Thanks Jim and Julie.

I agree about the dof, I am not good enough at it yet I guess to be able to control that in all lighting. (also some of these are cropped a bit). But I'd like to learn becuase it would have looked a lot better.

It's easy if the subject is still and up close but these stallions were constantly moving (even in the two standing shots, I just got lucky to catch him still for a moment) and going in and out of shadows. I always shoot Tv with action because I want to make sure I stop action. And when I've tried shooting Av with a shallow DOF, I got a lot of OOF heads and nice sharp butts (with action shots). So I am afraid to try it at a shoot like this.

I know I should shoot manual but again when it's a lot of action and change of light during a burst of 8 fps, I don't always have time to fiddle with the settings. I need more practice I think before I'd have the confidence to do it on a "real" shoot.

What do you guys shoot for action like this, always manual?