Real life? What's that? Summer vacations have me way too busy, running off my feet, to stop and think about real life. I'm just flitting between airports, train stations, hotel rooms, and my desk, catching up on all the work I've missed while on vacation. The bonus of this is that my apartment is nearly always clean, because I'm hardly ever anywhere in it but my office.
Now, most horsepeople do not get to go on vacations, so let me explain how they work. In short, a vacation is when you go somewhere without your horses and immediately seek out other people's horses to look at/pet/mentally compose careful conformation critiques of/take pictures of.
In the early part of our summer, we went to California, where we found horses in all the right places: in theme parks and at racetracks. You know, where anyone can find them. I am a working horse's biggest fan, especially when they are in places where non-horsepeople can get up close and personal and be taken with a horse's startling mixture of strength and gentleness (something that we tend to take for granted after years working alongside them).
Here are some of my summer vacation OPH (Other People's Horses) snaps:
 |
| This gorgeous roan Clydesdale at Disneyland had just finished a big slobbery drink from a bucket and was getting ready to head back to Sleeping Beauty Castle. |
 |
| A lovely Belgian walking the horse-drawn trolley around the Hub and towards Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. |
 |
| A close-up of the Clydesdale to prove the rumor... Disneyland horses are barefoot! How amazing is that! |
 |
| Del Mar Racing on the turf. This track makes great use of its infield, allowing for some amazing views like this. |
 |
| And of course for the perfect selfie. New author photo? |
 |
| A schoolie in the gorgeous paddock at Del Mar. |
 |
| I am obsessed with Del Mar's palm trees. What a racetrack. A palace for racehorses. |
 |
| PALM TREES. |
 |
| This gorgeous reproduction of a cavalry recruitment poster is hidden away on the walkway between Frontierland and Fantasyland in Disneyland. |
That was Summer Vacation Part 1. Summer Vacation Part 2 starts in a little less than two weeks when Cory and I hop a train for Saratoga. We missed Saratoga last year and I can't wait to get back to the Spa!
So before I sign off and get back to the mountains of work that taking vacations saddles one with, don't forget... you have a few more days to enter to win a signed paperback of Ambition. I'm so happy that Ambition has been hanging on tight to that top three position in horse books at Amazon (right now it's number one!) and that it has been resonating with horsepeople -- because that's who I wrote it for, after all! Please go over to Goodreads and enter to win -- there are four copies up for grabs!
And now... I have to get back to writing!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Ambition
by Natalie Keller Reinert
Giveaway ends August 11, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Great Photos!
ReplyDeleteI'm off on vacation, too, with nary a horse in sight.
Good luck with your give-away.