Shaking up the top of the World of Equestrian Sport

I am on the road this week in Kentucky and Arkansas visiting with fellow V18C members Marie Cobb and Kim Vickrey.  Kim has an art show opening this week featuring her images from our trip to Spain this past spring.  I just had to get over to support her and see her images "in the flesh" on the wall.  It is one thing to see images on a computer monitor, and a whole nuther thing to see them in a tangible reality on the wall.
During this travel time, I was sad to hear of the sudden passing of Kingston, the wonderful and powerful stallion that represented the United States in Dressage in several competitions.  I had the privilege of photographing him at 2 World Cups and at the Aachen CHIO in Germany in 2005 and his big powerful movement had made him a favorite of mine. 
Further details can be found at eurodressage.

No sooner had the dressage world absorbed this bit of news, but the next shock would be the sale of the super horse Totilas from Holland to Germany.   I offer these links to eurodressage as the always savvy Astrid Appels provides us with some of the best equestrian news from abroad.  My thoughts about taking a super horse that has gone so well with one rider with such exceptional ability is that there is that chance that we will never see the horse go to that level of excellence, or at least with that same feeling of harmony, again.  It remains to be seen, but I have seen Edward Gal take other horses and ride them as no one else.  The partnership went deep and it is him that I feel the most for at this point in time.

Tonight is the art opening, tomorrow we have a photo shoot with models and costumes.  I sense a Halloween theme comin' on in Arkansas, where a beautiful Fall is unfolding.

New Footing at Devonwood

I was at Devonwood this past weekend photographing the Heart of the Valley dressage show. 3 rings of competition which could have easily been 4 rings with the number of entries on the waiting list, but alas, the scheduled revamping of the footing in the Terrace arena was delayed by a series of events having to do with the current state of our global economy. It would seem that when you purchase big things from Europe, there is a longer wait due to all of the layoffs at the shipyards over there and when it finally arrives over here, People that would normally be loading and unloading ships have been laid off as well. Compounding the delay, once finally off the ship, before it could get through customs, they insisted on having it unpacked to X-ray it all, repacked and finally put on a train to Portland.

So the delay of the under structure of the new footing that was to arrive in March, commenced. But it will be worth the wait as the footing looks to be state of the art. Take a look at this image I shot of the arena. The base is rubber mats, made especially for good drainage. The top layer is sand.
On a side note, the footing in some of the other arenas and warm up areas has been reworked and replaced as needed. The Sylvan ring looked like it was riding pretty well.
Each year as I witness the various maintenance and improvements that go into keeping Devonwood shipshape for the shows, I just have to feel grateful that there are people like the Rattners willing to do it. We certainly are spoiled.

FEI World Cup Vegas

I am off to the FEI World Cup for Dressage and Jumping in Vegas. Photographer Marie Cobb is flying in from Louisiana to drive with me. We plan on making it a Foto Foray of sorts, as the drive from Central Oregon down through Nevada is a scenic one.
There I will be covering the World Cup events. Special event will be the retirement of the wonderful Brentina, Debbie McDonald's Olympic team mount. Bring lots of hankies!
Photos will be online as soon as I am able to get them up and can be found at
World Cup Photo Galleries. Looking forward to all the great action and the sights of world class equestrian sport and Vegas style entertainment and sharing the images that I bring back with you all.