Buttercups and our Farm Photography Session

Buttercups....

There seems to be an over abundance of Buttercups this year.

When I was young- I loved buttercups, believing them to be quite magical- a flower fit for the fairies for sure.

My sister and I, for some reason, were convinced that we could transform a dandelion into a buttercup by sifting beach sand onto the dandelion plant. We lived near the ocean so we brought home buckets of sand and each evening would pile the beach sand – full of magical qualities all of its own- on each dandelion rosette, couldn’t wait till morning to miraculously find buttercups growing in their place. Probably just a co-incidence but it did seem as though there was a new buttercup in each of those spots. My Dad never said a word about having small anthills of beach sand all over the lawn.

Now- all grown up and managing pastures… the sight of Buttercups is like a screeching fingernail on a blackboard to my visual senses. Along with burdock, thistle, nettle and ground ivy, buttercups are high on my list of seek and destroy. In my “old age”, I like my pastures to be more tidy. They are divided for rotational grazing, so after the horses are done with one section, I move the horses, mow it, and close the fence for a nice tender tasty re-growth. Right around the time of Buttercup invasion- in May- I mow all the fields—just to eradicate what now to me is a pesky weed. This year-- along with the our Buttercup onslaught- we've had nothing but rain for the last few weeks. I did manage to get the mower on the tractor only one day in my buttercup blitzkrieg- but don't dare drive my tractor in the fields now.. too wet.

On Memorial Day, we had the pleasure of a visit from Barbara Livingston, a photographer from the Saratoga, NY area. http://www.barbaralivingston.com/ She is working on a new project- Horses and color and wanted to photograph a few Curlies of Color. She worked from 8:00 to 10:00 which she said was the best time of day for lighting – and I wish I had photographed Barbara knee deep in the fields huge cameras with even huger lenses draped all over her shoulders trying to capture THE photo. She brought along her “beau”, as she called him, whose job it was to man a small tape recorder which played sounds of whinnies and galloping hooves. I was amazed at how well that tape worked to get the attention of the Curlies. A super idea for getting a horse to stand and pose, all ears forward and curious.

Barbara kept saying to Zoe and I , get the horses running down there—amongst those lovely yellow flowers ! Buttercups… she loved them. Barbara claimed there were no Buttercups in her area… what ? I thought those ornery irksome buttercups probably grew everywhere in the world. All I can think is perhaps she is more used to the groomed green grass of the racing stables where they mow all their buttercups down in a more efficient manner than I am able.

She worked hard.. snapped loads of photo’s and here are just a few of those here. It was great to meet Barbara and Tom and exciting to find out perhaps at least 3 of our horses will be included in the upcoming project of hers, to be released late fall of this year.

She was primarily after the more unusual colors- like the flaxen yummy chocolate of OYY Arcus and the beautiful creamy cremello of my OYY Sweet Dreams Baby. But when she saw OYY Salvadore—she exclaimed.. he may be “just” a bay—but there is nothing plain about him. So his portrait is one that might be used. He’s a real strutter- and it was more than his coat that was shining that day for this photo session.

Here are a few of the Photo's Barabara captured :

OYY Ceda - my beautiful buckskin pony filly.

Ceda with her best friend -
OYY Sweet Dream's Baby ( barn name Mari) .. cremello Curly medium size pony mare.

OYY Arcus - 12.2 hand curly pony gelding posing with the Lilacs.

OYY Matisse - our Curly colt with a yet undefined color.

All the pony Moms and babies entranced by the sound of Barbara's special recording.

Pal and her curly colt OYY Piccolo.

And our OYY Salvadore -- perky 12.2 hand stallion pony.

He put on a good show for Barbara.

Can't wait to see if any of the photo's make the final project !

Enjoy your day ~