I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t horse obsessed. As a kid, I played “barn” (not “house”) and concocted elaborate adventures for my plastic herd. No other sport stuck, and I took lessons upon lessons on old schoolmasters who barely listened to my little-kid cues. I got older, and horses were still all I cared about. Summers were spent at the fairground arenas for drill team or barrel racing practice. I learned study skills from horse bowl and hippology. I gained confidence in my choices through horse judging. I wrote and performed on stages for speeches about...yep...horses. I have boxes and boxes of Kodak snapshots of a childhood enjoyed on horseback, and I adore reminiscing on the memories those images captured. In college, I juggled a full course load with jobs—sometimes three at a time—to afford my horse, Herbie. I spent my nights riding and mucking stalls, not partying. I even changed majors just so I could talk about horses more. Horses led me to Texas and my first career—and I spent six years as an editor for APHA’s Paint Horse Journal and Chrome magazines, where I met the most amazing women whose successes were deeply intertwined with their own equine loves. Horses have given me the most amazing friends—ones as horse-crazy as me—and made the easiest connections with complete strangers. Any success I’ve had, I can look back and pinpoint a way horses—and the paths taken because of them—are responsible. So when I lift my camera, I don’t just see the love between you and your horse. I see you: strong, confident, driven—beautiful in your passion and joy for an incredible animal.
