This week, Ann-Christine in her photo challenge asks us to feature images that are the result of a surprise. As it turned out, I have two surprise encounters with horses that I thought would be the appropriate responses to this week’s challenge. In the opening image, while traveling through Theodore Roosevelt National Park, we rounded a corner on the scenic drive to discover several cars stopped in the middle of the roadway, no one was going anywhere and people were out of their cars, cameras in hand. A small band of wild horses parked themselves on the roadway much to the delight of the park visitors who happened along at that moment. Prior to this encounter on previous visits to the park, we had only viewed the horses from afar. With my 270 mm Tamron zoom lens, this is the closest we got to a herd. To have them stop and pose for photos right in front of us was a real treat.

There were a couple of “hams” in the front, one smiling for the photo and the other taking a bow.

When in Arizona, we often go to spring training baseball games. One trip there found us checking out three large, shiny, red semi-trucks that were parked beside the stadium. It was obvious from the signage, the famous Budweiser Eight-Horse Hitch arrived for an appearance. I learned that they stop at a few of the spring training fields around the Phoenix Metro every year.

An even bigger surprise for me was that there were no crossbucks, yellow tape lines, or even velvet ropes to keep visitors back. We were just asked to maintain at least a six-foot distance from these beautiful animals. One by one, they were brought out of the stock trailers, “dressed” in their finery, and added to the hitch team.

When they finished, the drivers and their trademark dalmatian mounted up and took the team on a trip around the parking lot access roads. Of course, they never entered the ball field. You can imagine how much damage those heavy horses and wagon wheels would have done to the field turf. >grin<

Thanks to Ann-Christine for choosing a topic that gave me the chance to share some pleasant surprise memories of my favorite National Park and a trip to watch a baseball game. You can read her entire challenge post here.

John Steiner