Trying a Different Medium

     I picked up one of those cute pocket camcorders last week, my excuse being that I can use it to video my lessons on Irish. I got a lot of practice with it this past weekend recording the rides of fellow BEventers at Full Gallop Farm Horse Trials, and quickly learned 1) videography IS NOT EASY!  2) post-processing the clips is even more time-consuming than what I already do.
     Being me (just ask my husband), when faced with something new to learn I jump right in and will spend days learning how to do it well.  So I upgraded the never-used copy of iMovie on my MacBookPro, found out how to convert the .avi files from the little camcorder to .mp4 files that can be viewed by most, learned how to edit the clips, add music (we MUST have music and it MUST sync with the video) and upload to an account on YouTube.
   Now for the disclaimers: it was extremely difficult to hold this little camcorder steady. Add to this, high winds that blew me around and you will want to take your motion sickness meds before viewing. Not knowing anything about video cameras, my cute little camcorder has a LCD screen which at first look is very cool because it is also a touch screen.  But take it out into the bright sunlight and ... where the HELL did my subject go!!!  I used my new-found talents with iMovie to edit out most of these horrid clips, but you may want to double your dose of Bonamine.
     That said, anyone really interested in watching Babette compete (my) Little Oliver, Lucy Cheney's Bouncer and Polly Merrill's Matinicus, as well as Emily Merrill on Diggin' on Doug click on the video link below *** DOUBLE click right on the video to go to YouTube***  Once you are on YouTube in my channel "FuzzButt4", look around for the other videos.
      I should probably mention that Babette did a magnificent job on all of her mounts, and brought home  6th on Bouncer (preliminary), 3rd on Oliver (training) and 4th on Matinicus (novice).  She also competed "Ana" (owned by Merance Adams) in the tadpole division.  True to form, they finished 1st! (note to Merance: sorry not to get video, Ana's ride times conflicted with hubby's arrival in Aiken). Emily & Doug moved from 11th in dressage to finish 9th and completed their first training level event in great form!
      The video clip here is Bouncer's perfect stadium round and I mean perfect. He moved up to Preliminary this season and is showing all of us that despite his calm, almost half-asleep demeanor, he is most certainly up to the task!