{"id":232,"date":"2009-09-17T12:40:40","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T20:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/onelife\/?p=232"},"modified":"2009-09-17T12:40:40","modified_gmt":"2009-09-17T20:40:40","slug":"my-first-time-aural-heather-video-shoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=232","title":{"rendered":"My first time! (On a horse) AURAL Heather video shoot"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I did it! I rode a horse! A stallion no less! A black stallion<\/em><\/span>! For the first time in my life. I think. I told Josef that I vaguely remember trying to get on a horse once, long ago, when I was a girl and maybe I got scared or the horse spooked or something. It\u2019s strange. I\u2019m obsessed with the creatures. I told Laura Doyle,<\/a> consummate horse woman and fellow artist, who gave me my first riding lesson today, that I dream about them, write about them, am always completely in awe of their grace, power and beauty. <\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019m so lucky to have met her. Laura made the experience so wonderful, said I did well. I even got up to a trot! So naturally I\u2019m inspired, want to learn to ride, want my own horse! Hers, a handsome black <\/span>Friesen<\/a>, named Orion. The Friesen is a “uniquely kind breed with loads of willingness, stunning to watch as they show their beauty in movement.” *sigh* I think I’m in love. I was nervous, but not scared. I have been around horses most of my life. I went to school in Cloverdale, many of my girlfriends equestrians and I even had a job watering and feeding a small herd of Palominos. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Orion was great, likes to be scratched at the base of his neck. Very affectionate, mellow. I am<\/em><\/span> good with animals, dogs especially, tried to pretend, or approach him like a big dog. 1000-pound dog! I looked over at one point to see one of the mares on her back, rolling around in the dirt, just like Sam loves to do. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Great day! It even stopped raining and we shot out in the pasture and willows. It couldn\u2019t have turned out better. A great day despite starting off in a quandary about what to wear. I wanted to spoof Lady Godiva and had the costume all worked out\u2014made a hair piece, bought a body stocking\u2014 but<\/span> I put it on last night and only looked ridiculous, knew I couldn\u2019t pull it off. And being my first time on a horse, I really do have to be at least somewhat practical, safety first and all that. Funny though, how I do things. I was supposed to go horseback riding when we went to Hawaii for my birthday a few years ago but I jammed out at the last minute. So I write a poem, adapt it to video and have to get on a horse in order to complete the project. I guess it was the motivation I needed, or mind trick I had to play on myself to finally pull it off. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Never been out there! Pitt Meadows. It makes you realize how huge the Lower Mainland is. And why providing transit is a challenge. Big farms, about 8 people per mile. We missed a turn off-Dewdney Trunk Road, had to stop off and buy tape and a lipstick, and were running late. Met George out there, had my lesson with Laura. She talked about posture, asked if I\u2019d taken yoga, showed me where to place my sit bones so that my rump is in just the right position, showed me how to hold the reins. I kept holding onto his belly with my heels. She had to remind me often to let go of the brake<\/em><\/span>, the reins, which need to be held up and gently so you don\u2019t put pressure on their mouths. She also kept saying \u201cLook where you want to go.\u201d So I did well! \u201cRider girl,\u201d according to Laura. I\u2019m proud of myself, conquered a fear, crossed another desire off the list. I had a feeling it would be good, things would go well. <\/span><\/p>\n

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And that\u2019s a wrap. There might be a few shots I\u2019ll want to do over, I\u2019m not sure, have to look at the footage. I worry that I look tired\u2014had big bags under my eyes as it was nearly impossible to get enough sleep during all of this shooting. It\u2019s hard work! <\/span><\/p>\n

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Yesterday was a crazy day. I was seriously sleep deprived after being up all night the night before with insomnia but managed to write two grant proposals. I have prescription sleeping pills but I hate taking them, they make me feel really dopey. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Sunday\u2019s shoot went well. George, Josef and I are a good team. We re-did the \u201cbalance Belgian truffles on her tongue\u201d scene with some lovely dark chocolates from Cocoa West. The first ones we used looked like turds. Then we worked the \u201cFight back\u201d scene as I call it, the one where I\u2019m scribbling on the image from the front cover of the CD and the \u201cold gray mare\u201d shot where I look in a mirror and see a horse staring back at me. <\/span><\/p>\n

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I had to take Saturday off, thanks to Josef and our niece S\u2014whose name I won\u2019t use in order to protect the guilty. They kept me up all night with their poker playing and beer drinking shenanigans. I hired her to be my assistant on the video shoot but I think they both lost sight of our objective. They had gone to a poker tournament the night before and won, so I suppose they just couldn\u2019t let it go. I got to play the heavy and sent her home next morning, paid her and suggested she view it as a life lesson. There are<\/em><\/span> consequences to one\u2019s behaviour. I hope in the future and on other jobs, she focuses on the task at hand and respects the people and the work involved. I felt so disrespected. I told her I was more hurt than angry, after asking them several times to move the poker game over to Josef\u2019s office so that I could get some sleep. They were merrily drunk and acted like it was a big joke, my insomnia, my pleas to please, let me get some much-needed rest. This work is very stressful and I pour my heart and soul into it. which I tried to explain but trying to reason with a drunk is a waste of time. Then of course, the next morning, they tried to trivialize it and accused me of overreacting. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Oh well, live and learn. Things had been going so well up to that point. Roderick arrived on Thursday, got into his costume which looked great on him, and proceeded to pop out of a garbage can, proffering a drumstick. One of the hardest things was keeping the barbeque sauce off his white suit. S did a good job of handing him baby wipes. At one point, George told Roddy to jump up and down in the garbage can like a jack in the box and sure enough he tipped over and hurt his hand. I was relieved he didn\u2019t get grass strains on the suit I just pressed. Next day we did the picnic scene, Roderick so hilarious I couldn\u2019t keep a straight face throughout. I really am his straight man. <\/span><\/p>\n

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I did it! I rode a horse! A stallion no less! A black stallion! For the first time in my life. I think. I told Josef that I vaguely remember trying to get on a horse once, long ago, when I was a girl and maybe I got scared or the horse spooked or something. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[38,133,154],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}