Throwback Thursday (Way Back)

I was backing up my old computer onto an external hard drive this weekend and found some super old photos of me riding:

Circa 1995, the first time I ever sat on a horse (one of my cousin's broodmares)
It was clearly pure joy from the very start

2000 - the summer I got my first horse Ellie

2000

2003 - when I started to show on the local open circuit and did a bit of everything,
including barrels...

... and jumping

2004 - English pleasure

2004 - man, I was a dorky teenager

2004 - Western pleasure (this summer was the first time I started riding one handed,
we weren't very good at it yet) this photo also shows how out of our element
we were in the classes we competed in. I didn't realize it at the time but looking back
I can recognize how ill-equipped we were in knowledge and training, as well as attire

2004 - polo clinic in 4-H

2005 - a downed wire just about sliced Ellie's pastern in half
so we had a summer with a cast and rehab

Circa 2003, one of my favorite photos of Ellie and I

Circa 2005, finally slightly less dorky but still just as horse-crazy

2006 - 4-H show where we kind of looked half competent in both disciplines

In fall 2006 Ellie and moved off to University and that started us on a whole new path of discovering the horse world outside of our bubble, including eventually dressage (it didn't exist in my area at the time of these photos so it was a totally foreign concept to me)