I love to see them!
Long story that began with Prairie Hill Socrates
he was bought as weanling from a video, Socks as he was called was raised here at home then as two year was taken to Morgan Nationals for his first bigtime show. He ended up winning the Sport Horse in Hand National and World Championships. He was lost in a pasture accident as a three year old. Honestly we were hear broken and really just wanted to walk away for horses afterwards.
The breeder upon hearing of Sock’s loss offered the first pick of any of the coming year’s foals. The mare we were most interested in was to be last to foal. She produced another son.
Prairie Hill Imagination (Fig) who we were to pick up at Nationals as a five month old weanling. The thought was since he was there to enter him into a class to get some ring experience, He was entered into the same class his half brother had won two years before.
This ws just to get some ring time for the lad. A baby at five months nothing was expected the hope was to keep him in the ring. Surprise, he won the National and World Championships that his brother had won. The award ribbons had tied up as they were long than he was tall.
The rest of the story is Lexie (G W Impression) who was given to us after the loss of Socks, she was a help heal the loss gift horse. Bred as park horse she remained in the pasture as the breeder is a trainer in high demand, they did not have the time to work with their horse as the clients horses came first. Lexie remained in the pasture until she was given to us at age five. Never saddled or worked with. She came here in the Spring I believe it was March? she was saddled in May, was qualified for Nationals by winning her Four intro Dressage classes against many, she was the only Morgan there.
So qualified she was entered into Nationals, once again really just to give her ring time at a big event (normally about 1200 head are Nationals)
What does she do? Won her division in Dressage and won the mares division Sport Horse in Hand National championships. Then being the top scoring dressage horse in her divsion she was awarded the World Chamionship
All from Socks, here is my favorite show photo take after Socks was announced World Champion
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This is my fourth horse at his last Endurance competition event. This was taken as we left the pulse check halfway through the night training ride.
I had been accustomed to riding my horses at night, in the dark ever since I bought my first horse. But my fourth horse was the exception. We had a lot of bumps in the road getting to this point, but this year was going well. I had finally resolved the issues that plagued our progress and I really wanted to try doing the night training ride.
We had ridden the rocky rollercoaster section of the trail in daylight earlier thaat day, during the 12 mile Set Speed. I was astonished at how easily he handled that section, and super proud of how well he handled the entire ride. Less than a year earlier I would have thought anyone who told me we’d be doing that was completely crazy.
We finally had our ducks in order and we were ready to move up to 50 miles the next year. Sadly the wheels fell off the following winter, and the spiral led to his neurological diagnosis and euthanasia two years after this competition. That weekend remains a sparkling memory of how things should have been.
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I’ve always loved this picture of my late gelding, Trace, and my sweet non-horsey husband helping me with my boot or pant leg.
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Love all these! Keep them coming.
Sure! This is Razzberry. He’s home bred, by my old (and now deceased) TB stallion, Persian Star. He’s out of my PMU bred belgian/TB cross mare, Roany (who showed locally as “Sugar Frosted”). Razzberry is a funny fellow, he’s retired now, livin’ the dream out at pasture with his friends. But I did jump him a bit locally, this is his one and only show at Thunderbird, in the 3’ jumpers. His style was stellar, always. He remains “completely unbroke”, OMG don’t touch his mouth. Steer by braille and intuition. Point him towards the next jump, and let him do his thing. Just point and shoot. He will go to anything… he took his job seriously. He later won a 3’6" mini prix, beating my TB mare (who was a far more talented jumper), but because Razzberry only has an 11 foot stride, we had to be at top speed to make the 12 foot distances at 3’6", so Razzberry was faster in the jump off. My mare was second in the class. Razzberry was always a fun guy, and a funny guy. Just like his mother, smarter than most people I meet.
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DH & I, our 1st rated Event.
He’s on Buddy, his TWH. Not much gait, but brave XC.
Tom started riding at 56, this is 1999, so he’s 67 here.
I’m on my TB Vern, had him for 10yrs at this time.
We finished 2nd BNH, Tom & Buddy - BNR - were eliminated SJ 
Tom & Buddy, both gone now 20+yrs, Vern since 2009 
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I had just won a medal class— my first round score was an 86, and I had a flat work off against kids and one other adult. It was a crowning achievement for my mare and I. She is the horse of a lifetime.
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I don’t know if it is the most emotional, but this picture has the best story behind it.
This was in the lae 1960s at Maple Vista Farm in Northern Westchester, NY.
This was a hunter class, on an outside course. We were SUPPOSED to jump the “horse” jump (rider’s right) but Rocket ducked left at the last moment, taking the “pony” jump instead. Hence my death grip on the right rein.
