Spring Baby!

It is still Spring isn't it? Technically I think Spring is over here, but it is still happening in other states, so there. Meet the Spring baby at Alaqua! This little colt was a nice surprise to wake up to for everyone at Alaqua. The mama has not been at Alaqua for too long and it's great that everything went well because who knows what she went through during her pregnancy. Complications were definitely a possibility so yay for everyone being healthy! The mama was nice and let me in the stall and I stood at a distance taking pictures for about 10 minutes or so. When I was done she'd made her way back into the stall with the little one trailing behind her. As I started to step in to leave out the stall door she gave me a mean look and I thought maybe climbing over the fence would be a better way to escape :) No need to cause any more excitement than I'd already had. It's kinda nice being the designated photographer at Alaqua. It gets me all kinds of access to visit the cool new additions :)







Cute yawn!





I know this shot is blurry, but I really like it anyway :)

Horse Photography - Alaqua Animal Refuge

Saturday I had my first successful Horse Volunteer work day at Alaqua :) We got the horses groomed and got pictures of them for the website. There were a few that had to be complicated and wouldn't perk their ears up... *cough* Bucky *cough*... however! We got a great one when he was distracted by his girlfriend ;) His golden shot is the last one on the left.  Directly below we have Joe. All these horses are adoptable and they are all pretty darn sweet. Some of the Alaqua horses are rid-able and some aren't. I think I mentioned it before, but I am heading up the horse volunteer department at Alaqua. We have a really great group of volunteers who are in love with the horses and want to help out in any way possible. It amazes me as to how much Alaqua does with the small amount of staff they have on hand. It is such a HUGE facility and they are very dependent on volunteers to help them do what they do. I am currently working on a "Day in the life of Alaqua" project with the Alaqua public relations girl (Lori). Our goal is to show people that Alaqua is not what you would expect from a animal shelter. It's an amazing facility on ten acres, and probably the exact opposite from anything you have seen or experienced when visiting a shelter or animal control sort of place. So! At some point you will see shots for that and maybe even an article somewhere :)





Sarah.



Bucky and Spirit are in the "senior pasture" at Alaqua livin' the life!

Horse Photography - Alaqua Animal Refuge

Yes, there are horses at Alaqua Animal Refuge. The proper question would be what animals do they not have? As most of you know I am a horse person. Since I don't have a horse anymore I have signed on to be the new volunteer coordinator for the horse department at Alaqua :) Now not all of the horses are ride-able, but it has been nice spending a bit more time with the horses even if it's not riding. Earlier this week I worked with a couple volunteers grooming horses and getting new photos taken. It took us a few hours, but we got five horses done and they looked MUCH better! Now is the season of shedding so they all were definitely in need of a good brushing. Next Saturday we are working on getting the rest done. Below is one of the minis at the shelter. Super cute and super sweet little guy. I haven't heard this one's background yet, but I know that many of the horses here came from some bad situations.



The horses could all use some extra love so if anyone knows anyone who might be interested in volunteering with them we'd love to have more people on board! Horses are much more complicated animals than dogs and if you don't know how to work with them it can be dangerous (even if you do know how to work with them it can be dangerous!). Safety is always of utmost importance, and I am currently revamping the volunteer plan of action so that we can have people working with the horses as often as possible and as safe as possible. The less the horses are worked with the more difficult they will become to handle. To keep them in a state of being adoptable animals we really depend on volunteers to work with them. So thank you to all volunteers! Every bit of help is much appreciated :)

Horse Photography - Alaqua Animal Refuge

I went out to Alaqua Animal Refuge again today. There are SO many different areas a person can volunteer in out there, I am finding that I could spend all my time out there working on different things and helping out in different areas. Today I learned more about what is going on with the horses and what they need volunteers to do with them. I am definitely going to be working with the horses more since I am seriously lacking in the horse time now that I sold my dear Almond. If our next stop is somewhere in the states I am absolutely getting another horse. For now though working with the Alaqua horses will have to suffice.

I find it funny that every time we move I am always a little crazy bored at first and then before I know it I have too many things going on. Between photography, school, Alaqua, my dogs, and taking care of the household I am definitely no longer bored :) And due to my busy-ness I am posting a shot of a mini out at Alaqua. A little more of the artsy horse photography. I have a serious backup of images that I need to get through right now so I don't have anything new to post at the moment. Or, I do have plenty new images, but I haven't had the chance to even download them yet. A big thank you goes out to Brian who helped me photograph the dogs out at Alaqua today :) He went out there with me since it's a holiday and he had the day off. I am still working on catching up with all the animals. It's really an endless task, and I will never be caught up with the rate that they adopt out and save new animals. It's a good thing though and I am glad to be helping out the Northwest Florida community in any way that I can :)