I LOVE THIS THREAD SO MUCH! You all look completely amazing.
I’m the one on the left laughing at my horse, who is motorboating through the water.
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Love these photos so much! They help remind me why I’m still in love with horses and riding, even at my age. And thus, you have all shamed me into confronting my past and posting a few of my own photos.
Dating myself with this one: Rust breeches and non-ASTM helmet. It’s from a ammy owner hunter class at Sonoma County Fairgrounds. It’s my sister’s fabulous appendix AQHA gelding, the one and only “Beezer.”
Same venue, but out on the grass hunter field, years later. Now on a Dutch-bred mare I bought from a Canadian sport horse auction.
And now me, recently. I drank the APHA Koolaid. Sometimes I feel like the proverbial fish out of water at Paint shows, but hey, the clothes are more colorful. And we have rhinestones!
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Lovely!
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Gorgeous!
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This picture is an oldie, I was a freshman in high school and first time at Youth Show with my first horse. It was kind of a hectic weekend but I had saved my own money to get “nice photos” done of my mare. I think I was happier to have this photo of us than I was to be showing. I don’t really look it, but I was! I don’t have a ton of photos, let alone nice ones and I’m really happy I have this one.
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I just LOVE this pic! So often we forget that this should be fun, thanks for sharing, brightened up my day.
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I’m missing a lot of photos that got lost after my mom died and my dad sold the ranch. But at least I have the memories. They are so crystal clear! I can still remember some of the courses, how I schooled for the class, and how I felt when I won a prize. It’s amazing how our minds keep hold of the treasured details of certain days.
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Ive taken more pictures of my fjord in a day than I physically have photos of her. I think I was just getting into the disposable camera years around 1999…so different now!
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These just make me happy. I had these taken after I had to retire this mare for a torn impar ligament.
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Oh! And if we’re sharing OLD photos…
My first horse, and our very safe safety gear.
Rubber riding boots…do they even make those anymore? I never did get a pair that fit properly.
Showing a highland pony in the UK. That was a TRULY interesting experience. The ring was on a hillside, so…that was just the way they were shown.
These are all so fun…keep them coming!
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I grew up riding, showing, foxhunting, then went to college and got married. We were young and poor, and there were no extra funds for anything equine related. My life abruptly went from revolving around horses to having nothing to do with them. 25 years later, my husband changed jobs and we moved to a new part of the country. He knew how much I’d missed having horses and the first thing he said was, “Go for it!” I was nearly 50 and had literally not sat on a horse in decades.
This picture was taken 3 years later. It’s obviously an outtake. The timing was wrong and I’d found a very long distance. 
But I love the drama of the setting–and the fact that it reminds me I was able to recapture a joy that I thought I’d lost forever.
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LOVED that last pic.
Even though I am no fan of AQHA or WP in general.
& I am The Most Anti-Bling Person EVER, but you & your lovely horse look gaw-juss 
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That’s when you (g) thank the stars for a scopey horse. They save your bu** even when you don’t deserve it. Ask me how I know. 
Thanks, my precious Fiesta (RIP), for always having a sense of humor and getting us out of sticky situations I put us in.
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Love the building in the background. Where was the location?
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Is that Chateau Elan?
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Trust me, my horse and I are never anywhere near the WP class. I’m so used to a sitting trot that it’s taken me a year to figure out a western jog. In my lessons I still turn to my trainer and ask, “Am I jogging now? Is this a jog?”
And my show clothes are very conservative. Black, gray and a little burgundy. I hate feeling conspicuous!
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I don’t like the picture of me particularly (pinching my knees in my old Stubben Siegfried), but it brings back good memories of a fun time in my life. It was the 1970s, and my friend and I were goofing around in the hunt field at Ben Hardaway’s farm in Midland, GA. (I was stationed at Fort Benning). It was a cold, drizzly day and all I remember is that we couldn’t stop laughing.
The chestnut mare I’m on belonged to Mr. Hardaway. She was bought as a potential “ladies’ guest horse” for hunting. Fortunately for me, she was too high strung and unpredictable for the hunt field, so I got the ride on her for the year I was in GA. Really loved her, but I wasn’t in a position to buy at that time. (Due to ship out to S. Korea right after my time at Benning).
ETA: Oops, forgot the picture.
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@Fiesta01 and @BraveSC, yes, that’s Chateau Elan in Braselton, GA.
When I was living in Atlanta, they held lots of shows there. It was a beautful location.
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I just love everything about that top photo: The setting, your colorful shirt, your beautiful horse with the blue eyes, the sentiment conveyed… lovely!
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