Chicken Chase Pioneer Endurance Ride – Recap and photos 2010
Each year the Chicken Chase Endurance ride is our rite of spring. Patty starts getting excited and tries to ride her horse on the weekends in anticipation of the first Endurance ride of the spring. Trailer gets packed up and ready, etc, etc, etc.
The weather during the ride was great. Many trees were in blossom and the grass in the pastures where we camped was lush and green.
On the first day of the ride, Friday, I was taking pictures of the riders coming into the first vet check. To find a good spot, I climbed a very steep hill for about half a mile and I was able to take pictures of about the first half of the riders when it started raining. I waited it out for a bit and thought it was over, but then there was a bit of a downpour. At that point I covered my camera with my down vest and headed back down the hill.
A link to my pictures from the ride is at the end of this post. Daniel is another photographer that was there, but he was not able to shoot at all on the biggest day which was Saturday. Friday’s ride was tuff with steep hills and longer miles (30 miles and 55 miles) This year the turn out was low however and even on Saturday there were only about 30 25 mile riders and 30 50 mile riders. Normally this ride is well over 100 riders. Hopefully some of these pictures will inspire some of you to come to this well managed ride next year.
One thing that I notice at endurance rides is that in most cases as the people ride by me, they are smiling big. Sometimes they have a look of concern or concentration on their faces because they are trying to anticipate and figure out how their horse is going to respond to me firing off my camera as they ride by. But other than that, everyone is smiling and talking about how beautiful the trails are.
This last trail picture is of my wife Patty on her horse Cocoa. In most cases the horses are at a fast trot or sometimes a canter as they pass by me on the trail. These still pictures do not show you just how fast these folks are booking as they pass by.
In the evenings before the sun went down, I walked around the camp and took various portraits. The ideal light just before sunset provided that soft quality that made for great portrait taking.
It rained some that night, but had stopped by morning and the day was very pretty. Thank goodness it did not rain hard all night long because our tent had about ten drips. Make a note, along with rain gear for my camera, I need to get tent seam sealer and retreat the seams on the rain fly of the ten. I was able to take pictures of almost every rider on Saturday, however it was too nice out. You see when the sun gets bright in the sky it becomes more difficult to find places with even light in the forest. Light becomes patchy with horses running in and out of shadowy and bright areas as they come down the trail.
At the dinner and awards on Saturday evening one rider came to me and asked if I could take some portraits of her dog. Her dog would be going into surgery next week for the removal of some cancer, but he is an oder dog and the cancer would soon have its way with the dog. I said sure and we were able to do some portraits. At first she said, I think just the dog, then I suggested that we do some with her in the portraits too.
LINKS to more pictures from the Chicken Chase Pioneer Endurance ride.
If you participated in this endurance ride, if you know someone who did, please send them here to look at the pictures. Also at the top of the proof page, there is a coupon code listed for 30% off for all orders placed within 30 days of the event. If you have any questions and you would like to talk with me about them, please feel free to give me a call at 937-478-6222
I also have some images posted on facebook. If you go to my business page, you should be able to “tag” pictures with who they are and the pictures will be posted to that person’s wall.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=164475&id=152303558213
Pictures from the camp area by Daniel are available at his web site here: http://www.picturesdanieltook.com/Endurance-Horse-Rides
To learn more about endurance riding as a sport go to the American Endurance Ride Conference web site here http://www.aerc.org and explore.
I also took some video clips at this ride that you can watch here (Just short little video clips to give you a taste of what endurance riding is about):
Last of all, I posted an album of some of my favorite images on my facebook business page. If you go here you are welcome to tag any photos of people you know so that these pictures will go to their wall (just please leave my information on the photos) and I welcome you to become a fan of Peter DeMott Photography if you like.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=164475&id=152303558213