A slice of Irish life

[Justinr]

Shamed to say that I've not been regular over the last couple of months so I've Just been catching up on some of the videos posted recently. Was really quite moved by the Haiti and Mississippi ones and fascinated as always by the opportunity that these slideshows give in allowing us to share something of our lives with each other.

Talking of which here is a show centred around a local pony club event. Much of the Irish imagery we see centres on the landscape but here is a view into just another Sunday as experienced by parents and children up and down the country, although Co Tipperary is especially fond of the horse.

The farm where it all took place lies in the shadow of Sarsfield Rock, site of a historic battle during the siege of Limerick in 1690.

Scarteen Pony Club

Justin.

[Almark]

A fine show, I am sure the youngsters will be very happy to see themselves in action.

If you want to improve the flow you may wish to consider placing all the portrait photos together in the middle of the Av. Use the lightbox to sort them. I note that some of the portrait photos are of different sizes, a very minor point I know, but if you want to polish it off they would fade in out better if they were all the same size.

I found the music a bit strange, I suppose I expected some diddly dee or Enya (for the Irish theme) and I have no idea if there is such a thing as horsey music ;-)

Just some feedback FYI, please feel free to dismiss it out of hand.

[trailertrash]

Loved it. There are some wee kiddies there on some big horses. All credit to them for getting over the jumps too.

Glad to see there were adults placed at regular points.

Nice one.

Andrew

[Ken Cox]

great action shots:)

ken

[Justinr]

A fine show, I am sure the youngsters will be very happy to see themselves in action.

If you want to improve the flow you may wish to consider placing all the portrait photos together in the middle of the Av. Use the lightbox to sort them. I note that some of the portrait photos are of different sizes, a very minor point I know, but if you want to polish it off they would fade in out better if they were all the same size.

I found the music a bit strange, I suppose I expected some diddly dee or Enya (for the Irish theme) and I have no idea if there is such a thing as horsey music ;-)

Just some feedback FYI, please feel free to dismiss it out of hand.

Many thanks for the feedback.

The photos are pretty much in the order they were taken to give some idea of the passage of the afternoon whilst the portraits were left as they were because that is how I saw the shot. I like to think that each picture is a photograph in its own right which just happens to have been brought together with others rather than the slideshow itself being the object of the exercise. The young lad eating a sandwich with the old fellow behind, for instance, makes for an interesting contrast and remarks upon the inevitability of time, well, that's the way I saw it anyway.

The music was the hardest part of this presentation. As mentioned above I wanted to move away from the clichéd idea of Ireland as being somehow merely remote and give a little idea of life outside of the romance. Then there was the pace, jaunty and light rather than a dramatic galloping heavily along, it's Handel's Flute Sonata #7 suitably edited in Audacity.

Andrew & Ken

Horses and Ireland are a bit like Austria and skiing, just as soon as you can walk you are put on the back of a nag. OK, that might be something of an exaggeration but around this neck of the woods there are plenty of kids who start riding at four or five and the pity is that the country doesn't capitalise upon it when it comes to world championships etc. Why that should be I don't know but one reason given is that a lot of the top horses bred in Ireland are sold abroad just as soon they show promise, denying our young riders the better animals to work with, but the Irish style is certainly recognised the world over, bold and impetuous is the polite way of describing it.

The girl with the green top is just five feet and a little bit tall, the grey she is riding is 17hh.It's merely a question of imposing your will upon the beast she tells us, but she has had to be reminded that the same does not apply her poor old dad. Doesn't stop her trying though!

Justin.