First the one that started it all. My sweetest boy who is the namesake of my farm. I think
I’m 10 or 11.
Then the quirky old war horse I free leased who taught me to show. Loved him beyond measure
Then my 
. Bestest boy ever. He is a completely person oriented horse. I call him a golden retriever in a horse suit.
IMG_3689
And I absolutely love every single smiling picture and the sharing of your memories. Such lovely lovely horses and amazing times. Makes my sing. Every single picture makes me smile and feel like I know you all better and understand you. Y’all are really amazing people!
And @Paint_Party you are exactly as
I thought you would be. Beautiful. And the horse too!
I feels ya’, sister. 
This is one that isn’t of Feronia and me. This was back in 2008, with dear Trumpie (RIP), at the one and only horse trials I was ever able to do. The course ended coming up a hill towards the parking area, and charging up that entire hill and over several (small) jumps, I was, at age 44, shouting “I love you Trumpie! I love you so much!” The photo was taken right after that.
This mare had the better part of a year off due to a quarter crack that would not close up. Dealt with a crappy farrier, then a great friend who was a farrier and was working on her passed away from cancer and finally another good friend mine who took her little science project foot on and got her going in the right direction.
This was her first horse show back and like she never missed a beat.
I love this pic because the facility is one of the most beautiful in the area and holds a social place in my heart. Love the light coming up behind us. It also means a lot to me as I gained a lot of weight in the last three years due to some health issues. I’m down 25lb and would like to lose another 25lb. This pic is one of the first that I’m not ashamed to look at myself. I have a ways to go but so happy with how far I’ve come. 
Hi guys! I’m new here, though I’ve been lurking for awhile! I stumbled on this thread and I just love all the beautiful photos! 
Here is a fun one of my Icelandic Horse and I on a trail ride just last week, it’s become my new favorite! Nothing like a pesade/levade at the top of a mountain with the entire valley spread out behind you!
Congratulations, keep at it.
This is my profile pic. Remy and I had done our first Morgan show - totally alone. I was grabbing random strangers to help me get my chaps on.
This was after trail. He’d gotten 2nd in the first class (swapped a lead on the pinwheel lopeover), and then we got talked in to going in the championship class. Learned my lesson the pinwheel and he won the class. This was the lowest weight I’ve been since probably my freshman year. Gained some of it back, but working on getting it gone again.
This was such a fun show. It was discontinued during/after Covid, which just breaks my heart.
I like this decades old picture because of the OTTB in it.
He was a sweetheart with a strong work ethic, a trier without quit, but very stiff and not using himself that well initially, not very athletic when I started riding him.
After a few months he was a different horse, way more responsive, now listening, scopier and loosening up:
A long, long time ago back forty some years we sat our youngest daughter on one our first horses, she became infected with some sort of equine attachment illness that has not ever gone into remission (blond headed child under horse’s neck is older daughter who was a very natural rider who spent several summers as a catch rider for trainers in Kentucky which is whole another story of a lost time when a kid could be one their own in a land far away)
Currently youngest daughter continues chasing her dreams making them realities, not so much for herself but for her horses who she believes should have the opportunity to be great in their own right. She knows she is good but really wants her mounts to have a chance to prove themselves as equals or greater than those that came before
She knows she is good… since she won her first class at a Class A back east she always expected to be the best
I’ve been in the same horse show movie. My friends and I have come up with a name for the imaginary filly we’ll own someday: Too Much Fringe. 
Love your smile! And trail is my favorite class, although it’s always fraught with the potential for bedlam. Congrats on your ribbons!
I was gonna get you an old picture, of the horse who taught me how to be a horseman and a rider, but it won’t load. So this one is my darling Star Coral, who has a heart bigger than a house. She’s 24 now and retired. Home bred, like most of mine. TB mare. This photo was sent to me by someone I don’t know, snapped on a phone, simply because Coral was such a stunning jumper. Taken at a local fall fair. I was the passenger, and learned the course. In this case, it wasn’t much of a course, because it is a “3 bar” competition, which went to 5’, as it often did when we participated. It was really Coral’s favourate class… she excelled. When the class was over and walking back to the barn, I would put my hand on her shoulder, and feel the electric sizzle of greatness buzzing under her hide. Coral is only 15.2. The only other time I’ve jumped this big was on the old horse decades before, who was 17 hands. It makes a difference. The jumps look 6 inches bigger to me when sitting on the smaller horse. But she didn’t care.
I’m 10 years old in my first set of group lessons and my Dad is there to take photos. I’m leading Spanky back to the barn from the indoor, and I concentrate as hard as I can to look nonchalant and maybe even slightly peeved. I want to look like the riders in all the magazines, who don’t stand there and smile. They’re Going About Their Businesses Because They’re Around Horses All The Time, and one day I’ll look back at this photo (the real one is at my mother’s) and recall how I was evaluating my performance in that crucial up-down lesson.
The truth: I was absolutely giddy. I had just dismounted after an hour of walking and trotting! I had reins in my hand and I was leading a real, live horse back to the barn, where I would pick feet and groom and take off his tack all by myself! My riding boots were black rain boots with zippers and my “breeches” were beige Toughskins from Sears, but close enough. I had a $15 secondhand hunt cap and a new $5 crop. More than 40 years later I’m better appointed, and I’ve left and come back a few times, but the post-ride feeling never changes. I return to the barn gooey with joy no matter how the session went. And if someone takes my photo this time, I’m not going to pretend to be above it all. I’ll be smiling genuinely until my face hurts.
I don’t normally post pictures of myself. Here is Little Bit and I. We are roughly the same age, about 6/7.
She hated me until I was too big to ride her. This may have been one of the last times I rode her. I would then driver her and be her groom for years when she and my mom showed in SE Pa.
I love this picture mainly because I had worked so hard to get this horse spotless, lol.
I also love it because this horse was so, so special to me.
I wish I would let people take a picture of me riding my latest horse (I can’t look at myself in photos anymore - this one is from 20 yrs ago!) because she is another very special horse. I have plenty of just the horse at least!
Perhaps my favorite riding photo of me, ever, on a very special horse:
and a recent photo of my young horse at a hunter pace:
This is Speckles and me on 6/21/2021 after our short Century Ride. 27 + 73 = 100. The photo was taken by Dusty Perin, a local freelance photographer who is regularly in Equus and The Horse, among others. The left side is actually the barn door. I call it The Portrait. It hangs behind the register at the grain store and a couple of dozen people have asked for a copy.
I put him down 7/20/2022 but this is the best way to remember him. Can you tell he has a unique combination of aura, intuition, and instinct? He has a different relationship iwth human beings, and it is clear he was not my horse. I was his human.
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