Mr Jaguar

Mr. Jaguar -- Was born in 1965. Sired by Jaguar. Dam: Zona Bar by Three Bars. He has a show, performance and progeny record as long a a presidential campaign.

John and Barbara Condon owned Mr. Jaguar and they knew he was a great horse. The photos taken so far did not indicate that this was a truly great horse. The Condons wanted me to fly to Seattle and go to their place at Woodenville to shoot Mr. Jaguar. The cost to fly to Washington for one horse seemed high so Condons arranged with clients and friends to photograph enough horses to amortize the trip.

The trip was planned. The plane went to the right of Mr Rainier which was sticking up above the clouds. As the plane was coming down in Seattle a thick cloud of fog made visibility about 200 feet. When landed, I looked out the window and in broad open daylight it was dark. We waited for days at Condons for the fog and rain to clear and some sign of light. We drank gallons of coffee and talked about every horse and horse person we had ever heard of. Hopeless. Sometimes it is a monsoon in Seattle for weeks. Finally about the 3rd day we loaded up all the client's horses in John's two big trailers and headed east over Snoqualmie Pass to some place where the sun would shine. The farther we drove out on the desert the brighter it got. We stopped somewhere with a view of a huge lake and mountains in the background. It was desert and open range. We unloaded beside the road and one by one took photos of every horse, somewhere on the prairie of eastern Washington.

Mr. Jaguar was in his prime. He stood perfect. The rear view shot was so text-book correct I used it in the PHOTOGRAPHING LIVESTOCK BOOK. The light on every vein was sparkling with the slick shiny Custus Rastus X Three Bars hot blood easily visable. I told students in our photo schools there is no perfect photo, however, this, for a rear view is very close.

We had started well before daylight, driven several hours and then got back to Woodenville in the wee hours of the night. It was still foggy and may have been ever since. You have to do what you have to do. Horse people are all crazy, but sometimes you do crazy things to keep from going insane.

I was able to find the Seattle airport in the fog. Fly on to Eugene, OR and do a son of Skip's Count, then on to Bismarck, ND. From the airport at Bismarck we went west up a plateau through some breaks and there was a beautiful ranch with a huge hip roof barn. They had a palomino stallion and a chestnut to work with.