Seasons and horses

This post was written in May 2015, but something new came up, and the post was left in draft until I found it this week, and rewrote it, and added some new pictures to fit the season. The opening photograph was taken in Kilmokea Country Manor House, the best place for event photography around here.

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The real horses belong to Kildalton Agricultural college. The college offers 18 courses, including Farm Management, Horsemanship, and my favorite Plant Identification & Use. I took the pictures in spring – the time of rejuvenation of life.

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This Wisteria grows in beautiful College park.

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I am not sure if the rapeseed field is a college property, but it lays right across the road.

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Short Irish summer is not worth to mention 🙂

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You wouldn’t notice a difference between July and October anyway 🙂

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This horse is posing in front of a cottage in Connemara in the end of October.

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These two snack on hay in the paddock at the foot of Slievenamon mountain in December.

The last leaves are still hanging on.

Sometimes an occasional sun beam breaks through the fog…

… but  ‘Winter turns all the Summer’s love to grey… Winter takes what the Summer had to say’…

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Seasons come and go.

I took pictures of a semi-wild horse in winter. These are less fortunate – hairy horses with narrow eyes live outdoors most of the year.

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This post is supposed to be about horses, as the title says, but you know how it is with the internet – many titles are misleading, and many contents cannot be trusted.

The truth is that there are other farm animals grazing on the mountain slopes. Like cows. Some of them spend nights under the roof in a warm shed, but some stay outdoors for almost a year. The ‘wild’ cows grow a coat to stay warm.

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These cows live at the foot of the Comeragh mountains in Clonmel, and walk up and down the steep slope every day.

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There are also sheep in the mountains, white dots. They look so very lonely in this picture, taken in the middle of February.

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I used to hike for hours, but I have never seen different kinds of animals fight with each other. I mean, I have never seen a horse kick a sheep, or a cow attack a deer, or a sheep give chase to a rabbit. If it is not food, they let it be.

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I wish all of us were wise enough to control our tendencies towards hate and aggression; towards being irritable, demanding and petulant. I wish we didn’t waste our time on being a smaller individual than we have the potential to be.

I also wish that all political leaders demonstrate the best in  judgment as they govern their countries, and never encourage their people to raise a hand against another human being, regardless of their race, political views, or anything else.

www.inesemjphotography.comHave a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! xx

114 comments

  2. Love the photographs of horses and countryside and also of the cows being herded and echo your sentiments at bottom ..

    Hope its alright to add below

    i was thinking about how much wish that people in power would get on and reallised a great deal of the responsability lies with all of us too

    suppose many – somewhere in our lives, have difficult relationships that at best – we have walked away from as ts just too hard to fix and suppose multiply that by all the people on the planet, then we get all the problems we are facing on the planet

    am very impressed how many people come up with local answers and maybe this is it – we have to try and repair the World from the bottom up, starting with us

    1. Thank you so much for your comment. I wish all of us made a tiny step towards each other. We are constantly manipulated into confrontation by media, but it is not what we actually want.
      Hope you are having a good day!

  3. I love the way you’ve shown the different seasons in your post, Inese. All the photos are just stunning and I’d be hard pushed to pick a favourite. Horses are such magnificent and noble creatures and you’ve captured the mother with her foal beautifully. I also love the b/w image of the farmer herding his cattle along the steep street in Clonme, and the photo of sunbeams through the fog has a lovely, mystical appeal. Altogether a wonderful look at rural life in Ireland.

  4. Thanks for sharing these beautiful photographs! You’ve got me longing to visit the countryside now lol!! My favourite photo is of the sun beam breaking through the fog – I love playing around with light effects in my own photography too – yours looks wonderfully magical 🙂

  7. Wonderful photographs, Inese. I love that black and white one. I laughed when you said not much difference between July and October. Of course there was – October was sunnier. 🙂

  9. Oh my God, HORSES! I love those animal photos. And I do agree, animals are wiser than most humans.

  10. The photos are stunning and so are the words, Inese! In particular I loved this line you wrote: “I wish we didn’t waste our time on being a smaller individual than we have the potential to be.” ~Wonderful. Sending love ❤

  11. Ha! I knew it! Sheep! You never dissappoint me, Inese, I just had to wait one more post! 😉 And so many lovely photos of beautiful horses – Aww – I just love horses! And cows! And shee, of course 😉 The b/w one with the shepherd is spectacular! And I love how the cows get a warmer coat, poor things, it can´t be nice to be outside all winter… 😦 Thank you for another wonderful walk! 🙂 Have a wonderful and happy week, my dear friend! 🙂 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ❤

    1. Thank you so much, Sarah! I know you love animals ( Count Harecula is a great example). I don’t see rabbits too often, so I don’t have a nice picture to show you. May be in the future 🙂 Have a wonderful week! xxxxxxxxxxx ❤

      1. You´re so welcome, dear Inese! 🙂 And yes, I´m a confessed animal lover and tree hugger 😉 And it´s so sweet of you to think of my little Count!! I really need to write some more about him soon, but with the eye my energy level and enthusiasm somehow lacked a bit their usual capacity…
        And I´m sure you´ll make beautiful pictures of rabbits in the future! Though I imagine it can be very tricky, with them being hidden from view so often and quite fast 😉 Everytime I see one in the city, it´s already gone when I try to get my camera phone out 😉
        You too have a tremendously lovely week, my dear friend!! 🙂 xxxxxxxxxxxx ❤

          1. Thank you, Inese!! And to you too, my dear friend!! 🙂 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ❤
            P.S. Did you already share the quince recipe with your daughter? And what did she say? 🙂

            1. I shared indeed. She said that there is no way to get quince fruit at this time of the year, but she will check out a German food shop nearby, for the
              candy 🙂

  12. I enjoyed looking at the photographs, Inese, even the misleadingly titled ones featuring cows and sheep. Now you mention it, I’ve never seen any of these animals fight each other either. I also wish we could follow their example.

    1. Thank you for stopping by, Bun. Hope all is well. I have never spoken about the elections, and never expressed any preferences, but I have already lost a couple of great blogger readers only because they assumed I was a Trump admirer. It is a loss, of course, but the tragedy is that these days people just assume and demand taking sides. Which I never will, because, as you said, a good example is something we’d better follow, and if an animals shows me that example, fair enough 🙂

      1. I’m sorry to hear that you lost some readers over the election question, Inese. People are always going to have varying opinions about politics. In any large group of people, it’s inevitable. But we all have to live together on the same planet. That’s why it’s so important for us all to be able to agree to disagree and still remain friends. 🙂

  14. Love the photos of the horses. Near my mum and dad’s house in Edinburgh there’s a lovely field with horses, we often stop there to see them. I agree with your sentiments Inese – Animals are a lot more sensible than a lot of humans – if only we could live in harmony instead of being so prone to fighting with each other.

  16. Ah, your lovely animal shots are priceless — they seem to be regarding you with such tender study! I smiled reading how you notice no animal kicks another… “If it’s not food, they let it be.” Beautiful, Inese, with a sweet message I shall try to heed. ❤

  17. ‘Winter turns all the Summer’s love to grey… Winter takes what the Summer had to say’…

    Thanks for sharing this exquisite quote, Lady Inese! Your photographs are true gems. Peace and warmth to you. xx

    1. Thank you so much, Friend! People have been very disappointing these days, so I turned to the Nature. Next two blogs are entirely about the Nature 🙂 xx

  18. That image of the sunlight breaking through the fog in the space between broken pieces of wall made my mouth drop open. 🙂 Breath-taking, my dear. xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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