A moment of nostalgia

I'm missing riding horses rather badly lately.  It was my life as a kid (other than hanging out with friends and the typical high school things).  I started riding pretty young after my sis and I went to our neighbor's house to ask him if we could ride his ponies.  He graciously obliged (this guy is the nicest man, seriously) and we rode his horses for a few years.  Then our parents let us take lessons, the lessons turned into leasing horses, then buying horses, then building a huge barn to house lots of horses (it was a boarding facility), showing horses, showing other people's horses, giving riding lessons, and the list goes on.  It was time consuming, it was financially burdening, I'm sure, to my parents.  But, they knew how much my sister and I loved it and they continued to help us in our quest. 

We showed horses (locally and for the AQHA) every weekend of the summer, I really loved it. Then the boys came, and the friends consumed more time, and oh that thing called college.  I gradually transitioned away from the 'horse world' until I could no longer claim to be a part of it.  My sister still rides, and I have a few friends that have really stuck with it.. Sometimes I miss it though. 

This month is the annual All American Quarter Horse Congress (in Columbus, Ohio of all places!) and as I watched someone show my dad's horse (online, they even now have online viewing, whew) it made me so nostalgic.  Maybe someday I will ride again.  Maybe our future kids will ride someday.  Maybe.....

Below are a few photos we took last winter at the family barn:

        

Charlie playing in the snow.  Dear goodness, I love this dog..

Equestrian Chic III

Last lovelies, maybe even saving the best for last. 

Images via la dolce vita

Equestrian Chic II

As I mentioned yesterday, I have tons of equestrian photos stored on my hardrive that were just waiting to be shared.  Hope you enjoy!

There is this great shop on etsy that sells these prints for (in my opinion) a great price.  They are currently having a buy one get one sale (brian, hope you're reading this ;)

Equestrian Chic

Sometimes I wonder what I have to blog about, thinking that I haven't the slightest clue.  But, then sometimes I have this ah-ha moment where I am dreaming about all the things I love and am inspired.  I grew up riding horses around age 10 (?).  My sister, Heather, and I went down the road to our neighbor Jon's house and asked him if he would let us ride one of his horses.  I remember this day so vividly.  The first horse I rode was Dolly - she was a black and white paint pony.  She bucked me off a few days in, but that story is for another day.  Long story short, my sister and I became wildly in love with horses, my parents blessed us exponentially by building a barn to house our future horses, and allowed us to pursue our passion, from this time all through high school.  While I don't ride horses anymore (college and other things got in the way), I still love them and desperately long for the inspiration I can draw from their beauty. 

We might need to have a mini-series on here based on all of the images I have stored up of equestrian style at home.

Images via lonny mag and la dolce vita