I had so much fun spending the evening with Preslie & Stoney. The drive down to Baytown on the other side of Houston was so worth it! I am so excited to finally share Preslie & Stoney’s Horse & Rider portrait session with all of you. Oh, and her Red Carmen Marc Valvo, All Eyes on You gown from Rent the Runway is amazing! To make this session even sweeter, the entire session took place where Preslie grew up riding Stoney, at her grandparents house.
“I was in 4th grade when my grandparents bought him for me, so I think I was around 10-going on 11 years old. My mom had a horse from the time she was in high school all the way up until I was 6 years old. After that I begged my parents and grandparents for a horse of my own. We heard about Stoney being for sale from a friend of my grandparents’ who lived a block or so away from the barn Stoney used to stay in. When we got to the barn, Alicia and Leah (previous owners) began telling me about his quirks, about how he was a gated horse, and how he might be a little difficult to handle or ride but once I got used to him, and vice versa, it would be smooth sailing. I got on him, started walking/trotting him around and knew right then he was unlike any other horse I had ever ridden. He sort of pranced around and I thought that was so unique. After riding him about 20-30 minutes and getting used to each other, I decided I wanted him. Another quirk of Stoney’s (at the time) was that he was hard to load into a trailer, so Leah and Alicia both rode him all the way to my house that evening.”
“My list of memories is endless with Stoney. My mom would take our Christmas card pictures with Stoney, my sister, and I and we would put a big wreath around his neck, we would enter him in the Baytown Christmas parade, take him to the beach with my cousin who also had horses, use him for birthday parties, my friends would all ride him (sometimes 3 or 4 of us at a time), ride him around the neighborhood to friends’ houses, take him to our farm to ride, you name it. Some of Stoney’s other unique/funny qualities include him being extremely laid back — he has never been scared of cars, dogs, etc. which always made riding him a breeze; we could let him out of the barn into the yard to eat clover (his favorite) and not have to worry about him running off, him leaving the barn as soon as he sees me with the fly spray bottle, and people recognizing him wherever we go. I have had him about 17 years now and am really the only person who knows all of his quirks and how to handle them without getting frustrated. I think that is something that makes our bond unique — we have always just understood each other and stay on parallels.”
“Stoney has never been a show horse — he has always just been a laid back pasture pleasure horse for my family and I.”
“Upon moving off to college, my grandpa proposed the idea of trying to sell Stoney. I was devastated but understood there was probably someone else out there who could devote more time to him that he deserved. A woman contacted my grandpa pursuing interest in Stoney but explained she had a back problem and was looking for a special horse (I knew in my mind right away that Stoney wouldn’t be right for her). She came to our barn and spent some time with him but quickly realized after riding him and feeling his gate that he wasn’t a good match for her — I was thrilled and told my grandpa after that that we weren’t selling him and that I would do everything I could to keep him.”
“I think my most recent favorite memory of Stoney is from the Fall of 2016. My boyfriend and I were at the barn brushing him in the pasture as the sun was setting. I had my camera (thankfully) and took a beautiful photo of Stoney with the sunset in the background. I shared it on Facebook shortly after and it got over 1.2k likes in a local group and then the newspaper ended up doing a lifestyle story on Stoney and I + the photo I took of him, along with some older photos.”
