Rafter J Colt Starting Challenge

This past Saturday Rafter J Cowboy Church in Terrell, TX Sponsored a Colt Starting Challenge. Three gelding colts out of a herd of 6 blue roan Hancock bred QH were chosen by draw and the Clinicians, John Crow, Jenny Jess, and Steve Smith drew for the roundpen in which these colts were placed. The Clinicians were to start each of these colts in a morning one hour session and an afternoon two hour session, and then ride a trail course.
Prizes were awarded for the best roundpen work, the best trail course rider, and best overall. Jenny Jess won the Round pen portion, John Crow won the best trail course as well as the best overall in colt starting. The following photos demonstrate what was accomplished in the day of Colt Starting.
Steve Smith has just saddled his colt for the first time.
About one hour later he was standing on his back and cracking a whip. I will post a link to some images as soon as I have completed the editing process.

Sketching in the Galleries

Thursday evening I spend at the Dallas Museum of Art in a class called Sketching in the Galleries. This is a great program in which each month a different local artist leads us in sketching excercises. The sketchbook view above is a contour drawing of a Japanese Sculpture. We started with blind (draw but don't look) contour excercises but finished with a drawing where we could look but not pick up the pencil. I cheated on that point a bit. The drawing below is a color contrast excercise in the Roman Galleries. I chose a Roman head and dealt with shape and color contrasts.

Pet Photography

Cooksey, a Vishla dog, has convinced me that I should not limit myself to horses but photograph dogs like herself as well as cats. If you are anywhere in the Dallas/Kaufman county areas and want your pet photographed then give me a call.

As you can see in the other posts my experience is with horses, but how is a border collie grabbing a frisbee out of the air or playing soccer any different - just a new game.

Pet Photography Promo Card

New Pastures

Monday we moved all of the yearlings and mares with foals into the lower pasture. There was lots of celebrating among the yearlings with quite a few pasture tours and sampling of fresh grass. They had pretty much cleared their other pasture of all but the shortest blades. The Colonel Freckles mare was not all that happy about the newest entrants but an understanding was met between her and the juveniles that they were to keep their distance from her new foal.
Click to see images of the horses in the New Pastures.

Easter Sunday and a Week at the Ranch

The week began with Easter Sunday at Rafter J Cowboy Church with Pastor Toby
building a cross and telling us of Christ's ultimate sacrifice for our sins. After The service the children hunted for easter eggs.

I posted no entries during the last week as I was mostly at the ranch mowing and taking care of the horses. Spent evenings watching the clouds and visiting with the all the horses. The photo below is Twisty in the lower pasture.






In the photo below the yearlings graze in the central pasture. Hazelnut, the dark colored horse in the center will shortly come over to investigate.








The most recent foal is now wandering far from her dam and like almost all foals are very interested in cameras.

Super Stakes Sale is over

The Western Bloodstock Super Stakes sale completed this afternoon.
The sale topper is apparently A Lasting Affair (Smart Chic Olena x Oaklyn) for $75,000.
This mare sold with a embryo by TR Dual Rey due in 2007 and a 2006 paid booking fee to Dual Rey. Little Bellerina (Smart Little Lena x Lil Peppys Belle) was the highest selling cutting horse demonstrated while selling at $63,000. Both days the sale ended between 1:30 and 2:30 pm.
The official results will be posted on www.westernbloodstock.com in a week or so, and published in the Cutting Horse Chatter. The next sale is on July 1rst at will Rogers at the APHA World Show. The Summer Cutting Spectacular Sale in scheduled at the end of July and will between 2 and 3 days depending on the number of consignments. Fall sales include the EE Ranches Production Sale which will be held at the Whitesboro Ranch on Sept 22 in the WT Waggoner Estate and King Ranch Production Sale will be held at Whiteface Camp in Electra on October 8.

Western Bloodstock Super Stakes Sale - Day 1

Day one of the Western Bloodstock Sale is over and the highest seller was (Lot 1005) Silver Pepto Pistol (Peptoboonsmal x Miss Silver Pistol) who sold for $51,000. There were 90 head cataloged and about 7 outs and 3 add-ons. The Sale finished about 2:15. I am unable to upload any Sale topper photos from the Sale due contractural agreement (Until Sale Company publishes first). Western Bloodstock Sales are unique in that the horses are sold while being shown. Any horse that is under saddle or trained may be shown with or without cattle. Broodmares and yearlings typically are led back and forth in front of the auction stand.

-JA

Super Stakes Show and Sale

After running errands and getting car maintenance service done, I finally made it to Ft Worth about 4:30p. First thing I put out some business cards and went over to the exhibit area to visit with vendor friends. After the Western Mercantile closed I headed over to Will Rogers and took some photos. I started way up in the stands shooting down, then moved to the arena level and took side shots. Here are some sample images from the Non-Pro Semi-finals.



Next I headed over to the Watt Arena where the Western Bloodstock Sale will take place tomorrow morning and set up my light stands and tested on all my lighting systems. I am using two strobes. One pointing down the walking lane where all the mares with babies, and young untrained horses The other Strobe is pointing at the working area where the cutting horses in training will be shown while they are sold. Ever time I set up for one of these sales the pen configuration is a little different and I have to find the best way to set up the light stands. This time I had to bring out my handy gaffers tape and fasten it directly to the cattle panel without extending the legs. I can't have any horses coming through and tripping on my equipment. Well, Panera bread is about to close so I better as well.


-JA

Horse Sales

This past week I photographed the Fasig-Tipton 2YO-in-Training horse sale at Lone Star Park. The photo on the right is of the $270,000 Sale Topper. Thursday Evening I head for Ft Worth for the Super Stakes Sale. The photo below is IShoSpensive, who was the sale topper at last years Super Stakes Sale.

First Day

This is the my first post. I will try to post regularly but depending on projects there may be some days between posts