Katie’s Passion

As you can imagine, photography is a passion of mine. It pretty much rules my life. This made me wonder, what are your passions? What do you think about all day, everyday?

Meet Katie. We’ve known each other since Elementary school. Although she is a well rounded person, with a beautiful family, she has always been a little obsessed with riding horses.
When we were kids I foolishly tried to impress her by hopping onto a neighbors unbroken horse to ride it around. I doubt me getting bucked off within seconds did much to impress her though. Katie’s love for horses started very young, like most little girls. She is, and was, intrigued by the idea of putting 100% of her trust in an animal that out weighs her by 1200+ pounds. Katie’s parents were certain that this obsession would slow down after time. They were wrong. She broke her first horse herself when she was very young. This required a lot of time and patience. Katie spent most of her teenage years in the barn training herself and the horse. She took that first horse to competitions, winning her regions Trainings and First level divisions.

I spent an afternoon with her and her new horse, Bella. Bella is only 5 years old and is preparing to start performing in shows. I enjoyed watching how skilled and concentrated Katie was as she prepped and rode Bella. She never took her eyes off her. At one point, I noticed Bella was drooling. I thought this was weird but Katie Assured me this was a good thing. It meant that Bella was so focused on Katie and what she was asking of her, that she was forgetting to swallow.

Katie, thank you so much for sharing this passion of yours with me.

This is something I hope to have time to do more of.
If you, or someone you know, has a hobby/passion that is a little unique and possibly interesting to photograph, please let me know.