The judge was on the other side of the field, roughly opposite this jump, and apparently couldn’t see that we jumped the wrong jump, as she gave us third, in a class of about 10.
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I could win the olympics and I don’t think any picture would top this one @Sarah616 took:
I had spent a lot of time helping with getting some retired horses moved from a farm that wasn’t feeding them and ended up with the last one who had slipped through the cracks a little and didn’t have people any more to bail him out. After over a decade from his last show or even being ridden at all, he was a stone cold professional and took perfect care of my son, who was patting him here and saying thank you. It’s on the list of “things I’ll do when I get a break from the house breaking and/or vet bills” to have it painted in oil.
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This is my mare, Sassy.
I’ve owned Sassy since 2002. I was 13, she was 3. She’s now 26 and I’m 35. She’s by nobody and out of nothing. She hates cuddles, isn’t personable, and would rather live feral on a reservation than ever take a cookie from a person.
But her work ethic is bar none. Point, shoot. I originally bought her to be my high school rodeo horse, as across the pasture - no horse could beat her. But inevitably, she became my back burner horse to much fancier prospects in my barn. When I decided at 22 that I wanted to turn my focus back to the H/J ring, I had a 3’6’’ derby horse that was incredible. When he unexpectedly died, I called up on Sassy to continue working towards my year end final goals.
We randomly decided to qualify her for the APHA World Show in 2012, and - she was the only horse in the field to leave every fence standing. Despite being 14.2hh against actual horses, she came out on top with the title.
This mare means everything to me. (But she still hates affection.)
2012 World Champion:
Fall 2023:
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I had a Paint mare named Sassy, too! She was 15.2 and the most been there, done that horse I’ve run across. She was such a smart girl. We didn’t show her; we just took her for short rides, sometimes not even leaving the property if it was me riding. She had muscle problems from probably doing the splits on ice some time in her past, and our vet said she would do better if she were lightly ridden.
I didn’t ride her often as driving my ponies was where I spent my time, having balance problems. But she would feel me losing my balance and shift to stay under me. My husband rode her and she was crazy about him.
My Sassy, with one of the ponies, Salt.
Rebecca
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A 1 day event that I went to when I was in high school (1972) – my first. Had a clean round and the best time in the cross country. My backyard heart horse. He loved to jump, carried me around that course like a pro.
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I bought this horse as a 5 year old, and the first trainer I took him to said he was unrideable and even if he ever became rideable, I would never ride him, the second said he was too difficult and would never be “submissive”, and the third said I’d never be able to show him even if I could school him.
To be fair, I was coming back to riding in my 40s after a really bad set of equine accidents that had left me with PTSD and unbeknownst to me major damage in my back and hips so on paper it was not the best pairing. And the damage had caused me to gain quite a bit of weight and I was seriously out of shape. So you know, it wasn’t looking good for the home team.
But - I’m stubborn as heck, and I promised him that I wouldn’t let him go until I was certain that he’d be in a good place for someone else, so we persisted.
In the first photo, we’ve shown for the first time as a 6 year old at our first schooling show. It was a terrifying show - February, like 20 degrees outside, kids riding around on crazy bicycles, and when he got off the trailer he was flagging his tail and snorting like a deer. I thought that maybe I might die so had a fair amount of booze on board to at least soften the blow if I hit the deck. He was PERFECT. Clocked around like a superstar. I spent a significant time just absolutely bawling. Who cries over a 50 cent blue ribbon at a little schooling show? LOL
The second photo is several years later, after we spent some years schooling dressage, and I decided to celebrate the rehab of my double hip surgeries by attending a show and doing a Hunter Country Pleasure (he’s a saddlebred) not 3 months after my second hip was done. This was HIS second show with me, so - he hadn’t been a showing machine, and it wasn’t necessarily a bright idea due to my weakness from surgery and the fact that I got to ride maybe 3 times in preparation(?) due to my work schedule, but again, this horse proved his worth and carried us to the reserve champion spot. He is spooking at my husband attempting to hold the ribbon to his face for the photographer, but I think it’s a great photo.
Since then, he’s driven, jumped, done obstacles, working equitation, and ranch horse work. He still schools “regular dressage”. Since I’m awaiting ablation to see if we can get my spine functional, I haven’t been riding, so we’re doing some liberty unmounted work and clicker training, which he picks up so amazingly fast.
I have multiple horses, and I love all of them, but this one is something special 
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Seeing Poofy made me tear up. Yes to a painting so he can live forever.
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