Day Two of the Performance Shoot

The second day of shooting performance photos went much better and more smoothly. I'd gotten better at adjusting the tack on the models, posing dolls, and figuring out what from the real horse world I wanted to replicate in the model one.

This gymkhana Spear the Ring will go in Other English or English Games classes. (Vintage collector girl that I am, I absolutely love the Australian Stock Horse mold, especially Carter.) The spear, ring, and scaffold are from the early 1990s. I wasn't sure if they were up to today's standards, but I am pleased with how this photo turned out.

I figured out very quickly to not remove a doll rider or set up until I was sure I had exhausted the possibilities it could be used for. This photo can be used for gymkhana as the Rescue Race or a scene of some sort. I entered it in a photo show as a friend giving a rider a lift back to the in gate after she's finished setting cones for a class.

Over the year I'd gathered a collection of flags from across the world, hoping to do some sort of parade set up with them.  I've never had any parade tack and it is doubtful that I ever will. Nonetheless, all those flags came in useful for this performance shoot.

This scene is a recreation of the 1987 Pan American Games which were held in Indianapolis. The backstory is that the women have just finished setting up the flags from every nation participating in the games (plus an Indiana flag, the navy one in the very center) and have been struck by the majesty of all those flags. They remove their hats out of respect.

At this point, I decided that I did not like the red-brown fabric I had been using to represent footing. I switched it out for some tan felt.

Then, since Fair Dinkum was already tacked up, I popped my new Lynn doll on him and snapped some photos. This is a casual canter across the countryside.

Next I decided to recreate an old 1970s Horse and Rider magazine feature - back to back bareback classes! When I finished, it felt kind of ordinary and like it needed something to bump it up a bit. I went through my props, looking for something to make the entry a little more special.

There were some miniature classic books among my props. I gave each rider a book (matching their shirt colors) and the entry became Ride to Read, a fundraiser for the local library.

After that entry, I was back in the old Pawnee Stables days, and the Elecktra doll had become Lana while the Lynn doll was me. The model? My first horse, Sweet Amy. That meant that I absolutely HAD to do a Blackbird Pond or Wabash River entry of some sort.

I grabbed some rocks from my stepping stone garden and started arranging them on the felt in different patterns. Then I dug through my props and found the bag of railroad sawdust and scattered it across the felt to represent sand.

There was dirt from the rocks that mixed with with the sawdust and gave it more realism. I came up with a photo of Lynn on Sweet Amy riding bareback and heading down the trail to the water.

Which was very true to my real life experiences - the real Sweet Amy and me riding bareback along the Wabash.

I really, really liked how the footing looked in my photos. I'd taken some photos of my vintage 1993 Lenore and Kim Jacobs Lakota family in native regalia the first day of the performance photo shoot with just the tan felt for footing.

I'd been happy with them...

... but wondered how they would look if I set them up in the new Wabash River setting.

I liked those even better! (Of course, I'd deconstructed the set up and packed all my props and dolls away before I realized that in EVERY. SINGLE. PHOTO. the reins had slipped out of the woman's hand!)

The entire family together with my new CCA glossed Orrin Mixer Quarter Horse.

I snapped a halter photo of him before putting everything away.

The second day of the performance photo shoot was done! I'd "only" taken 72 photos this time, but sorting through those and the 105 from the previous day took up most of the rest of the day.

I began packing Anne's dolls and tack up to ship back to her. And then I had an idea. Here's a hint.

Can you guess? Stay 'tooned to find out in a day or two.