The Ontario and Eastern Canadian Dressage Championships are taking place this weekend. If you have read some of my recent blogposts you will know that due to a medical “episode” I will not be riding in them myself. But here was a priceless opportunity to take my camera and snap the other members of Team Trussell. We all ride with coach Belinda Trussell at Oakcrest Farm. I took these photos on the first day of three days of the Championships Friday Sept. 1.
My camera is a Canon EOS Rebel T5i For the photos of Lynsey Rowan on Beaujolais and also Feng de Lys I used a Canon lens 55-250 and for Nicole Ashley and Megan Shea I used my Sigma 150-600. All photos taken with shutter priority (TV 1/400),focus AI SERVO, Spot metering, ISO auto.
I was not able to take photos of Lynsey during her test riding as I was assigned to do video of the rides so it could be shown to the horse’s owners. Lynsey is a professional rider and is riding and training these two young horses for their owners. For Nicole and Megan I used the longer lens and took photos both in the warm up and in the test arena.
Here is Lynsey on Beaujolais. All the photos have been edited in Lightroom but the color of this horse is as it appears in real life. He is a stunning liver chestnut.
Lynsey’s second ride was on Feng de Lys. The first photo is of a wonderful uphill canter and the second Lynsey is giving him a pat just before they will go into the ring.
The first rider of Team Trussell to ride in the afternoon was Nicole Ashley. I had some fun with a couple of photos of her horse Serrano and in the first one I tweaked the highlights to take out the background and then boosted the shadow, clarity and vibrance.
In this second photo of Serrano I liked it in the black and white option so just added contrast.
The last rider for the day was Megan and her horse K2 who rode an advanced level test the Intermediare A. This test includes movements that will be further developed in the highest level, the Grand Prix. Here is a lovely half pass.
This photo of Megan and K2 takes a different angle.
To finish this post here is Nicole and Serrano’s halt and salute to the judge at the end of their test. The halt comes at the beginning and the end of each dressage test. The horse must hit a specific point in the center of the dressage ring and all four feet must be “square”. This harder to achieve than you might think. Here Nicole has achieved the ideal square halt.
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