Final Jump & Closing

After one final jump we complete our visit to Dunham Woods Horse Show with that gratuitous "The End" shot as one of the younger participants walks his partner back toward the stable area.

Back to the Jumps

The highlight of the horse show is still the jumps, and the contestants were back at work after the hounds left. Here are two more leaps in action.

Hounds and the Mad Hatter

While no fox hunt was scheduled on the day of the Dunham Woods Horse Show, a highlight of the afternoon was a short demonstration of the pack of hounds that will lead the fall series of hunts. The other image is another look at the tailgate party, where an entire table was set for a girl named Alice and her acquaintance from Wonderland.

At a Gallop

As the jumper lands and turns into a full gallop, the strength and speed of the horse is on full display. I love the look here as the rider looks to the right and the horse looks ahead, two pairs of eyes in tandem, working perfectly together.

The second image was an experiment that started when I caught the glint of sun on a horseshoe. Playing with the image, I enhanced the glint beyond reality and realized I had a natural for a title slide.

Comin' At You

The jumpers do several types of jump in many directions. Here they come right at us.

Team Jumps

After the three members of a Fox Hunt Team each jump the fence from the ring, they take a lap around several other jumps and line themselves up for a team jump. Lots of interest in watching the staging of the three riders and the three horses to the unison needed for this jump.

All Ages Welcome

As befits an activity steeped in tradition, equestrian events include participants from a wide variety of ages, with the traditions thus handed down from generation to generation.

Dunham Woods Horse Show

Along the route from home to Church is Dunham Woods, host to the oldest Horse Show in the State of Illinois. On the search for some good Fox Hunt images, I dropped by the Dunham Woods Horse Show, having been told that a hunt was on the schedule.

While as it turned out there was no hunt, the visit generated several strong images. During the course of the show I learned a lot, saw several jumps and demonstrations, watched a tailgate competition be judged . . . and found out when to come back for the fox hunt.

In the next several posts we will look at images from the 2010 Dunham Woods Horse Show.