Horses and Clouds

Horses and clouds make the perfect photography subject, particularly at the beautiful, sprawling Cataloochee Ranch – our next door neighbors.

The ranch was established in 1933 by Tom and Judy Alexander and is run to this day by their descendants. The nearly thousand acres of ranch provides terrific riding opportunities, but they also can take advantage of a network of trail riding opportunities off the ranch. It is quite common for me to look through my study window to see horses being ridden down our road. In fact, we have far more horses pass us than cars since the road transitions to no more than a horse trail right in front of us.

When the horses are not working, they are spending their time in the scenic pastures. Our road off of the mountain and down to the valley cuts rights through the middle of the ranch, so I usually see them grazing as we pass (though they sometimes are out of sight since the pasture land is so large). Of course, sometimes the horses are in the road itself. Part of the charm of living here is sometimes moving horses so that you can drive through. The only kind of traffic jam I ever care to deal with.

A relaxing, warm summer day and a pasture of green grass – a perfect horse day.

The Cataloochee Ranch provides so many photography opportunities with the high altitude pasture land, mountain backdrops, horses peacefully grazing, and constantly changing weather. Horses and clouds are the prefect combination. Last night’s sun set provided the perfect light to capture this photo, though I had to push the ISO to 800 get a fast shutter speed.