HAULAGE

 

I've done some reading about Nicaragua since our visit Tuesday. Its GDP per capita in 2024 was US$ 2,600 per year, second poorest in the western hemisphere after Haiti. There are trucks and vans, but horse drawn carts are common. 

It is striking, though, that Nicaragua's main roads are clearly better than Costa Rica's. Chinese foreign aid, according to our guide. I'll find an illustration.                   

RING OF FIRE

The band wasn’t playing a Johnny Cash cover as Caleb Carinci-Asch prepared to hurl himself through a flaming hoop and, if all went according to plan, land on the horse’s back on the other side. (Spoiler: he nailed it.). Again, how do you prepare for this? I could probably find my own ring of fire by walking around the streets of St. Louis today, but it’s going to be even worse over the weekend.                  

JUMP ROPE

 

The equestrians are back. Run the horse around the ring, stretch a rope across a radius and, well, let it fly. This is hard for me to understand. How do you train for it? How do you accommodate mistakes?

I really need to get back out on the street and find some new material. However, as you may have heard, the northeastern quarter of the U.S. is in the oven this week. Maybe there is something interesting indoors.             

EQUUS

 

I’m at least mildly afraid of horses. After all, they are a lot bigger than I am and, if things went the wrong, way they could do you some real harm. The only horses around when I was young were under New York policemen. I certainly don’t know how to ride them. So I have great admiration for artists like Caleb Carinci-Asch and Leah Innocenti, who do things that could do them some real harm, and carry it off with aplomb.                   

AT THE CIRCUS

One of the nice things about St. Louis is that we have our own resident circus company, Circus Flora. Flora was a beloved elephant when the group started but, of course, circuses in this country don't do the elephant-lion-tiger thing any more.

 

But they sure do horses. We were seated in the front row and I stretched my camera's limits with fast burst mode and tracking auto-focus. I can't imagine how someone could do this on a racing steed.               

GALLOPING NOWHERE

This installation at the metal as origami show seemed strange to me. The figures appear to be running or prancing horses but the flat metal construction makes them look so stiff. Kind of like me some days. In any event, they aren't getting away.                 

Here Comes The King

Oops. I'm a bit uncomfortable some days and I'm prone to overlook things. Left my briefcase with my laptop inside sitting on the garage floor behind my car this morning. I was going to upload this as soon as I got to the office. Well, try again.

These are the Budweiser Clydesdale horses, universally known in the US and frequently seen in St. Louis. They pull an old beer wagon to the music of a Bud ad jingle called "Here Comes The King," as in king of beers. Personally, I think Budweiser is more of the handyman or janitor of beers. There is so much more that is so much more interesting.                   

STL DPB On The Road - A Parade In Liberia

After our walk around in Liberia we found that there was a local festival starting. Not sure what it was about but there was a parade at noon that Friday. Worst possible light and fill flash wasn't up to the job at a distance. Still, it was a lot of fun. Some of the horses are trained to prance, almost to dance. Note the Los Angeles car wash and parking lot. This is Costa Rican cowboy country.     

Wild Horses

Horses were a common theme at the Lantern Festival. These displays were in the reflecting pool between the Climatron, a large geodesic dome, and the edge of the garden.

Long, long work day yesterday. Hope I can get some more of these edited and get around to my friends blogs soon.                           

Lonesome Pine

If you can sing any of that song you're older than me. And anyway, our Pine Street isn't all that lonely, except in spots. What you don't see along it is a stagecoach with a team of four horses. We could use a new transit route over that way and cowboys will always be welcome by some section of the American population. Something for the city to consider.

What this rig had to do with the Veterans Day parade didn't get through to me.

                  

Untitled

What can you say?

I mean, you round a bend in a trail and there, face to face with you, is a two-legged horse wearing a hoodie. And his friend.

Must mean it's the season for the St. Louis Renaissance Faire and its associated silliness. Even Madeleine was dressed up as a fairy.

                        

Man and Horse

Horse drawn carriage rides are available downtown for tourists and romantics. The drivers are charming people who love their animals. Last June 1 (before I understood theme days), I had a post about Chrissy and her horse Curley, hiding from the rain under the main highway bridge across the Mississippi. This past weekend, while taking pictures on the riverfront under the Arch, I met John and Shorty. John told me that Chrissy had been sick and we wish her a speedy recovery. He also kept addressing me as "Sir," which made me feel both old and uncomfortable.

It's fun to talk to the people I meet on the street. It is like the the old advice to men who want to meet women: get a cute dog and walk it. The camera, like the dog, is the introduction. Still, lots of us are shy about it. When I took the fabulous Bobbi Lane's portrait photography workshop, she made us go out for an afternoon to take street portraits of strangers, always with permission. There are ways to do it. Still, I only get a few minutes with John and other people I photograph in brief public meetings. It makes me wonder about their life stories. How does he live on this irregular job? How did he come to drive horses in the city? I don't learn many of these details. I've been trained to go for the image, albeit in a friendly, polite way.

Is this art, journalism or voyeurism? What do you think?

TOMORROW: Not part of the Thursday Arch Series, but the Arch is in it. Just a little.