The Gun shoots (for me)

I have something for you today which I think is totally exciting… but of course, MY version of exciting and YOURS might be two different things.  Let’s find out, shall we?

You know how I went to a campdraft last weekend?  Well I did, and (as is my wont) I admired lots of great horseflesh and some amazing riding.  I took photos.

Like this.

And this.

And I thought, as much as I love sharing still photos to share the action of this sport, it’s not the same as BEING on the horse.  It’s been years since I had a go drafting myself but I can tell you, the adrenaline rush is SOMETHING else.  Photos in no way capture the SPEED and POWER and ACTION of this sport.

But short of dragging each and every one of you individually to my part of the world, and giving you a leg-up onto a horse, and then making you guide a cow around an arena at high speed… what could I do?

And a VERY large lightbulb went on above my black straw fake-cowgirl hat (which, by-the-by, my husband HATES, and is my mowing hat, but it was the only one I could find at short notice before going to the draft, so hey!).

Where was I? Oh yes. LIGHTBULB.

For I have recently acquired an amazing little device known as a GoPro. Have you heard of them? They are usually used in extreme sports, they are TINY and strap to various body parts or inanimate objects to film action. I have seen the results from other activities (like snow skiing) and it the clarity is fantastic.

And I thought:

“IMAGINE if one of the RIDERS was wearing one of these babies?  While THEY WERE COMPETING…”

As I looked around (my husband ducking frantically for cover having recognised THAT particular look in my eyes) I spotted the ‘gun’ rider I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.  A fairly laid-back, game-for-most-things kinda guy.  Also father of a couple of Violet and Dash’s classmates.

I summoned up some courage and asked him to wear my little camera for a run.

To my absolute astonishment (and relief – how embarrassing if he’d said ‘NO WAY you crazy wench!‘)… he said YES.

And then I explained he’d have to wear some fairly non-subtle harnessing to hold it in place… and he hardly batted an eyelid.

What a sport.

Mind you, he got plenty of ribbing from the other riders (mostly blokes I believe) but stayed committed to our venture.  We had one stumble when his first run tested my screw-tightening abilities (I failed and much of the footage is of his pommel – not really the kind of film I was after) but we did better with the second – on his amazing and gorgeous black stallion Marnie’s Ace.

Here are the photos from my camera …

Tony and Ace heading for the first peg…

Rounding it nicely before..

Second peg…

And completing course…

It was interesting to see how keen the other riders were to check out the footage – the viewfinder is TINY but still showed enough to keep them entertained!

I am currently editing down the resulting footage from this magic little device… on a VERY sharp learning curve.

If anyone has any advice about making the result small enough for my wonky internet to UPLOAD without losing TOO much quality… I’d be delighted to hear from you.

What do you reckon?

Are you ready to REALLY ride?

🙂

BB