was being quite rude at this moment but
we somehow managed to still both look somewhat
decent and photogenic.

sticking her tongue out...what a cheeky mare :)

she was being so good and so patient

perfect lighting really does do wonders for an image!

she had her nose buried in my neck, so cute

hanging out in the grass in a long dress and
cowgirl boots...what, that's not how you spend
your afternoons, too? ;)

back to the barn after a job well done!

photoshoot outtakes!

I still haven't gotten the green light to post the pro photos from our photoshoot over the weekend, but here are some photos that Lucy's leaser Lauren and her boyfriend Dan took (THANKS GUYS!):

Lauren putting the finishing touches on Lucy. Lucy looks
not too thrilled ;) but she put up with it well!

Aww what a pretty girl!

To start, we went into one of the bigger grass paddocks
for the riding photos.

I know, I'm nuts!

Thrilled with Lucy!

This photo makes me smile because the photographer is standing next to
Lauren taking the photos, and Lauren is doing her very best to get Lucy
to prick her ears and look interested. Lauren was armed with a big bag of
hard candies and she put them to good use! She and Dan, and my other
friend Cassie were all excellent helpers and I know it wouldn't have been
as successful without them there!

Next we went to this huge gorgeous field. This was the one I thought was
tall grass, but it was actually all spiky vines and twigs. Ouch!

:)

Awww, she loves me!

I will post the pro photos as soon as I have permission to -- they came out beautifully!!!

what a good mare

Sorry in advance, because I am going to spend this entire post gushing about Lucy. She was stellar yesterday. I mean, I honestly could not have asked her to be any better for the photoshoot.

I hadn't ridden her for two days but I was feeling really brave so to begin, we did some riding photos...bareback...in a field. My lovely horse walked, trotted, and cantered like a lady and I sat up straight and beamed. My smile for the camera was not a fake prompted response; it was the real thing! I was so happy with her!

After the riding photos, I had a wardrobe change and we made our way out to a lovely big field with tall grass. Well, I thought it was grass, but it turned out to be lots of spiky twigs and sticks. It was very thick in some places and of course I was wearing a dress! My friend helped me stomp a lot of it down as Lucy stood there and ate the tips of all the plants. She is too funny.

Lucy continued to be ultra cooperative and I absolutely adore her for that. She pricked her ears for the camera, tolerated me setting her up and then leaning on her/posing next to her/putting my face up against hers. Normally she's not really a snuggly horse, but she was so sweet yesterday and she didn't mind me in her bubble.

When I am able to, I will share some of the photos :)

gearing up for a packed weekend

It's Friday, my favourite day of the week! This weekend promises to be exciting and productive.

Tomorrow morning I am borrowing Kenny's truck and hooking it up to Claire's trailer and then Lucy and I are going to work on trailer loading. I have a game plan in mind that boils down to "no rest unless your feet are on the trailer". I think she'll get the hang of things quickly, she's a smart horse. I would eventually like to get her self-loading onto the trailer but that will take some more time.

On Sunday we are having a little photoshoot! I was approached by a local photographer to do a shoot for a local magazine cover submission, which of course is very exciting. The vision she has for the shoot is kind of a relaxed, bohemian lifestyle that showcases the relationship between horse and human. There will probably be no riding photos, only ones of Lucy and I walking together, but honestly that's fine with me because I would have needed to Ace her again if I were going to ride with no helmet. The photographer is wildly talented; last month my husband and I had a little photoshoot in Providence with her and the photos came out so nicely, so I am really excited to see the results from Sunday's shoot.

Copyright all images to Dawn Marie Temple/Bellaria Designs.

I did some research this week on colour-enhancing horsey shampoos, and picked up some Gallop shampoo for bay horses yesterday at Dover. I hope it works...it was $13 for a small bottle! SHEESH! She's gotten fairly bleached out in the past month because of how hot it has been, and also her new paddock doesn't have any shady areas in it. Has anyone tried it before?