Thanks so much for adding your advice Buddy, I learn a lot from these posts!

I have dabbled a little with studio lighting (very little but learning!) so I actually understood most of your terms LOL! I have been wanting to set up my strobes in an arena or my garage and see if I can get some non spooky horses to shoot. I think that would be really fun to try. I couldn't have used the strobes in this particular shoot because I don't have the battery pack, just plug ins for the strobes and wouldn't have been able to carry all the stuff in to this location myself (It was 5 gorgeous acres but you have to cross a long narrow footbridge over a creek, even the horses have to go across the bridge, and it's quite a hike). Plus the horses would tend to spook at the umbrellas. But as I said I would really love to figure out the situation where I could shoot horses with strobes, I am planning with my cousin who has 8 beautiful horses and is usually up for anything.

I use spot metering and I usually don't have any problem with action, in decent light I rarely miss a shot (focus wise), but am curious about de linking exposure and focus (not sure just what that means or how to do it?). I shoot with a MKII and for these kinds of shots, mainly the 70-200 2.8 IS lens.

I do have a 580 EX flash but haven't figured it all out yet, haven't had time to sit down and go thru the manual with it since I rarely need it really, but sounds like it would have been helpful in this situation.

Thanks again for your input I learn from this!