Autumn Grove Horse Show

Yesterday I spent the better part of the day doing something I had never done or seen in person before...a horse show!!   It rained on and off,  hard at times,  so hard that we couldn't even hear ourselves inside the metal building ( arena) at the Autumn Grove Farm just outside of Berlin.  A good friend had asked me come and photograph her two girls and their ponies.  I had visited their stables back in the Spring to photograph the girls then but,  mom wanted them photographed in all their dress things that they ride in.  Can you tell at this point that I don't know much about the world of horse shows.  Of course,  we have our dear little Jack in the backyard but,  we certainly don't ride him much less parade him around at one of these shows.  I feel they would politely ask us to leave.  Anyway,  this a very interesting thing to watch.  There is so much to it.  You have be on the right diagonal,  and lead with the right leg and be sure bounce when the outside leg of the horse is up.  Oh lord!!  And all of this while some huge animal ( and others) are moving under and all around you.  NO Thanks.  But,  it is fun to try and capture it.  I realized early on that it's like anything else,  there is a lot of timing involved.  There are lots of jumps in the arena and the sun kept coming out and going in so I was constantly trying to change my ISO and shutter speed while trying to focus on something that was moving.  UGG.  Here are a few of the ones that I got.  Enjoy!