A pony club sans vodka just ain’t the same

Zbigniev Wierbitszki owned a pony club in the outskirt of Brussels. Zbigniev liked his vodka and many gymkhanas turned into small dramas when he poured with a light hand (at every gymkhanas.) A pat on the back became a shove accompanied with a big hearty laugh (and many Polish words no one could understand) and if his whip caught you by surprise, it was not tender… but all in good fun.

From these formative years spent on tiny Shetlands, I have kept the best memories, which is why, when I got contacted by an area pony club to provide images for its website, I was very happy at the prospect.

It was a pony club with sheep, goats, and chickens too

Caring for a horse teaches kids responsibilities… and problem solving

Photoshop allows you to take the person holding the horse out of the photograph

In my time, kids wore stylish black helmets but nowadays they dress up like shadow stormtroopers

Ponies get stuck in weird places sometimes

Kids generally enjoy a little ride but the little boy was terrorized

That little girl was stylin’. I even asked her where she got her boots.

She was the perfect model too, smiling as she jumped the fences!

After all the riding, the girls threw a wild tea party

In my pony club, we never wore white gloves. We were much too busy ducking the whip to indulge in such civilities.

I danced my first tango in public at the end of a pony club summer camp. I was 8 and leading the poor boy across the arena, dipping him deeply at each end. This earned me 100 points and a ribbon. At the time, I had a HUGE crush on my dance partner, Eric Bockstal, but nothing ever materialized from it. I think I may have somewhat emasculated him.

Charlotte and the Circus Pony, a True Story

There was once a traveling circus with a wee pot-bellied pony named Arthur. He was sweet, well-mannered, and eager to please.

Unfortunately, patrons preferred to see proud tigers flying through hoops of fire, Asian elephants balanced on colorful balls and myriads of whimsical monkeys riding tiny bicycles. No amount of wishful thinking could ever turn Arthur into a wild exotic animal.

So Arthur patiently awaited the ringmaster’s decision.

On a cold gray winter morning, Arthur traveled to the slaughterhouse. A dreadful place really…

That same morning, a young Mademoiselle named Charlotte drove by and saw the pot-bellied pony waiting in line for the butcher’s knife.

She offered him a carrot and he sat down, so she offered him a new life in her farm.

Arthur may not be a wild tiger but his spirit has not been broken.

He may not be an Asian elephant but I think he enjoys performing much more.

He doubles up as a very comfortable divan.

And Arthur the pot-bellied circus pony that almost died on a winter day also has the prettiest girlfriend ever. A girlfriend with the mane of a lion. What more could you ever wish for?

The first hour

Baby horse Hafid Baske Afire’s first hour on Sunday morning…

15 minutes out of the womb

First bottle

First poop

First steps (all stallion!)

First nap

First butt-lick

First taste of love

A cowboy must love his egg

Cowboys may well be the ultimate machos still… when it comes to caring for their egg, they too can be delicate.

On the practical side, playing with a ball instead of an egg allows the cowboy to ride with a beer.

Then the cowboy must share a beer with his horse…

and his chili and chips.

Dude, the life of the cowboy horse is just soooo hard.

Where do I sign up for the cowboy horse reincarnation?

Delivery mojo – schmojo

After magically inducing labor for a lady client a day after her photo session, I felt eager to test my newly discovered powers.

On Sunday, I attempted to perform the same miracle for Paula, a seventeen year old very pregnant… Arabian mare.

It did not work.

I am bummed.

Procrastination

Sometimes, life just gets in the way of work. Having been around horses all my life, I intended to create a web site devoted solely to equine photography. That was six months ago.

I have now secured the name: nathaliewithahorse.com but I confess with great shame that this is about as far as I have gotten.

Today for example would be a perfectly good day to get started… but if you were me, wouldn’t you much rather drive to a horse farm and photograph their studs rather than deal with HTML encoding?

I’m just sayin’…