Heavens Above #14587

The Story

I often see these grazing horses on a hill. The pasture is a high grassy field leading to the top of this steep knoll. On a sunny summer day, I walked up from the road at the bottom to see this black and palomino in person. I’d call it a pretty fair uphill hike to get there, too.

These horses spend all their days living on a slant. There isn’t any level ground to stand on, yet they keep a happy grass-munching equilibrium. The grass is good and the view terrific, so what the hey!

At first, they raised their heads to check me out as I came closer, but went back to swishing flies and working the plentiful good green grass. They really couldn’t be bothered to walk over to say hello during lunchtime. I then made an easy string of shots due to the indifference of my “captive audience” and was happiest with this one.

Folklore and rumor claim there are strange animals who live in slanted lands such as this, nothing but slopes. They have legs longer on one side than the other. As far as I know, none have turned up in this pasture or any other.

In this image, I enjoy the steep slanted hillside carrying the two grazing horses while all else in the picture is level. The slope of the pasture is accented by the flat-bottomed clouds and distant mountain line of the landscape. Most times, a picture of horses grazing a pasture never has land anywhere close to being this steep, so this image is rather unusual. I like it for that reason and the idyllic summer day with white fluffy clouds in a rich blue sky, overlooking a view for miles.

There was also a nice vertical image created here too, Tranquility Hill #14588.

Location: near Hollidaysburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania. Picture and story © Andrew Dierks