L and Tanzer

I had another shoot at the barn last week- this time with my good friend L and her new horse, Tanzer. He is very handsome and I knew going in that he was not necessarily going to cooperate- being a large handful. We quickly found out that as long as we were away from food, he was pretty well-behaved.

 Tanzer was very happy once we let him eat his fill.

 This is one of my favorites:

 I loved the coral color L wore, and she has the most amazing skin. At 16, she's been through a lot at the barn, most recently the loss of her horse, Horace, who we loved. She is an FFA officer at her high school next year and she teaches some of the beginning riders at the barn.

 This is my L:

 Another fun shoot at the barn!

A Lion House Wedding

We went to a wedding at the Lion House yesterday. Did you know that there was a courtyard behind the Beehive and Lion Houses that is perfect for a ceremony and reception? I didn't either. Naturally, the old-fashioned gardens were perfect in every way.

Bonus for us- an upstairs wedding dinner, complete with Lion House rolls and strawberry tarts for dessert! It was a beautiful and historic place.

Feel The Burn

 Shannon also rode Snoopy at the Lynnleigh Farm horse show. Since they can't tell me that I can't take pictures of my own child, I had fun snapping away!

How cute is this? He'd rather die that let his feet touch that jump.

 We have to warm up in a solitary upper riding ring at Lynnleigh. All horses think it's scary up there. You can't see it, but there is a mangy cat on the path in front of Snoopy. It just added to the scariness that lurked up there. He had to decompress after warming up.

 I liked this shot of the scary warm up ring...

 Finally, we escape! Hopefully the many cat stays away from now on.

 Shannon likes to intimidate the other riders with her brute strength.

 Learning the course of jumps from maps posted on the back of that sign...

 And away we go!

 Getting tips from our trainer before the more technical round...

 ....which got complicated by Shannon losing one of her stirrups over the first jump.

Feel the burn, Shannon, feel the burn.

Who, What & Where

Who: Snoopy n' me.

 What: Horse Show #2.

 Where: Lynnleigh Farm, Sandy, Utah.

Photographer: Shannon Dickson

Mission Carmel

Still playing catch-up around here! This post is the last late one from our California trip in March. It's from our stop at the Mission Carmel, another of those historic Spanish missions that I love so much.

It's been beautifully restored and it's gardens were in full bloom.

Even the pictures of the chapel worked out- inside pictures are not my strong point.

Brick, old stucco, worn wood and statues- I can't resist them.

It is a beautiful place, no doubt.

Point Lobos

Let's go back in time, shall we?

Back to March when we went to California. The trip with The Fruit Stand and the train ride. That's the one.

I've been meaning to get more pictures of that trip posted. And it's happening. Here are pictures from our stop at Point Lobos State Preserve. Now this was a beautiful place.

 There was Spanish Moss and twisted trees.

 And twisted people.

 At one point we separated, so Lindsey made a direction arrow on the trail so the other group would find us. Very clever.

We spent some time watching the sea lions out on the rocks.

 The water was a really amazing color of blue.

 And for those of you who like "stark-and-lonely-tree-against-the-ocean" pictures, this one's for you: