For Olivia’s session, we captured her senior portraits with her two gorgeous ponies! What girl doesn’t want their senior portraits with their ponies! We did a couple of different looks for each horse, one that Olivia shows and the other that is her retired pony.
Hayora T, Leto, is an 8-year-old Dutch Warmblood owned and shown by Olivia Brust. Leto lives at Bright Star Stables in Katy, TX, where the pair train with Marieke Slik.
If asked to narrow down our favorite memory of our horses to one, can be a very hard ask. How does one only choose one memory? When we asked Olivia, out of many, her favorite memory with Leto was their Junior Hunter Finals in 2020. “It was my last finals as a junior, and after having a rough first day, Leto brought on her A-game to win 10th place in the handy.” The pair participated in 3’6 Junior Hunters.
Olivia was about to find Leto through her trainer and imported her from Holland in 2017. “She has these big, floppy ears that are always flopping around when she canters. We commonly call Leto “moose” or “moosey”. She is very thick and doesn’t have a single marking, so moose was her most fitting alter ego!”
“My pony is Mr. Perfect, otherwise known as Avery. He’s a 20-year-old Welsh cross. My favorite memory with Avery was winning Medium Pony, Pony Medal, Pony Equitation, and Horse of the year for our local circuit year-end awards in 2015. A huge accomplishment of ours is when I won a class at zone 7 finals against some top ponies. It really showed me that it didn’t matter the cost or bloodlines of your horse, as long as you put in your best ride you have a chance!” The pair has many accomplishments together to be so proud of. “Avery knows he is the favorite at my house and is treated like royalty. He bullies the big horses and gets away with it every time!” Avery is now living his best-retired life at home, fat and happy.