Day One: 30 Day Challenge

Day One: A Picture of you and your horse.

I know that I have a million pictures of Gen and I. I have even had a photo shoot with a professional photographer of the two of us, and yet my two favorite photos were taken by my Dad. Cute I know. One of them is the one above.

I know…it is a picture of the back of our heads. I am sure some of you are thinking that this is not a great picture. I don’t know why I love it so much, but I really just think it is one of the best pictures ever.

Let me tell you a little about this picture. This was taken when Gen was still very badly hurt. In fact, I dragged my poor Dad out to the barn one day to take pictures of Gen with his ribbons because I thought that Gen was a goner. I wanted some nice photos to be able to remember him by. Morbid I know. At that point Gen had been stuck in his stall for four months and was already being bad enough on our 10 minute two times a day walks that he was getting his long term sedative. Just walking out to the ring at that barn was enough to send him in to a total tizzy. He was so badly behaved during that photo shoot. Not only did Gen scare the crap out of my Dad he was even making me worried handling him. Thankfully Gen could only do mini rears on his bad leg, but he sure could kick out with those kind legs.

Most of the pictures from that were of Gen either looking wild in the eye, acting wild, or with a dopey look in his eye from the drugs. It was a disaster. I was getting ready to give up when were walking by the back fence. Something moved in the field behind the ring so both Gen and I stopped to look for the source. In that moment Gen was no longer frustrated or being bad and I was back in sync with him trying to see what was out there. Those 9 months that Gen was stuck inside were horrible. Not only was I not sure if he was going to live, I was not sure if I was making the right decisions about this treatments. He is miserable which made me miserable.

For that one moment when the picture was taken Gen and I were our old selves again. That moment is all that I needed to endure the next several months of stall rest because it showed that Gen and I were still a pair. That our connect was still intact somewhere. It might be buried under frustration but all was not lost. I love this picture so much because it gave me hope. You can’t see all the negatives behind this picture. Looking at it you would never hazard a guess that this pair was unhappy. We look together and we look normal, which at that time was the biggest gift I could ever receive. This picture evokes so much emotion in me…maybe that is why I love it so much!

This picture I love because it was our very first blue ribbon! I love that Gen is freaking out (look at those poor panicked eyes) and yet he is standing there, posing for a picture. My heart literally just swells with love when I look at that picture.

I think I need to work on getting a good picture of Gen and I when Gen is happy don’t you think! And one that is less than 4 years old!