Everyone's First Horse Story Should Be Like This...
A "Heart Horse" story from beginning to end.
A story of a 9 year old girl and her first horse.
A mustang horse that found her forever home.
A story of learning, love at first sight, and going through all of life's experiences together.
Hanna was only 9 years old dreaming of her own horse when her parents had friends haul a couple mustangs up from Texas to look at. She saw Red and fell in love at first sight! Hanna said, "Red is the most easy going, easy to love horse there is. She stole my heart at first sight and still has it!" As of today Red Flame is 36 years old and living her best life. She's absolutely beautiful for an elderly horse, as you can see in her horse portraits with Hanna. Hanna's parents still have her at their place today in Klamath Falls, Oregon and she is the sweetest and most genuine horse there is. When I met her at her horse and rider portrait session through my heart horse passion project I just knew we were in for a special treat as you can see when you look through her portraits.
Speaking of treats, Red's favorite treat is pretty much anything, according to Hanna. "Red will eat pretty much anything, including part of my subway sandwich, olives, apples, beer, and even grapes. However, I think Red's all time favorite snack is grain mixed with molasses. She will basically run you over for that!" said Hanna. I bet that surprised you when read that a horse drinks beer, didn't it!? Well another surprise was right after when Hanna and her parents first purchased this beautiful mustang horse, because they soon discovered she was pregnant and they had received a two-in-one deal that special day, and they still own her colt today, even though he's all grown up too.
Red has taught Hanna everything she knows about horses over their eighteen years together. From being her very first horse, to how to ride, then learning dressage, English riding, jumping, and combined training. As well as learning all about gaming and barrel racing.
Hanna has so many favorite memories of her heart horse, Red. She said, "As I am typing this I have hundreds of memories rushing through my mind about Red; like the time we qualified for state in Jumping and she decided that I needed to jump the first jump rather than her, or the time we competed in Combined Training for the first time and the judge threw in an obstacle that she thought was impossible (she just was looking to see how the rider and horse handled the situation) and Red and I completed the task without a blink of the eye, or the time that my mom thought she knew how to ride Red and she ran mom under the camp trailer to try and get her off, or the time I was acting a bit immature and thought we could climb a really steep hill and we started to slip and Red did everything in her power to fall to the right, rather than the left and didn't end up falling on me. My all time favorite memory of Red and I was the moment that we finally learned to pick up the right lead together after about two years of struggling and fighting. I can remember that moment like it was yesterday. We were out in the field at our old home, it was dark, Dad had flashlights set up for me to continue to ride. She finally got that Right Lead and it felt like we won the lottery." Wow, now this is what this heart horse passion project of mine is all about, isn't this story just amazing!?.
This Mustang horse sure is a heart horse to this young lady as you can imagine. Her heart horse makes her feel wonderful, as she has been there for her through all the ups and downs and even the ugly days. She went on to add that, "she has always been by my side and she is always their to cheer me up after a bad day. However, as you might be thinking she is getting up their in age and I have a feeling the ending is near. She seems to be going a bit blind and moving a bit slower. It brings a tear to my eye to think that it might be the last time I pet her each time I leave her. I would love the opportunity to get a final photo shoot in with my heart horse prior to her departure. I wish she could live forever and be every kids first horse!" This is exactly what yanked at my heart strings and made me cry when reading Hanna's heart horse application initially, as I knew it was imperative to have Hanna and her beautiful Mustang in front of my camera as we do not ever know the number of days we have here on Earth.
So, here at Maria Pate Photography, my daughter and I helped create a beautiful and heartfelt equine portrait session for a young lady who found her forever heart horse, in a mustang mare named Red, who's now 36 years old and still living her best life.
Everyone needs to have equine portraits taken by an equine photographer at least once in the horse's lifetime and at least once in your lifetime also.
