Royal Highland Show 2015 - Part 5 - Showjumping

I'm not going to lie, this is my favourite thing to photograph.

I'm also not going to lie about the fact that this post is an absolute behemoth so please forgive me, I took a LOT of photos of the jumping and I'm not very good at choosing which ones to post. XD

There were a few SJ classes throughout the day but I wasn't able to keep track of what was which so they're all going to be labelled as simply 'showjumping' haha.

I know this was the Working Hunters Adult because we'd just missed it and only saw the lap of honour. It was a shame as I really like WH classes.

Later on the arena (which took me most of the afternoon to realise was no longer grass) was reorganised for either the 'Highland Challenge', 'A & B Stakes' or 'Talentseekers'
I'm pretty sure most of my photos are of the Talentseekers class but I stand to be corrected.

I think this was the tail end of the Highland Challenge.

The bucket-fearing mare from earlier found herself some fans in the form of small children, whilst waiting to go.

 

It's not always easy to photograph showjumping with a macro lens as it's designed for close up work rather than distance, but I love the depth of field it's capable of producing so I'm happy to miss having a zoom.

I love this shade of bay.

Another gorgeous grey!

I had my celebrity spotting moment when I recognised the legendary Tim Stockdale and 'Bling Bling IV' who I've just looked up to find out the name of, and found out they came second in the 'Royal Highland International Stairway'...which wasn't listed on the programme I have so god knows which class I thought it was! Still, very well done to them! I looked on his facebook page and he said it's his first time at the RHS but really enjoyed it so hopefully he'll be back next year.

There was a really bad fall in the afternoon. The horse crashed through one of the fences at the back and the rider went flying. Magda thinks she saw the horse strike her with its foot as they fell but we're not sure what happened exactly. All I know is that the horse legged it, bucking and jittering all over the place but the rider didn't move from where she'd landed on the ground. Immediately people rushed to her side but she still didn't get up and the onsite ambulance drove over. We didn't want to pry, so we moved on to look at the cattle as it could be a while before the jumping restarted, and if she was seriously injured it was hardly a spectator sport. I've since had a google but couldn't find out anything more so I'm hoping no news is good news!

This pair jumped well until the horse put in a refusal and the rider gave it a smack, or rather several.

I think they were eliminated in the end as it refused again, rearing all over the place.

I don't have an issue with giving a horse a smack with the crop as a reprimand, but one is sufficient - any more and you're just being cruel.

Oh how I wish that I'd moved more to the left and avoided that post. >.<

Horses. Such graceful animals.

Somatic mutation on this one's bum. :P

The bucket-fearing mare had a good round I think.

I've never seen a wild bay with so little black on its legs before!

This mare took a disliking to something in the corner and went up...

I often meander between the warmup area and ring 6, where the actual class was being held as I find I get much nicer portraits of the horses during the warmup as they're a lot closer to me.

This pair were doing incredibly well.

..until, well...

He called it a day afterwards as the horse clearly wasn't keen.

...and the award for weirdest approach and takeoff goes to...

I think this is possibly my favourite showjumping photo ever.

And finally, I leave you with this gorgeous little pony I saw in the warmup ring.

Rabicano!

Part 6 - Cows, Sheep and Everything Else will be coming up soon. :D